Revealing the King’s Life

King Fahd was the King of Saudi Arabia from 1982 until his death in 2005.

One day I was browsing on BBC’s website and found this page about the former King. It says:

People remember him wearing an expensively cut Western suit and gazing out confidently, not in the least troubled by the wholly un-Islamic combination of drink, women and gambling.

This was not, of course, an aspect of the King’s past which could be openly discussed in the Saudi media. But everyone knew the rumours.

There were stories of all night sessions at seedy clubs in Beirut, of affairs with belly dancers, and of the wife of a Lebanese businessman paid $100,000 a year to make herself available.

Then in 1969, Fahd was said to have lost $1,000,000 in a single dusk-to-dawn marathon of Scotch-fuelled gambling at the tables of a Monte Carlo nightclub.

He was summoned back to Riyadh by his brother, the then King Faisal Abdul Aziz ibn Saud.

… many reports of Fahd showed him as a lazy monarch who was obsessed with money and a monarch who tore down many Shia mosques. According to Said K Aburish, in his 1994 book The House of Saud: The rise, corruption and coming fall, Prime Minister Thatcher said of him; “He has nothing to say for himself.” wiki

Well, I know that King Fahd had changed Saudi Arabia from the deserted area to the “real” cities like now.. and I know that he had spent millions of dollars for the expansion of the two Mosques in Mekkah and Medinah. However, I never liked him and I did not see him as a good leader either. He seems have no leadership trait - nothing “big” about him was announced on the news, not even about his prospect as a King of Saudi Arabia. After the first Gulf War, when Saudi Arabia’s starting to face financial difficulties, he did almost nothing for his country. The situation was even worst when he suffered a major stroke in 1995. His government, which also means the royal family, is full of corruption (everyone knows it already). They have banned any kind of demonstration and imprisoned those who took part of it. They said demonstration is HARAM!! LOL. It reminded me with Soeharto haha :P.

Those articles, particularly the first one from BBC, is not unusual. Most members of the royal family, especially the men, are “crazy” about women, alcohol, gambling, and -of course- money. Believe it or not, the women do those kind of stuff too. A close friend of mine told me that he was approached by a girl in the mall who later confessed that she’s a princess. The women are also hungry for men too hahaha… (coz they’re not allowed to socialize with men, remember?). And if you are interested, you can read the news about Saudi royal who was charged of stealing a jewellery, accused of assaulting an Indonesian maid (here and here), and drug smuggling.