Appendix 10, Part 7: Mourning Rushdi al-Kikhya: Muti al-Nounou on the Man Buried in Cyprus

Rushdi al-Kikhya.. the Man Who Was Buried in Cyprus

By Muti al-Nounou, Asharq Al-Awsat 11/6/1988

Rushdi al-Kikhya, the Syrian leader who gave his life to his country and was then buried in Cyprus, represented the absolute majority under the dome of parliament, and with his death a page of the history of the Syrian struggle has been turned.

Only the other day a bright political star set, and Syria in particular, and the Arab nation in general, lost one of the men of the first generation and one of the most distinguished patriots who fought in both the popular and the official arenas. He is the great Syrian leader Rushdi al-Kikhya, who passed into the presence of his Lord as an emigrant and a wanderer, far from his dear homeland and from the fighting city that bore him, the city he loved and that loved him!

The Syrian leader Rushdi al-Kikhya has died, and with him, in his store of thought that was never set down on paper, many secrets of the national movements and of political affairs have been folded away, secrets known only to a few of the men of the first generation who took part with him in making Syrian decisions first, and Arab decisions second.

Under the dome of the Syrian Chamber of Deputies the great departed, who represented the absolute majority in the Chamber, was the source of legislation in the various democratic eras.

Speaker Rushdi al-Kikhya passed into the presence of his Lord in the city of Limassol, the resort town in the Greek sector of Cyprus, and was buried in its Islamic cemetery. Only a small number of his Syrian brothers and of others who knew and valued him, who were living in that city, took part in his funeral.

The great departed was born at the end of the nineteenth century in the city of Aleppo al-Shahba, in northern Syria, and it never crossed anyone's mind that the city of Aleppo, and the Syrian Arab people, would be denied the chance to escort this great departed to his final resting place, so that his pure body might be buried beside his patriot brothers who had gone before him to the abode of eternity, foremost among them Ibrahim Hananu, Saadallah al-Jabiri, Abd al-Rahman al-Kayyali and other prominent leaders of the National Bloc, which led the national effort and the struggle against the colonizer, and whose founders sacrificed everything precious for the sake of independence, the preservation of Syria's sovereignty and the expulsion of colonialism from its lands.

Rushdi Kikhya made, or took a strong part in making, the glorious events in Syria's life, and the patriotic newspapers eagerly passed on what he told them and the direction he gave them, but the poet spoke the truth who said:

While a man is seen in this world bringing the news,
he is soon seen to be a piece of news himself.

.. And I find myself called upon, before speaking of one of the leading figures of the national struggle and one of the summits of politics in the lands of al-Sham, to pay my debt of thanks to those in charge of Asharq Al-Awsat, the international newspaper of the Arabs, which was founded to be a platform for the Arab and Islamic worlds, where every echo resounds and every opinion is heard, where secrets are brought to light and positions analyzed.

Asharq Al-Awsat has stood out for more than its daily news; it has become a record of the national and cultural movements in the Arab lands, which people eagerly read in every Arab country and wherever there are speakers of Arabic.

Three of the Syrian leader Rushdi Kikhya's patriot brothers announced his death on a page of Asharq Al-Awsat. They too live outside the homeland, and all of them represent the Syrian communities abroad: Dr. Nazim al-Qudsi, a former President of the Syrian Republic; Dr. Maarouf al-Dawalibi, a former prime minister; and Dr. Munir al-Ajlani, a former minister and deputy for Damascus in all the constitutional eras.

.. Before the notice was published, His Excellency Dr. Maarouf al-Dawalibi, one of those closest to the departed, called me and told me of the death of the leader al-Kikhya.. and that he had been buried in Cyprus. The news struck me like a thunderbolt, and what deepened my grief still further was that he had been buried far from his homeland, without his patriot brothers and colleagues taking part in his funeral.

He lived alone and died a stranger.

Speaker al-Kikhya had no wife or child, because he never thought of marriage but devoted himself to the honorable national and political struggle. Throughout the period he spent outside Syria, that is, from 1967, after the lightning war of June, he was constantly accompanied by his loyal nephew, Mr. Marwan al-Kikhya.

Truly, it is the duty of every Syrian who knew al-Kikhya's struggle to speak of his qualities and virtues, and in doing so to render a great service to the history of the Arabs and to acquaint the rising generations with what they may not know about the homeland, for a nation that does not know its past has no present and no future. Arab libraries are poor in, or nearly empty of, works on Syria's modern history and its continuing national struggle, because the men of politics and learning and the statesmen who held high office and played large roles in the life of their country have held back from publishing their memoirs. In fact, of the Syrian figures who took part in making Syrian decisions, some have passed on, God rest them, such as President al-Quwatli and Messrs. Ibrahim Hananu, Saadallah al-Jabiri, Jamil Mardam Bey, Lutfi al-Haffar, Sabri al-Asali, and Dr. Munir al-Ajlani and others, may God lengthen all their lives; these men lived through Syria's events and have a sacred national duty, which is to take part in recording history, and we wait for each of them to answer the call of duty, especially since the editor-in-chief of Asharq Al-Awsat has announced on more than one occasion that the pages of Asharq Al-Awsat are open for publishing such memoirs, a stand for which he deserves thanks.

