national treasures

An item in today's Al-Ayam caused me great concern. A source told a journalist that a ministerial reshuffle was in the offing, and this time it will involve no less than our historic Foreign Minister.

At issue is the place and ranking of this country in the record books of the world. At a time when every nation is competing for an entry into immortality, our hard won honours are being squandered.

His Excellency the Foreign Minister is already in the top league of the longest serving foreign ministers of the world. On the job even before independence, he was FM in 1970 when William Rogers was the U.S. Secretary of State, and 12 secretaries of state later, he is still there as the Bahraini counterpart to Condi Rice. He certainly broke the record of Andrei Gromyko who served as the soviet FM for 28 years. And now that he was on his way to unseat Sabah Al-Ahmad of Kuwait (FM fom 1963-2003) as the longest serving FM of the world, he is being cut short. What a shame.

An historic achievement is about to slip from the nation's hands. Can you imagine what are the odds of any country in the world beating our record if we were let to reach it? We already have let go of the world's longest serving Minister of the Interior (1971-2004). Maybe we just have to take comfort and solace in the enduring stability of having the longest serving PM of the world (1966- and counting).