Review: Oman By John Beasant Essay, Research Paper
Caught in the shadowsOman: The True-life Drama and Intrigue of an Arab Stateby John Beasant224pp, MainstreamOman was once described as “a place in the sun for shady people” and this is a prominent, if not predominant, theme of this fascinating book. For the history of this secretive, mysterious, oil-rich Gulf state with a population of only 1.6 million is dominated by tales of Arabian intrigue, adventure and skullduggery: a British-inspired coup to oust the sultan and replace him with his own son; SAS operatives fighting off rebels while pretending to be “training advisors”; Omani oil finding its way to Rhodesia and South Africa during sanctions; the buying of expensive weapons which made instant millionaires of former British military and intelligence officers, and the infamous construction contract awarded to Cementation after Mrs Thatcher lobbied the sultan while her son Mark was on the company payroll.Such controversy has made the Omani regime notoriously censorial and hypersensitive to any adverse comment. It is illegal to criticise Sultan Qaboos, and Robin Allen, the Financial Times’s highly respected Gulf correspondent, was banned from the country merely for reporting a World Bank study which concluded that Oman was heading for “major economic upheaval” because of “exceptionally high levels of defence and national security expenditure”.So when John Beasant, a well-connected journalist who had worked in Oman for many years, wrote this book, the regime’s reaction was typically repressive. He was offered a substantial bribe not to publish and when he refused, he was escorted to the airport and expelled from the country. Since publication this book has been officially banned.This amazingly inept public-relations strategy is all the more counter-productive because the book is far from a hatchet job on the current regime. Beasant concludes that Sultan Qaboos “has an enviable record of quite extraordinary acheivement, arising from his personal and sustained courage” in modernising Oman, and believes he will “emerge as one of the first constitutional monarchs of the Arabian Peninsula”.Oman’s precarious economic state, Beasant argues, is due instead to a “cabal” of expatriate British military and intelligence officers who took advantage of the sultan’s goodwill and generosity and exploited the nation’s resources. Their influence is virtually impossible to overestimate, he claims: “A coterie of Britons who, since the emergence of the country as an oil-producing nation, have, via the trust afforded them by Sultan Qaboos, regarded Oman as very much a private preserve.”With the illicit approval of the Foreign Office (anxious to preserve RAF landing rights in Oman, a strategic presence and access to the lucrative oil fields), this tiny group of advisors to the sultan secured British interests and then “enriched themselves” during the 1970s and 80s.Beasant names Brigadier Tim Landon, a mysterious military intelligence officer who, according to successive “rich lists”, is now worth ?300m. “The source and continuing basic supply of his personal fortune undeniably originates in Oman,” says the author.Known as the “White Sultan”, Landon had unfettered influence with the sultan. This friendship originated in 1960 when they shared a study at Sandhurst. After the coup in 1970, in which the desert intelligence officer played a pivotal role, the Sultan made him his military counsellor, in charge of equipping the armed forces.Oman then embarked on large-scale spending on defence – in 1980 alone, this amounted to ?400m. In 1974 the country nearly went bankrupt after buying an integrated air-defence missile system from British Aerospace. And later that year the Treasury told the sultan bluntly that the proposed purchase of the Jaguar fighter aircraft could not be funded by the public purse. “This was equipment we did not really need and most certainly could not afford,” was the view expressed by one Omani military commander.Beasant also claims that massive commissions were made by selling Omani oil to Rhodesia and South Africa despite the sanctions of the 1970s. “It was a high-risk venture for the country even though it was a purely private enterprise,” a former Omani minister is quoted as saying. “The oil shipped to southern Africa left Oman by sea, with bills of lading made out for Japan, but these were changed several times on the high seas. The financial returns were enormous.”By the early 1990s the greed and waste of the oil revenues, Beasant argues, resulted in public resentment. In 1994 some 200 rebel officers conspired to assassinate Sultan Qaboos and his closest associates. This was suppressed and most of the plotters were imprisoned.But today Oman is far from prosperous. While education and social services have been improved dramatically, unemployment is high, the oil reserves are almost exhausted and the sultan has been forced to borrow to keep the economy afloat.Beasant, who clearly cares passionately about Oman and its people, blames “the shadowy cabal” of British advisors. He quotes numerous prominent Omanis who, while not hostile to Britain’s involvement in their country, deeply resented what one called the “private enterprise nature” of the “small scheming group”. He also quotes eminent diplomats such as Sir Anthony Parsons who expressed “disquiet” about their role.Along with his researchers Christopher Ling and Ian Cummins, who also worked in Oman, Beasant makes a compelling case. While his book would have benefited from some judicious editing (he tends to use 10 words when five would suffice), it is revealing and well-informed. However, there are some notable gaps in the story: the role of the Thatcher family business during the Cementation contract affair and the relationship between British prime ministers and Oman is absent.Even today, Britain’s covert foreign policy in Oman and its privatised commercial consequences remains classified. Despite the 30-year rule, the Public Record Office still refuses to release some files on Oman. So there is still a story to be told. But, for now, Beasant’s account is more than adequate for those interested in this enigmatic Gulf state and Britain’s involvement with it.· Mark Hollingsworth is co-author of Thatcher’s Gold: The Life and Times of Mark Thatcher (Simon and Schuster)