Former Lebanese prime minister Rafiq Hariri, killed in a massive blast in Beirut on Monday, was a self-made billionaire who led his country’s reconstruction efforts after the devastating 1975 to 1990 civil war.
Long regarded as the great political survivor, Hariri headed five governments before finally stepping down in October last year amid persistent differences with pro-Syrian President Emile Lahud.
Hariri’s admirers hailed him as the saviour of Lebanon’s war-ravaged economy. For his detractors he was a spendthrift, whose corrupt administration dragged an already feeble economy deeper into debt and used sky-high interest rates to stabilise the pound.
In a country where Syria imposes the rules of the game, Hariri’s political career was punctuated by repeated spats with the president, a former army man with a reputation for integrity.
When Lahud was first elected in 1998, Hariri stepped down from the premiership in a move analysts interpreted as an acknowledgement that power was slipping out of the prime minister’s hands.
He returned to office following elections in September 2000, but his new tenure was dominated by disputes with the president, who opposed his plans to raise $5-billion by privatising Lebanon’s power and telecommunications utilities.
His claims to be the champion of reconstruction and reform in Lebanon also came under mounting attack, amid criticism that his policies were especially benefiting his own construction company.
Hariri’s personal fortune has been difficult to estimate, but he had been described as one of the world’s 100 richest people, with financial circles putting his wealth at about $10-billion.
Born on November 1 1944, the son of a poor farm worker from the southern city of Sidon, he sought a better future in Saudi Arabia at the age of 18. After years of working various jobs, Hariri founded his first construction company in the early 1970s.
He struck gold in 1977 when he took up the challenge of building in just six months a palace for the late Saudi King Khaled in the resort of Taef before an Islamic summit, as a sub-contractor for Oger, an affiliate of a French group.
He won the confidence of then crown prince Fahd, now Saudi Arabia’s king, and was awarded the rare privilege of Saudi nationality.
Hariri then went on to become Saudi Arabia’s leading entrepreneur, acquiring Oger in 1979 and founding Oger International, based in Paris.
His interests extended across banking, real estate, oil, industry and telecommunications.
He founded a television station, Future TV, in Beirut and purchased stakes in several Lebanese newspapers.
He was the biggest shareholder in Solidere, the joint-stock company that sent bulldozers to revive central Beirut after Lebanon’s 15-year civil war.
But politics remained a fixation for the burly businessman.
In 1982, he donated $12-million to Lebanese victims of Israel’s devastating invasion and helped clean up Beirut streets with his own money.
Hariri also used his personal wealth to finance the Taef national reconciliation accords in 1989, which put an end to the civil war.
A Sunni Muslim, he was first named prime minister at the relatively young age of 48 in 1992 when Lebanon was desperately seeking a saviour to help the country emerge from the destruction of the war.
He was married twice and had seven children. — Sapa-AFP