Middle Eastern and African Perspectives on the Development of Public Relations

Other Voices

T. Watson

• Publisher: Palgrave Pivot
• Year: 2014
• Print ISBN: 9781137404275
• eBook ISBN: 9781137404299
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Business Communication
• Index: Business

The National Perspectives on the Development of Public Relations: Other Voices series is the first to offer an authentic world-wide view of the history of public relations. It will feature six books, five of which will cover continental and regional groups. This third book in the series focuses on the Middle East and Africa.

1

The Arab States of the Gulf

Badran A. Badran

Abstract: The Arab Gulf region has a long history of traditional public relations (PR) practice expressed through hospitality, poetry, oratory, the majlis or diwaniyya, the mosque, emissaries and various local customs that prescribed internal and external relationships among tribes and between rulers and their subjects. It has developed strongly since the mid-20th century when mass media was rudimentary and sophisticated practice was almost non-existent, vague, misunderstood or defined by many in the region to mean protocol, hospitality and/or general services of various kinds. Today, modern PR practice thrives, supported by professional associations and extensive education. Although best practices still come from private practitioners, the public sector in most of the GCC is showing better understanding of the role that PR plays in nation-building, human development and global relations.

Keywords: culture; hospitality; nation-building; public relations; wasta

Watson, Tom. Middle Eastern and African Perspectives on the Development of Public Relations: Other Voices. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2014. DOI: 10.1057/9781137404299.0005.

The Arab states of the Gulf included in this chapter are the United Arab Emirates (UAE), the Sultanate of Oman, the State of Kuwait, the State of Qatar and the Kingdom of Bahrain.* They are all members of a regional group called the Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf (commonly referred to as the GCC). Another GCC member that is outside the purview of this chapter is the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA).

According to the GCC Charter (1981), members share geographical, historical, political, social, cultural and economic characteristics. A common language (Arabic), a common religion (Islam) and strong kin relations among their citizens unite them. According to BuMetea (2013) these common characteristics allow scholars to study these states as one cultural unit. Politically, all are hereditary monarchies governed by ruling families. With the exception of Kuwait and Bahrain, which have elected parliaments, GCC states have appointed or elected Shura (Sulaiman, 1999) or consultative councils that advise governments but have limited or no legislative powers.

Because of these historical, political, social, cultural and economic commonalities among GCC members, conclusions drawn from published research about one country may be relevant to other GCC countries while allowing for individual distinctions and differences to be made explicit whenever appropriate. In addition, a distinguishing feature of the region is that many public relations (PR) agencies have worked regionally in multiple markets instead of limiting their operations to only one country.

This chapter reviews pre- and post-independence periods, as well as the period before and after the discovery of oil and gas, a major transformational event with huge, mostly positive consequences for the region and its peoples. With the exception of Oman (1651) and Kuwait (1961), the other GCC countries became independent in 1971. Oil discovery and export has taken place since the 1930s (Kuwait), the 1940s (Qatar) and the 1960s (UAE and Oman). Oil and gas wealth catapulted GCC countries from under-developed small societies with limited means to modern states with first-world infrastructures, enjoying high international political and economic standing, including some of the world’s highest per capita incomes and welfare provisions for their citizens.

Awwadh (1994) argued that modern public PR in the Arab Gulf region has its deepest roots in the early civilizations of Mesopotamia and ancient Egypt. Awwadh maintains that the PR tradition was strong in the region both before and after Islam became the region’s dominant religion. Abu Sunn (1986) stated the goals of public PR from an Islamic perspective are communication, persuasion and participation. Its characteristics are accuracy, clarity, quick response to public opinion and teaching by example.

Before oil

During the last century, the region’s tribal roots and their patterns of social, cultural and political communication have influenced communication in the Gulf region. Scholars such as Qassem (1995) mention two traditional institutions in particular that have played critical roles in communication in the past: the mosque or Muslim place of worship and the majlis or diwaniyya, which is the people’s public gathering place.

For Qassem, the mosque was more than just a place of Muslim worship. In the UAE, the mosque was an important central site where people met regularly to discuss daily affairs, as well as increase their worldly and spiritual knowledge by listening to sermons and attending religious lessons.

