As'ad Abdul Rahman: Abu Ammar as I knew him

Yasser Arafat was the standard bearer of Palestinian nationalism for almost half a century. His death leaves a huge gap, difficult to fill. He was a great survivor, outliving nearly all his rivals and cheating death when he walked away from the wreck of a 1992 plane crash in the Libyan desert and escaping all assassination attempts by Israeli intelligence agencies.

His life was one of constant travel, moving from one country to another to promote the Palestinian cause.

Against many odds, he rose to eminence through the force of his fiery personality, his acute instinct for political survival and his total dedication to the cause.

Arafat will go down in history as the man who saved the Palestinians from obscurity and instilled in them a higher sense of nationalism. He made Palestine a cause cèlébre and he definitely refuted the old canard that there was no such thing as a Palestinian.

I have known Arafat since October 1968, when I met him for the first time after my release from Israeli jail. Ever since, and in addition to my official political relationship, I managed to establish intimate and personal ties with him until his final days.

Our relationship grew stronger after I became an independent member of the Palestinian National Council (PNC the Palestinian Parliament-in-exile) in 1977 and also a member of the Palestinian Central Council (the narrower parliament) in 1979.

Later, in 1982, the ties grew stronger when I was chosen by the Central Council as a secretary general of the Reconciliation Committee, which was set up to look into the causes of and to try to recommend remedies for the then most serious division which afflicted Fatah. This position gave me direct access to him.

Moreover, in 1983, the Central Council selected me and Dr. Nabil Sha'ath as political and mass media advisers to Arafat in an attempt to improve the image of the PLO after its expulsion from Beirut in the wake of the Israeli invasion of Lebanon.

Later, I became a close associate of Arafat and a member of his inner cabinet when I was elected by the PNC as Minister of Refugee Affairs in the State of Palestine, also in charge of the Final Status Negotiations File on Palestinian Refugees.

The later (1999-2001) not-so-smooth political relationship with him and our mounting political differences did not cause a permanent rift in our personal relationship.

Favourable traits

This relationship continued even after my resignation. In fact, it became even stronger after May, 2003.

This was one of the favourable traits for which Arafat was well known. He never dumped let alone cut relations with a friend or a political figure. My long personal ties with Arafat (Abu Ammar) enabled me to assess his personal traits.

Personally, Arafat was a highly emotional and caring man although if cornered or provoked, he could be harsh and shrewd. Politically he was a very shrewd person, more like a "political sponge" who could easily absorb and settle differences in a way that pleased all parties, either within Fatah or other Palestinian groups.

Abu Ammar's main concern was to amass as large a number of supporters as possible for the cause. I was a witness to the fact that he was the "political cement" that glued all parties together no matter how irreconcilable their views might be.

I have also known him as a workaholic reputed for his addiction to reading intelligence reports. I have seen how Arafat lived a highly austere life devoid of all the trappings of modern life.

I know for sure that he used the PLO's vast fortunes to buy political loyalty. It is my direct experience that Arafat's governing style tended to be more patriarchal (consequently dictatorial) than democratic.

During cabinet meetings, I used to watch him closely and observe his ability to manipulate conflicting views to his favour. He maintained an iron grip on power. He was very individualistic and never condoned any curbs on his authority to take fatal decisions.

All Palestinian democratic institutions were tamed and shorn of any real power that might put the brakes on his unlimited authority.

Deep differences

By persuasion, cajolery or coercion he always got what he wanted. Arafat never faced any real challenge to his authority because he knew very well how to utilise the deep differences between the various Palestinian factions in his favour and to play on their differences.

All "institutions" of the PLO (of which he was chairman) or the PA (of which he was president) or Fatah (the ruling party of which he was leader) became rubber-stamp bodies devoid of any real power.

He continued to be the undisputed leader of Fatah for almost half a century because he followed various tactics to hamstring all its institutions such as the "General Convention" or the "Revolutionary Council" or the "Central Committee" of Fatah. The same practice applied to his leadership in the PLO and PA.

Arafat dealt with each of his cronies in a different style. To him, each had a price which he was willing to pay to win his/her allegiance. He often had fits of uncontrolled anger.

But never during my long relationship with him did he ever treat me disrespectfully despite our later political differences. He showed great sympathy and affection to me when I had symptoms of a heart attack on two separate occasions.

Upon my father's death, the sympathy and affection he extended to me will always be remembered with personal gratitude and reverence.

Arafat will always be remembered as an imposing symbol of Palestinian unity, steadfastness and resistance. I believe he shall go down in history as "Mr. Palestine".

Professor As'ad Abdul Rahman is Chairman of the Palestinian Encyclopaedia