Friends Forever [Archives:1999/23/Front Page]

The most dignified relationship between human beings is that of friendship. But , this quality differs among people.  And fiends are of different types and categories. Some like friendships because of the   interest they might get from . Some like it  for its own sake. Some people remain loyal to their friends when they are alive  and forget them after their death and those are false friends. True friends are those who remain loyal forever, even after their friends’ death. Here are some of Dr. Saqqaf’s loyal friends.
 
THE LOSS OF A
A FRIEND AND A CHAMPION
Losing a good friend is a tragedy but losing an exceptional friend is a catastrophe. The death of Dr. Abdulaziz was a very devastating catastrophe for me. I have now known Dr. Abdulaziz for almost 19 years, since his return from the US with his Ph.D. degree. I was the Sana’a University Vice Rector. Right from the very first day Dr. Al-Saqqaf joined Sana’a University, we felt that we had gained an active, intelligent and motivated faculty member. He had no qualms about his abilities and the goals he wants to achieve. He was an agitator who felt that change cannot come about without an attempt to motivate people and get them to realize their potential and their role in change. He worked with a cooperative movement at his home village Al-Hadharem, and through his experience with the cooperative movement learned about the potential of NGOs in development and improving local conditions.
He was a man with diverse interests, and when he got frustrated with his faculty at Sana’a University he look a sabbatical and worked as Vice-Dean of the Banking Institute in Oman-Jordan. He then returned to Yemen, feeling that he will do best serving his own country. The unification of Yemen and the Establishment of Yemen Times was a turning point for Dr. Al-Saqqaf.
Democracy and Human Rights became his new commitment as cornerstones for protecting Yemen and its unity.
He felt that his criticism of the establishment should not be considered an attempt to undermine it, but a source for strengthening it. Accepting criticism clearly demonstrates locally and internationally that Yemen is truly democratic and that it learns from criticism to make things better. Dr. Abdulaziz was unique in putting the country before any personal and political gains and took a stance that was different from most other opposition groups. He might have held, at times, different views, from mine and other’s but no one has ever questioned his integrity and commitment to Yemen’s Democracy and Human rights. It is enough that President Ali Abdullah Saleh considered his death and absence as a loss to democracy and Yemen.
Dr. Al-Saqqaf’s way of thinking and approach to dealing with issues in courageous, innovative and non-tradition ways and this is what is not realized by many who many have held grudges against him. He was a successful man and success has a price to be paid in Yemen. Today every one is memorizing Dr. Abdulaziz friends and foes, in Yemen and abroad. He will be remembered for even as the champion of Freedom of speech, Democracy and Human Rights. May God Bless Him.
By: Dr. Abu Baker Al-Quirbi
_________________
What a tragedy?! What a loss?!
Professor Abdulaziz Al-Saqqaf, born in 1951 left us suddenly so young in age when his views, input and participation in public life were much needed for the further development of the evolving democratic experiment of Yemen.
We first came to know each other in July 1983 at the “International Symposium on Contemporary Yemen” organized by the Universities of Sanaa, Aden and Exeter;  held in Exeter UK.  Aziz took part in the symposium as lecturer from Sanaa University while I participated in it as a lecturer from the University of London. Our friendship and cooperation continued and grew over the past 16 years. It was obvious for me to note even from the early days of our friendship that Aziz had a dream which he gradually managed to formulate into a vision and this at last he succeeded in changing into a reality. Yemen Times by itself has became one of the notable institutions in Yemen is enough proof of how far Aziz has succeeded in the field of self-achievement.
His vision, complimented by a remarkable zeal and courage had no limits. With such credentials, Aziz’s contributions were paramount to the success of many conferences, workshops, symposia, committees etc.; many of which can be considered as milestones as well as part and parcel of the overall changes which Yemen has seen in this last decade of the twentieth century and in particular those changes related to achieving and maintaining its unity and promoting its evolving democratic experiment.
One of Aziz’s greatest virtues was tolerance and his ability to establish friendships even with those who didn’t agree with his views. I can easily name many activities and projects in which Aziz participated and happily gave up the role of the major player to others in spite of the fact that his role and that of the Yemen Times were the basis for the success of those events. Perhaps our cooperation with each other in many different activities stand up as a clear example of such a virtue which is so much needed in Yemen at this stage of its democratic development, namely tolerance. For though he knew that I was a member of the ruling party’s political leadership he never hesitated to give me the seat of the major player in many events which he was  a major contributor to – e.g. the Campaign for the supply of the vaccines for children in 1986, the Yemeni Saudi Relations Symposium, the symposium for the draft law of local government, the endeavor to establish the local chapter for Transparency International and the formation of the Yemen 21 Forum etc. In all such activities Aziz proved that he could easily manage to bring together people of different views and diverging political affiliations for the  sake of promoting values and ideals related to the major issues of democracy, human rights, civic society organizations, the  commitment for the rule of law and order and the institutionalization of the Modern State of Yemen.