Kuwaiti sociologist Al Kindari (2002) argued the Kuwaiti diwaniyya (also called majlis in other countries) has played an important role as an informal channel for the dissemination and discussion of news among ordinary Kuwaitis and between them and the political-economic elite class of the country, represented by the ruler, senior officials and merchants. What was taboo in official media was permissible in the diwaniyya, he said, making it a powerful medium of information and opinion on the one hand and a democratic vehicle for decision-makers to interact with public opinion before reaching important decisions. Alanazi (1996, p. 242) describes its functions as idea exchange and public interaction and asserts ‘local sheiks used the majlis to enhance their credibility and prestige among the people’.

Alanazi cites Mansfield (1981) who states ‘poetry was the most popular art in the Arabian culture and a model for much of the public communication that appeared. Poetry was particularly important to the roving, non-permanent tribes of the region’ (Alanazi, 1996, p. 240). According to Fakhri, Alsheekley and Zalzala (1980, p. 34), ‘[T]he poet was considered to be the press secretary of his tribe, attacking the tribe’s enemies, praising its accomplishments and strengthening the fighters’ morale’. This tradition is alive and well in the Gulf today. UAE Vice President, Prime Minister and Dubai’s ruler Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashed Al Maktoum has written several Nabati poems praising the late founder and President of the UAE Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan and current UAE President Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan. Public praise through poetry is another cultural manifestation of PR use in the Arab Gulf region intended to honour and convey praise and appreciation to other poets and individuals (Al Maktoum, 2014).

The traditional practice of PR in the Arab Gulf region prior to the arrival of foreign expertise was limited to administrative and hospitality functions, such as following up contracts and other paperwork at government departments, making arrangements for visitors including airport pick up, hotel reservations, official luncheons and banquets, entertaining guests, and so on. A typical PR unit was also tasked with celebrating special events like the country’s national day or an end-of-year recognition for employees (Badran, 1994; Ayish and Badran, 1997). Khamis Al Muqla, Chairman of Hill & Knowlton Strategies, President of Bahrain-based Gulf Marcom and a pioneer of PR in the Gulf characterizes these activities as ‘limited protocol functions’. He points out a common mix-up between protocol functions and modern PR strategic functions of communication between an organization and its internal and external publics (Al Muqla, personal communication, 25 May 2014).

Even as late as the mid-1980s, there was evidence of confusion among UAE PR practitioners, and possibly in other GCC countries, about its definition and value. A survey of professionals working in 65 public and private organizations in UAE cities of Dubai, Sharjah and Abu Dhabi revealed that none thought that PR was a communication function. Foreign-owned private organizations were the most likely to have practitioners or top managers who understood modern PR. Although government agencies and others espoused the Western concept, they did not put it into practice. Overall, the study found that in the UAE, PR was ‘vague, superficial and widely misunderstood’ (Creedon, Al-Khaja and Kruckeberg, 1995, p. 65).

The beginnings: 1950s–1970s

During this period, indigenous mass media in the GCC were in their beginning stages although foreign radio and TV broadcasts were accessible by some. According to Rugh (2004), it was not until 1970 when Oman opened its radio transmitter, that every Arab state had indigenous radio broadcasting. As for television, it was not until Yemen TV went on air in 1975 that all Arab states had national TV capability. Rugh argues the Arab print media only reached a highly select audience because of widespread illiteracy, weakness of transportation and distribution systems at that time and censorship (2004, p. 9). Cinema theatres showing Indian, Western and Arab films were operating in several Arab Gulf countries during this period. Bahrain had its first cinema in the 1940s and Kuwait and parts of the UAE had them in the 1940s and 1950s. Examples include Al Sharqiyah Cinema in Kuwait, Al Watan Cinema established by Ali Al Osaimi in Dubai and Awal Cinema in Bahrain. Cinemas were considered an important advertising medium before television became dominant (Bahrain Cinema, 2014; Al Ktebi, 2014).

Ramzi Raad (2014), founder and chairman of the TBWA/RAAD regional network, former vice president and area director of the International Advertising Association (IAA) for the region and a pioneer in both advertising and PR in the Gulf region, termed the GCC markets in the mid-1970 as ‘very basic.’ ‘Kuwait was the most advanced and multinational companies treated it as the test market for new product introductions in the region. The people of Kuwait were the first to show real signs of 20th century consumerism in the GCC’ (Raad, personal communication, 26 May 2014).

