Even Arab Leaders (Hadi included) Can't Speak Arabic

Mohamad Krishan knows a good Arabic speaker when he hears one. And since he is a veteran anchor for Al-Jazeera, I would trust his judgment.

Mohamad Krishan

In this op-ed, Krishan obliterates various Arab leaders for their poor Arabic skills. Starting with a discussion of a recent Tunisian governor's substandard French-language speech during a memorial in Nice, France, Krishan then compares the disastrous event to the amazing French skills of past Tunisian politicians like former president Habib Bourgiba and Hamadi Al-Said. These guys adopted the language of their colonizer. The next generation chose to focus on Arabic instead. The current generation of Arab leaders, Krishan says, can't speak either one on a professional level. It's an epidemic visible at any meeting that requires an exchange of words (rather than just a speech) and especially clear at any Arab League summit.

Yasser Arafat is the first among regional leaders to draw Krishan's wrath. He points out the (apparently memorable) error in Arafat's infamous "gun and olive branch" speech at the UN General Assembly in 1974. If the live interpreter hadn't corrected Arafat's grammatical mistake, the speech's most memorable clause would have lost its meaning.

But there is one national leader whose Arabic is so bad that it's even worse than Arafat's, Krishan says. It isn't even comparable (لا من قريب ولا من بعيد) to Arafat's level of badness. And that is Yemeni President Abd Rabo Mansoor Hadi. Krishan follows with this burn:

Arab leaders from previous eras, people like Habib Bourgiba, Anwar Sadat, Houari Boemeddine, Hafez Al-Asad, and King Hussein of Jordan all had fantastic Arabic language skills. Whether reading from a speech or speaking spontaneously, their Arabic was high-level, Krishan says. With this current generation, their skill in Arabic is a reflection of their skills in governance - very poor.