The valuable memoirs of the late Nasuh Babil, head of the Syrian journalists' syndicate, which Asharq Al-Awsat published more than two years ago, and the "Papers of the Mandate" of Zuhair al-Shalaq, the great Arab writer, may God lengthen his life, which it is publishing now, are a very fine piece of work that deserves notice, appreciation and admiration.

He Won Everyone's Respect

And now: Rushdi al-Kikhya was a rare personality, gentle in manner and far removed from political mudslinging, and in this way he won the respect of everyone, even of his socialist and communist political opponents. He respected young and old alike and took care that his relations with everyone stayed good, without the least show of temper. He made a point of returning the visit of anyone who called on him, whoever the visitor might be. He rose above trivialities and pettiness and never attacked his political opponents; rather, he respected everyone, though he feared no one but God, exalted be His power.

Al-Kikhya was one of those rare men who can bear shocks of any kind, and so he was called the "unyielding" politician; he was a man of few words, and so he was called the "silent" man. He worked with careful planning, without empty "noise", unlike some others, and he held to the noble hadith: "Seek help in fulfilling your needs through discretion." When he said "yes" in the Chamber of Deputies, all the deputies of his party, the members of the People's Party he had founded, under whose banner more than 40 deputies gathered, repeated the word: yes! And if he said "no", everyone held to the word "no", because his decisions came from foresight and political conviction. He also had in the Chamber a number of independents, outside any party, who supported his decisions, for he was the school of patriotic politics and the foremost defender of the Syrian constitution, so that everyone would abide by its articles.

The great departed was put in political prison many times under the French Mandate and under the military coups, the last time in 1966. He was then released, together with the political detainees in Tadmur prison, after the war of the fifth of June 1967, and took refuge in Beirut to live there. His property had been confiscated in the time of the Egyptian-Syrian union, movable and immovable property that included wide lands rich in olive trees in the province of Aleppo, from whose income he paid for national political work and for his own living. His lands are still confiscated today. He would not agree to submit a written request to the authorities concerned for the return of his lands, and he used to say: "Just as they were confiscated, they must be returned to their owner."

Beirut, His Permanent Home

He settled in Beirut and made it his permanent residence, spending three seasons of the year there and moving in summer to the resort of Broummana, surrounded by its green mountains clad in cedars. More than once he was forced to move to other Arab and European capitals because of the worsening bloodshed in Lebanon, and in the end he decided to divide his time between Beirut and Limassol, spending the summer in the latter.

Three years ago he had to undergo surgery at the American University Hospital in Beirut, but the operation was not fully successful, and he went to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia at the invitation of Prince Abdullah bin Abdulaziz, where he underwent a second operation at King Faisal Specialist Hospital in Riyadh at the hands of a well-known Lebanese surgeon.

He Chose His Own Grave.. After His Health Declined

At the start of 1988 illness pressed on him and his health declined, and he was forced to keep to his bed at the hotel in Limassol. When news of his poor health reached Prince Abdullah bin Abdulaziz, the prince telephoned him and asked him to come to Riyadh, or to choose any other country for treatment, and Prince Abdullah kindly placed a private plane at his disposal for the purpose. But he declined, thanking him for this generous gesture and assuring him that his health would not allow him to leave his bed and board a plane.

It is said that a few days before his death he forced himself to leave his bed at the hotel and went to the Muslim cemetery in the city of Limassol, which lies next to the city's mosque, and instructed his nephew that he be buried in that place rather than have his body taken to the city of Aleppo, so as not to trouble anyone with moving his body or with taking part in the funeral.

As I write these lines, I repeat with deep anguish and sorrow the words of the poet:

Is the grove forbidden to its own nightingales,
yet lawful to birds of every kind?

Should this great man, who vowed his life to the homeland, die.. far from the homeland? Was it written that a fighter like him should suffer the cruel pains of illness for a long time, an exile from his homeland, with no wife, no child and no friends around him, he who brought forward so many politicians, especially those who joined the party he founded and nurtured, some of whom became deputies and ministers and played a prominent role in the world of politics? Is it right that he should pass into the presence of his Lord and be buried under soil other than the soil of the homeland for which he sacrificed everything he owned in this world?