Al Muqla contends that PR activity in Bahrain and the Gulf region started within the operations of foreign oil companies during the 1950s, namely, Bahrain Petroleum Company (BAPCO), Arab-American Oil Company (ARAMCO) in KSA, Kuwait Oil Company (KOC) and during the 1960s as in the case of Petroleum Development Oman (PDO). It rose in importance following the oil price rises and the subsequent economic growth in the 1970s. PR was already well established in Egypt and Lebanon before it arrived in the Gulf (Al Muqla, personal communication, 25 May 2014).

One of the first consultants to practice PR in Bahrain and possibly in the Gulf during the 1960s was Michael Rice, a founder of the United Kingdom’s Public Relations’ Consultants Association in 1969 and its chairman from 1978 to 1981. In addition to Rice, another practitioner who worked in Bahrain was a local man, Ahmad Abdul Rahman Fakhri, now retired. Fakhri and British partner James Belgrave later established Arab Consult (AC). AC offered PR services to the Bahraini and other Gulf governments years before Al Muqla and his partners established Gulf Public Relations (GPR) in 1974.

The Bahraini government acknowledged the importance of PR early on when it established a department for ‘Public Relations and Radio’ in 1956, with Sheikh Mohammed bin Mubarak chairing it. Before establishing government PR departments, the Bahraini government and other Gulf governments relied mainly on foreign affairs ministries and embassies abroad for their external relations.

Prior to working in PR, Al Muqla worked as a journalist in the early 1970s. In 1974, with Abdel Nabi Al Shu’la and Hassan Jawad Al Jashi, he established GPR in a small office in Government Street in Manama, the Bahraini capital, and offered all and any communications services including PR, advertising, publishing and design.

GPR’s first large contract in 1974 was to plan and produce a PR campaign for Bahrain’s aluminium company, ALBA. Its goal was to encourage more Bahrainis to work for ALBA through raising awareness of safety procedures after the company suffered several safety-related accidents. The three-month campaign used Bahraini media, such as Akhbar Al Khaleej newspaper, to reach job seekers in particular and the Bahraini public in general. Next, GPR worked with banks and clients in Bahrain, including the Arab Ship Building and Repair Yard. Work expanded in the next decade and included major clients such as Unilever. GPR’s partners in other Gulf States included Yousef Darwish and Jassem Fakhroo in Qatar (Al Muqla, personal communication, 25 May 2014).

Raad described Bahrain in the 1970s as a ‘base for multinational companies, advertising agencies and media who wanted to further tap the potential of the Saudi market and were finding it difficult to station their people in the Kingdom’ (personal communication, 26 May 2014). The proximity of the two countries, even before the King Fahd causeway was opened in 1986, and the liberal lifestyle of the island made it much easier for Western expatriates to make it their base. Bahrain, he recalls, introduced colour TV into the GCC and its two government and independent TV stations became very popular amongst Eastern Saudi viewers. Qatar and Oman took more time to catch up (Raad, personal communication, 26 May 2014).

According to Raad, when Egypt became the first independent Arab state, journalists from other Arab states migrated to Cairo. They hoped to find freedom of speech and political tolerance. ‘The Arab-Israeli war of 1948 was the rallying point of the Arab people, and the Egyptian press became conscious of the nation’s saga. All these factors contributed to the flourishing of the Egyptian press and advertising agencies that were mushrooming around it. Then came the revolution of 1952 which abolished the monarchy and brought the military to power’ (ibid.). Political changes in Egypt enabled Lebanon to surface as an oasis of media freedoms in the Arab world.

Lebanese journalists in Egypt returned to their home country and were joined by many of their Arab colleagues. Beirut developed as the publishing capital of the Middle East. Lebanese publishers were regional in their thinking, so they forcefully supported the overall Arab cause. The Pan-Arab media concept became a reality as Lebanese magazines picked up circulation all over the Arab world. The Lebanese press experience led to the introduction of television in 1959. Obviously, this dynamic media climate helped advertising agencies to develop and mature. (The year) 1969 saw the birth of the regional advertising agency concept in the Middle East with the opening of branch offices of two Lebanese agencies in Kuwait. (ibid.)

However, the turning point in M...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Introduction
• 1  The Arab States of the Gulf
• 2  Botswana, Zambia and Zimbabwe
• 3  Egypt
• 4  Israe
• 5  Kenya
• 6  The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
• 7  Nigeria
• 8  South Africa
• 9  Turkey
• 10  Uganda
• Index