Mohammed Abdul-Wahhab Jubarri: Tribute to A Great Yemeni Achiever – A Great Friend

By: Hassan Al-Haifi
Published:2-12-2009

This observer often finds that it is difficult to share feelings about someone who meant so much to him. For thirty-three years Mohammed Abdul-Wahhab was a very important part of this observer’s life that it would be difficult to ascertain what course life would have taken had not the life of Mr. Jubarri crossed paths with the life of this humble observer. For sure it could not have been anywhere near surpassing the great realm of culture and scholasticism that spewed from this great Yemeni thinker, scholar, politician, economist, businessman, philanthropist, innovator, organizer, father, brother and friend. In all the latter, Mr. Jubarri was unequalled in presenting novel contributions to the lives of all the people that were touched by his deeds and he was unequalled in the finesse by which he translated his ideas into a functioning reality that reflected the broad outlook and wide horizons that were so much an indivisible part of his intellect.

Mr. Jubarri was someone whose achievements as a public servant favorably touched on a wide variety of people from the complex demographic and social mix that make up the Yemeni people, guided only by a desire to serve and turn ideals into a discernible reality that reflected the genius of the man as an exploiter of all the social, economic and political venues to turn these ideals into working social institutions that enriched lives and improved standards of living, not to mention making economic resources accessible to all those who desired to improve their lives.

Jubarri was one of the first modern technocrats that Yemen produced – a product of grinding traditional learning that only the once unequalled Zeidi schools of Dhamar and Sana’a could produce, before developing all the elements of modern scholastic achievement that Egypt was unequalled in achieving in the Early 1950s.

Concentrating on economics and law, his modern education led Mohammed Jubarri to become one of the best organizers of private and public enterprises in Yemen and almost three fourths of the active economic and social institutions that exist today were in one way or another touched by his inputs and ideas, if he himself was not the finder of such institutions.

On the social and political front, Mr. Jubarri was at ease with all the elements that make up the Yemeni socio-political fabric and was a mover of several institutional frameworks that could have been great initiatives have they been allowed to go their normal unobstructed course. His relations with all the people that worked with him or with whom he dealt were always marked with a strange aura of charismatic affinity that almost made one feel that this man simply cannot go wrong.

That is when one looks at the renown public figure that Jubarri had inescapably become as the Chief Executive Officer of several economic institutions and an active member of the Board of Directors of several others, not to mention the most successful Minister of Economy and Trade that Yemen ever had and other leading senior political responsibilities, such as the Mayor of the City of Sana’a. But to those who were close to Mr. Jubarri all of that was second billing.

Mr. Jubarri to the latter was more of a father, a teacher, a model of good and an outspoken defender of truth, human rights and freedom. A man of faith, Mr. Jubarri never let his great power in the political and economic environ overtake any of his down to earth humility, remembering that the power of the Al-Mighty surpassed all human power by leaps and bounds and that indeed mankind is beholden to the Lord for all their attributes and fortunes in life.

Moreover, Jubarri often considered that misfortune is more a product of the evil of men than the blind wrath of the Lord against those who have lost touch with the awesome powers of the Devine. He had a profound merciful outlook on the follies of human power and never let his stature among men get to his head. He vocally spoke his mind and never tried to brown nose any figures of leadership to advance his own cause. He often had to face disappointments in standing up for the most humble of the oppressed against the mightiest of political and social figures, who have forgotten that they are also weak human beings in the end, no more - no less.
But to those who were his friends, Jubarri was the faithful friend, who would never turn down a friend in need and he was always there to the rescue whenever any of his friends were in the most difficult of situations, often without such friends even knowing the source of their liberation from despair.
May God bless the soul of this most phenomenal of Yemeni public leaders and Yemen will never be the same without him. For sure his friends will not be either.

Yemen Times
December 2, 2009