I know that many people considered Aziz an anti-establishment activist, while  many others thought of him as being a supporter of the ruling authorities in his own way;  but both such sides can never but agree that by the tragic death of Aziz Yemen has lost a great son and patriot at a time when his contributions were very much needed and at an age when such contributions would have been at their peak in terms of innovation, creativity and excellence. What a pity that we have lost him at such a time, but whatever his future potentials were Professor Abdulaziz Al-Saqqaf has managed to get himself into the pages of the history books of Modern  Yemen and he shall continue to be remembered as a pioneer whose sudden disappearance has left most of those who knew him in a state of temporary shock and disbelief of whether he has truly left the stage for ever.
Perhaps if he had a wish to convey before his tragic death I would risk to say it would have been the big task of maintaining and promoting his greatest legacy; the multifaceted institution of the Yemen Times. That is the challenge which his family and the Yemen Times? staff are now confronting and which I sincerely hope they will manage to shoulder  successfully armed by some of Aziz?s greatest characters of courage, resolution and perseverance.
By : Prof. Mohammed Abdul Mageed Qubaty
       Adviser to the Presidium of the Parliament,
       Secretary of the Political Committee of the PGC Party
_________________
It is an absolutely horrible piece of news, horrible for Yemen and everyone who knew him
Dr. Saqqaf was a good friend of NDI over our years in Yemen, and has given the Institute prominent coverage as part of his work to advance democracy, respect of human rights, rule of law and the general development of his country.
It is hard to think of a death that would be more shocking to this country, he was well-known and liked. I think he could be described as an agent-provocateur of where and what Yemen could be; he was so desirous of seeing Yemen achieve its full potential.
We had a wonderful lunch together, he had an infectious sense of humour, and even as we sat there I remarked on how he laughed so well. What was also so clearly evident was the strong friendship he shared with Minister Al-Tayeb and Dr. Al-Quirby. It was obvious that they possessed a long-standing friendship that went back many years, one of my NDI colleagues even commented on it to them. It was just a great lunch, a privilege really.
When we left I said we would see him the next day as NDI was going to have lunch again to discuss our upcoming Emerging Democracies Forum, and he replied ‘Insha Allah. Life is so precious, because he spoke those words, we shook hands and then he walked away. It gives one pause to stop and consider life, its meaning and why we are here.
It is incredibly sad news, a shock really. NDI is in mourning for a great friend. As a friend in DC shared with me yesterday, the rest of us have to live through the sorrow and endure the vacuum left by such a great man.
Derek Butler
NDI Field Representative, Yemen
____________________
It was too shocking for me, members of my family and members of our Embassy, to learn of the sudden and untimely demise of my only friend, so far, in Yemen Mr.. Abdulaziz Al-Saqqaf on 2nd June, 1999. I was so disturbed in my mind that I had to leave the reception at Taj Sheba Hotel minutes after I had attended it, which had been organized by our colleague H. E. Mr. Vitaliano Napoleone, the Italian Ambassador on their National Day.
Now I feel repentant that I should have waited for Mr. Al-Saqqaf at his residence on 31st May, 1999, at least to say the last good-bye to him, when I was one of his guests at dinner, and when he informed us, with the request that we must wait for him, that he had been called by H. E. Mr. Abdul Karim Al-Eryani – the Prime Minister, though the guests decided to leave around 9.30 P.M. when they had kept waiting for him for more than an hour.
May God give courage to you and your mother to bear this irreparable loss!
H. E. M. S. Suman
The Indian Ambassador
Yemen
_________________
A Poem To My Friend
These are your eyes
That once filled up our sky with love and hope:
It was indeed your smile that brightened this gloom, our land.
 My dearest friend:
you had no ties with me,
Nor with those who saw you speak and smile,
Except your hand and mouth of piercing truth.
Like Noqom you always stood so tall,
Sana’a;s only mount,
Its guide to a better life,
Its scourge, its wrath,
Its epitaph unto itself:
Its sign of what it has done
And the worst to come.
Your tongue, much missed, and now for evermore,
Has filled those colorless heads
With fairness and valor.
All that was needed to be said, you did
With graciousness and undaunted hopefulness,
With innocence that baffled all.
Those who saw your heart, manners, charm,
Did so but dreaded too,
for fears that you may once
exceed yourself and theirs.
What you have done and left behind
Is just to greet to see,
For you have planted hope in all
And such disturbing fearlessness
which you mastered so well.
Dr.Mohammed Sharafuddin
——
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