Lebanonwire.com | Saad Hariri: novice heir in rough-and-tumble of Lebanon politics

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June 19, 2005

Saad Hariri: novice heir in rough-and-tumble of Lebanon politics
by Steve Kirby

BEIRUT, Lebanon - After years of minding the multi-billion dollar family business, Saad Hariri was catapulted into Lebanese politics by the assassination of his five-time premier father Rafiq and is finding it tougher than first appeared.

The 35-year-old novice had seemed set to cruise to the premiership amid an outpouring of public anger at his father's killing in a huge bomb blast on the Beirut seafront in February.

A wave of mass street protests helped send Syrian troops packing two months later and for a time seemed poised to make the Hariri family's Beirut residence of Qoraitem the country's new power centre.

But the return from exile last month of hardline Damascus opponent Michel Aoun upset his bandwagon.

First, the Christian former general declined to join Hariri's opposition alliance, instead making common cause with longtime Syrian allies.

Then he routed it in last weekend's third stage of parliamentary elections leaving it scrambling to secure a majority in Sunday's final round.

Saad Hariri is frank about the steep learning curve he has been facing and acknowledges that his victory in the election's first round in Beirut was more down to his slain father's reputation than his own.

"I think I'm merely a symbol for now. I need to work hard the coming four years to... fill a little bit my father's shoes," he told AFP in an interview.

Giant posters of father and son together have dominated the Hariri campaign, but versions put up nearly three weeks ago showing Saad flashing a V for victory now seem a little premature.

He has been forced to spend days holed up in the sole luxury hotel in the main northern city of Tripoli in a bid to keep his campaign for a parliamentary majority on track.

Detractors charge that he has also reached deep into the family legacy to lubricate his efforts to win over waverers.

Lebanese media had seen his ingenue status as an advantage. "His inexperience in walking the crooked paths of the Lebanese political environment is not a detriment but rather an asset," commented the English-language Daily Star.

But he has paid a price for his refusal to make unpalatable alliances.

Perhaps chastened by the experience he has kept the door firmly open to working with Aoun, although not his pro-Damascus allies.

Rafiq Hariri's second son by his first Iraqi wife, sources close to the family say he was tapped as heir because he has more charisma than his elder brother, Bahaa.

A business graduate of Georgetown University in Washington, he proved his commercial acumen beyond any doubt, taking over the family's huge empire nine years ago at the tender age of 26.

He headed his father's Saudi-based construction firm, Saudi Oger, one of the largest companies in the Middle East with a turnover of more than two billion dollars and a workforce of some 35,000.

He also managed banking, real estate and media interests through companies such as Saudi Investment Bank, Saudi Research and Marketing Group and Future Television.

But with Aoun's allies giving him a fierce contest in the decisive final round, he may need to futher hone his political bargaining skills before he can follow his father into the prime minister's office.