From the Agenda [Archives:1999/36/Focus]

Ayman Mohammed Nasser 
Editor in Chief, 
Attariq Newspaper 
In a country like Yemen, where people keep going around, inside the same circle of traditional cultures and values that praise the past, and watch over the stagnant present with its limited horizons led and controlled by a rusty tool, that has subdued society and hindered any movement forward. In such a situation, any event whatever might be its weight, is meaningless as long as it is unable to pass us through the bottleneck. 
During my short and humble experience with public affairs, in the last ten years or so, life has proved so pregnant with events crossroads and curves, shaping our destinations, accompanied by a complete absence of the Nationalistic Movements. Thus it could subdue the natural growth and development of our political and social culture. Our current political and cultural output emanates from rusty lungs. We look fearfully at each other on every occasion just to confirm the misery of our situation. In the midst of all that, from far in the wilderness, I heard a deep and warm voice calling for progress, development and modernism. It was Dr. Abdulaziz Al-Saqqaf, the man who filled life with turmoil. He knew many people and was known by more. Many misunderstood him, and he was understood by only or few. I can confirm that his finger prints on our nation’s geography and upon our political and social culture and press and on our conscience, far exceeds those made by the Yemeni elite during the last twenty years. 
One can only say a little about Dr. Al-Saqqaf in such a small space. Dr. Abdulaziz shall continue to live in our minds and conscience. I personally intend to dedicate a number of writings to him in order to relief my heart and discharge my soul and mind towards a man who was a brother, a teacher and an example. Dr. Abdulaziz Al-Saqqaf was by virtue of his wisdom, vast knowledge, personality and organization and other capabilities, a Yemeni phenomenon of a capable leader into the 21st century. 
In fact, I can’t say that I was a close friend of Dr. Saqqaf, but I can say that he was one of my closest. We established a personal acquaintance since the 1997 elections, which developed into a very strong understanding of each other. This strong, built on principal, relationship revealed itself in “Yemen Times” and its pages, as Yemen Times and its owner occupied the same in Al-Tariq. 
The way Dr. Abdulaziz died, provoked a number of shared by his friends and partisans. May be we can find the reason then, when Dr. Al-Saqqaf death’s complexities are discussed, in the fascination that attracts us in the Geek myth of a personality that I don’t read the name of , a half-human half-birth, who is his great desire of wisdom and truth fly towards the sun and get burnt and dies. 
Dear Dr. Abdulaziz, we shall continue to write about you, on you and in your faith, so long as God allows. 

——
[archive-e:36-v:1999-y:1999-d:1999-09-06-p:./1999/iss36/focus.htm]