Abdulghani Ali: one of great men in Yemen’s history [Archives:2005/825/Culture]
By Ghazi Ali
For the Yemen Times
Whoever passed away and left decent reputation and kindness behind is not dead. Abdulghani Ali, the chaste man and wise scholar; one of the prominent revolutionaries and one of the makers of the economic, critical and financial policies.
It is our right as well as the right of sons and generations to recognize the role played by such a great man after the national Revolution. In a short review, it is not possible to mention all the qualities of such a great man, however, his brother Ghazi made a mention of the life of late Abdulghani, he did do so in full.
'A symposium heading 'The famous forty, 1947 was recently held, under the sponsorship of YCSR-YAI (Yemen Centre for Studies & Research and American Institute for Yemeni Studies) and was attended by many audience on the first day in the auditorium hole of COCA (Central Organization for Control & Accountability) and on the second day in YCSR meeting room.
The symposium was in fact organized under the Chairmanship of Dr. Abdul Karim Al-Eryani and Dr. Abdul Aziz Al-Makaleh, President of YCSR on the first hand in coordination with Dr. Christopher Edens of the AIYS and Dr. Robert Burrowes, Political Scientist of the University of Washington. A working paper was prepared by Mr. Burrowes, presented and summarized to the audience on the first day of the meeting. Some key questions were raised by four of the audience but in vain unanswered, given poor excuses in blunt way and deaf ears for a next day answer similar to that from a teacher to his students.
The paper that was distributed to audience containing combination of ambiguity, a declared enhancement in favor of 'The Famous Forty, 1947 Pioneers' including information and other references. It has fallen short of accuracy and perhaps still it is aimed to initiate justification for sufficient grounds to the first step of a newly written history of Yemen in the English-US version likely to be counted upon as future reference to a new history for Yemen. Yet the paper has even gone far beyond limits in serving as well in a form of propaganda to some gentlemen, who were among the second mission and to a few in the third generation of scholars who left from Yemen in the fifth and sixth decades. The greater astonishment was the act of separable behaviors in not mentioning the Yemeni scholar who then left on private scholarship from Aden in 1947, at their own father's expense, and so on, etc.
Our hero here, a pioneer, most talented and a gift of God in a time of need, was Dr. Abdul Ghani Ali Ahmed, whose name was as in all cases, occasions, deliberately absented, marked unaccounted for, ungratefully hidden from history papers or perhaps fallen in a mode of protectiveness even this time by the American writer and fellowship comrade from YCSR sponsoring the symposium perhaps in a discriminative act of behaviors.
Dr. Abdul Ghani Ali Ahmed was a true hero in the making of the '26th of September 1962 Revolution'. He was the 'one' only member from civil services in the 'First Yemen Revolutionary Board of Command'. He and Dr. Abdul Raouf Abdul Rehman Rafai Al-Shamiry, were the only 'two' graduated who returned to Sana'a and worked in 'bait al-maal' 'finance bureau' for Imam Ahmed bin Yehya bin Hamid Ad-Deen in the Royal Palace. They were the two economists who knew the movements, activities, the insight and inside of Imam and the Royal palace. He and Dr. A. R. Rafai, were the two unchallenged and key architects who initiated the fundamental grounds in planning and organizing the creation of the revolution day. They were the initiators and architects in the success of the Yemen economy. Two months from the revolution day, Rafai expired in a plane crash and Abdul Ghani Ali found himself alone – to plan for every thing and to organize the finance among which issuing, signing and endorsing the first Yemen currency in coins and in notes of one Riyal, five and ten Riyals. Even the governor of the CBY who joined finance service when he returned from abroad on perhaps the introduction of late Mohammed Mussawa, he was then young and now he has printed attractive book on the 'Currency of Yemen' yet master's voice denied and given little or bellow initial reference, on the financial figure who architected and gave birth to Yemen economy and boost its financial policies from vacant and poverty to a substantially recognized countable position – thanks to heaven.
Dr. Abdul Ghani was real architect in all financial and economical organization of Yemen including but not limited to, currency control, the banking system, YOMINCO, YGEC, NWSA, Customs, Tax Authority, Grain & Foreign Trade Corp, Sana'a University, and formed the infrastructures, upraise and generated the country from birth to the 20th Century, in spite of five years of civil war started after the revolution period till the organized cue of November 5, 1967, by the so called moderate group when influenced by foreign neighborhood during the dismantling of Egyptian force when embarked from Yemen back home after Egyptian-Israeli 1967 war. Dr. Makaleh, Chairman of YCSR, could have apprised Bob that Dr. A. Ghani Ali was the Ministry of Information and South Yemen Affairs from mid April 64, when he was under his administration in the Yemen broadcasting station! In addition, Dr. A. Ghani was very sensitive, a poet and intellectual writer of verses of poetry. His poems remains in save custody over many years for it is being left in good care of Dr. Abdul Aziz Al-Makaleh, who has already demonstrated quite a few of them publicly and promised over times, to maintain them in groups, rephrase them in collections together and perhaps hopefully combine them in attractive illustration prior to its reproduction and final printing stage under his care and honest supervision. Abdul Ghani was a treasure deserving volumes of authors' writing on different approaches in economy related, political science, jurisprudence & legislative, poetry & literature for on the performance and accomplishments realized during the years of his services not just a biography. For a legal man holding a Degree of “Barrister at Law with honor”” from Cairo
