Dr Yacoub’s legacy an inspiration to young Kuwaitis
Scholar returns to research and study
This is the 14th and the last in a series of articles on Dr Yacoub Yousef Al Ghunaim, a writer and scholar and former minister of education. — Editor
TBy Lidia Qattan
hrough his writing based on research of historical facts Dr Yacoub set to expose the Iraqi propaganda, whose false allegations fooled the world in believing on the legitimacy of Iraqi claims on Kuwait.
When Kuwait was shut off from the eyes of the world and declared a restricted military zone in his writing Dr Yacoub disclosed the barbarism of the Iraqi occupation.
In the wake of the invading army nothing was sacred, unmentionable atrocities committed during the first hours of occupation caused such a panic and terror among the inhabitants of Jahra, the first town on the way to Kuwait City, that many left everything behind, fleeing for their life.
On highways buses and cars filled with people on their way to work were fired upon with rockets and set on fire. In matter of hours thousands of terrorized civilians were crowding the Saudi border waiting to cross. Those who remained rooted to their land refusing to leave, as their forefathers would have done in similar circumstances, their fate hanged on the whims of the invaders.
Dr Yacoub and his family were among those who stood fast, bearing whatever they had to bear for the freedom and honor of their land.
From the first day of the invasion till the moment of liberation Dr Yacoub became suspended in a limbo of uncertainty; he reveals his anguish in the jostling recollection of his experience, succinctly expressed in literary form imbued with the substance of cognitive reality.
Indeed the whole country was frozen in time: From the first day all activities were halted, building sites were abandoned, shops, offices and factories were closed down ,the traffic on the roads was reduced to a trickle, the streets of town became deserted, every city became a ghost town devoid of movement and life.
As soon as the Iraqis established themselves in the land they set to work on a vast network of land mines to be blown-up at any moment as notice for the destruction of all vital commodities — the water and electricity plants and distribution network, the refineries, the entire oil field, factories and government buildings.
With growing pride Dr Yacoub was following the heroic deeds of the Kuwaiti Resistance, which from the first hours of the invasion got quickly organized, as groups of young men and women joined to fight for their land?
Campaign
In spite of many of them suffered martyrdom under terrible torture, many others joined in, thereby making the Kuwaiti Resistance more formidable and daring, attacking Iraqis strongholds with an effectiveness that made the invaders paranoid.
In the liberation campaign, the Kuwaiti Resistance effectively enhanced the success of the coalition army by smuggling out information vital to the strategic liberation plan.
At the same time deeds of heroism and daring revealed to the world the true spirit of the Kuwaiti people. While his compatriots were fighting in the Resistance, Dr Yacoub was writing, keeping on a constant alert, lest in a surprise visit to his house the Iraqi Mukhabarat would discover his notes.
Indeed he almost got in trouble when one day the Iraqis stormed his home looking for any incriminating
Lidia Qattan
evidence.
When they discovered a briefcase filled with important documents, Dr Yacoub felt doomed. However a photograph of himself with the Crown Prince and Prime Minister, Sheikh Saad Abdullah Al Salem Al Sabah, apparently saved his life, because on leaving the Mukhabarat ignored the content of briefcase and left taking the photo!
For a full week Dr Yacoub was detained at the Qadisiya Police Point under interrogation. Although he suffered no physical or other abuses, every moment he spent there was an eternity of suspense.
Finally he was allowed to go home unharmed.
He was among the lucky few who were questioned by the Iraqi Mukhabarat, not by the National Guards of Saddam Hussein, an elite body of executioners who tortured their victims, leaving them dead, or maimed for life.
Occupation
Towards the end of the Iraqi occupation, while the war of liberation was underway, the constant worry and tension endured during those seven months of occupation eventually got the best of Yousef Al Ghunaim, Dr Yacoub’s father.
His health began deteriorating fast from the day the Iraqi set into action their diabolical plan of destruction, blowing up refineries, the water distillation plant, destroyed the entire electricity network, and blew-up the entire oilfield.
The toxic fumes rising from 732 wells on fire, created an inferno of pollution, whose full affect revealed in the decades that followed a sharp rise on mortality rate from cancer, heart disease, respiratory illnesses and new forms of illnesses.
With electricity and water cut off, life for the people inside Kuwait become more grim and uncertain. The only consolation was the thought that their land would soon be set free.
