From The Agenda [Archives:1999/42/Last Page]

Ayman Moh’d Nasser
Al-Tariq Chief Editor
As I still believe that late Dr. Abdul Aziz Al-saqqaf was not given a fair deal, so I continue to write about him in a bid to show the minimum of fairness and faithfulness that he deserves. * Time was shortly after 6pm on Wednesday, June 2nd., 1999 when the telephone rang. It was a call from abroad, from the Associated Press reporter,Dubai who started with a somewhat Syrian (Sham) dialect. He was speaking as a person speaking to someone he trusts.He said :”By God! We all love Dr. Al-saqqaf, who visited our office. We can’t believe this news.” Cautiously, I replied: ‘Which news?’ He said that Dr. Abdul Aziz was hit by a speeding car and he died right after that!
* As I was not sure of the credentials of the caller, I asked whether he could re-introduce himself , specify the purpose of his call and the place he was calling from! He repeated the whole thing again! I still thought that there is some kind of “leakage”. I asked him how he got my name and phone; and he clarified that they were provided to him by Ahmed Elhaj, their reporter in Sana’a.
* I was stunned! He felt that perhaps he was the first to tell me this painful news and apologized. While apologizing and condoling, he continued asking about Dr. Saqqaf’s age, offsprings and about other details he needed for completing his story.
* I immediately called my colleague Ahmed Elhaj. His brother confirmed the news, saying that Ahmed had left for the Yemen Times office. I was unable to convince myself that Dr. Al-saqqaf was no more; somehow in the depth of my heart there was a flicker of a hope that the last spark of his life might still be struggling for survival; But the icy hands of the unconquerable destiny had ordained a most tragic end to a truly benevolent soul , pushing all of us into a pool of grief out of which we have not been able to pull ourselves up to now.
* I contacted my other colleague, Sadeq Nasher. The rattle and throttle in Nasher’s voice were the same that I heard in his voice last March when I called to check the news about the death of Mr. Saeed Abdul Wareth Al-Ibbi. For the first time during the last fifteen minutes I felt a choking sensation in my chest as my friend was confirming that Dr. Al-saqqaf has left us for ever.
* I continued to look for Bin Sallam; the 2nd. in command at Yemen Times. All lines were busy. I felt suffocated and disgusted, a feeling that overtakes me at the time of overpowering sorrow. I quickly left the Qat and headed towards the office. I found Bin Sallam at his home.He told me how it happened in parenthetical clauses, in his own way of saying things: He was “hit”..his head and ribs were broken ..He was carried by the front cover of the Mercedes and thrown at twelve meters away. When I asked about the funeral; he answered that the family was insisting that he be buried only after the culprit was punished. He read to me the obituary announcement which was issued by the Yemen Times within thirty minutes of the incident. From the first paragraphs I could feel how massive ,disciplined and robust was the establishment which the Late Dr. Al-saqqaf had created.
* By 7am next day I was driving towards Lahj and Sana’a with my son Ahmed, my uncle Kamal and a friend.During a call to Bin Sallam in course of the trip he added that the culprit driver never used the brakes or tried to save Dr. Al-saqqaf. I was extremely surprised when I heard that the funeral would take place by Friday afternoon. I didn’t know why the family changed their mind.
* During the whole journey between Aden and Sana’a we hardly talked about anything other than the incident, its possible background and the possible consequences of the tragic incident.
* I recalled my memories like a tape. I remembered the workshop for journalists organized by the World Bank which brought us together for 4 days. The program was hectic and full of activities. We used to exchange our ideas on small pieces of paper written by pencils. I still remember how he criticized the policy adopted by the Bank in very clear and convincing terms.
In fact I wrote a story on it. I passed my draft to him and he liked it very much. We passed it also to Ali Al-Sirari who suggested some additional points. By Tuesday morning the story was in “Attareeq”. Dr. Abdul Aziz felt a trifle shy and said that I was trying to flatter him.
* On the last day of the Workshop, at lunch, as we were sitting together, he spoke about the painful state of affairs, the squandering of public funds and of power and influence centers. He told me that I was in a better position than many others to know about many things that hindered the development of our country.He assured me that his campaign against corruption would intensify, hinting at the extent of my cooperation in giving coverage in Arabic in Attareeq the stories he was intending to publish in Yemen Times. I told him that he had a high position in our hearts and that Attareeq was and shall always be a window for his ideas and analyzes which are always sought by our readers.

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