In spite of their father’s optimism and belief that he would live through the day when Kuwait would be free, Dr Yacoub and his brothers were very worried.
When news spread around that the Iraqis would use chemical weapons, Dr Yacoub and his brothers had yet more reason for worrying about their father’s conditions.
By the time the war of liberation was drawing to a close and the coalition army was swiftly overpowering the Iraqi forces, moving towards the capital, Yousef Al Ghunaim was dying.
Rushed to the Mubarak Al Kabeer Hospital, where it was hoped he would get help, Dr Yacoub was bitterly disappointed; for the place had been depleted of all the medicines and medical equipments. There was nothing the doctors could do to save the life of his father or ease his pain.
For three days and nights Yousef Al Ghunaim hung between life and death. By his side his sons were praying for a miracle, but his time had come.
Yousef Al Ghunaim had been a strong man all his life, he had endured a great deal and pulled through many crises, but he was tired of fighting.
Ready to surrender he was longing for peace, from some respite from pain and anguish.
In the twilight zone of his life he saw his passage through this world in a grand vista of useful endeavors, he had experienced a great deal; his most proud legacy were his three sons.
That night Dr Yacoub heard an unusual rumbling of heavy machinery in the distance, he saw Iraqi soldiers rushing to their vehicles, or taking off in any car they could get hold of. He knew something was happening, but all his thoughts were for his dying father.
As the liberation of his country drove to a close, Yousef Al Ghunaim was in a state of transition, unmarred by any discomfort, as it often happens when the body losing all power to fight, switches off all sensations of pain.
Relief
From the first day of the invasion he had been hoping and praying to see his beloved country free again. As his soul was about to depart Yousef became immerse in a glow of ecstatic light; a serene look was on his face as he murmured the last prayer of a dying Muslim, an instant later his soul, free at last, was soaring high over the landscape of the tragic human struggle, no longer affected by anything that could mar his peace In that moment as Dr Yacoub heard the announcement that Kuwait was free, an affable joy of relief filled his heart because in the subtle smile he saw on his father’s lips as he departed, was the acknowledgement that his dying wish had been fulfilled.
That smile attenuated his bereavement in losing him.
At day break, as the news that Kuwait was liberated spread like wildfire, suddenly the town woke up for the slumber of months. Amidst the rejoicing there was a feeling of sweet revenge in those who were searching for informers and traitors, who had caused so much suffering and the death of their companions.
In the confusion of the sudden retreat the Iraqi army left scores of incriminating documents behind, which when published revealed to the world the true image of the Iraqi regime.
In the frantic retreat of the Iraqi Army many of the soldiers asleep were left behind, on awakening most of them surrendered to the Resistance, only the elite Republican guards of Saddam Hussein fought to the last.
In those moments of intense emotion Dr Yacoub and his brothers were engulfed by the same flare of jubilation that affected everyone in town.
In spite of their personal loss, their grief was in that moment attenuated by the feeling that their father in his dying moment had actually witnessed the liberation of his country.
With that feeling in their heart their bereavement was overshadowed by a glow of kindled emotions as they accompanied him in the following morning to his final resting-place.
The darkest chapter in the history of their country was closed, a new chapter was opening-up needing the wholehearted dedication of its people in bringing the country back to life.
Calamities and crisis are the spurring factors that make the human spirit resilient. Only those of little faith surrender to failure.
The aftermath of liberation released a wave of cognitive energy that made Dr Yacoub eager to go back to his writing and to his research to reveal to the world the relentless Iraqi covetousness on his country.
With this objective in mind he sought to establish a special center of research and studies on Kuwait that would reveal beyond any shadow of doubt the legitimacy of Kuwait as a free country from the Ottoman empire and establish once and for all that Kuwait had never been part of Iraq. Indeed Iraq was born in 1922, in the aftermath of the First World War; it became independent from British ties in 1932.
After the liberation besides writing and researching, Dr Yacoub took part in many seminars and radio programs, publishing his ideas and concern in numerous articles on the new developments he was witnessing in the country.
In the galaxy of Kuwaiti pioneers Dr Yacoub Yousef Al Ghunaim is an epitome of an era in which highly dedicated young men felt for their country and worked hard to make it a shining example of development, a torch of inspiration to neighboring countries. Their legacy is an inspiration to other dedicated young men and women, the new pioneers striving to shake-off the lethargy that made the country to lag behind.
Concluded