Chapter 9, Part 4: The Founding of the People's Party, 1948

Section Three
The Founding of the People's Party

Forming a new party in the country, built on a program with clear aims and a social direction, was a cherished hope in Rushdi al-Kikhya's heart. This hope found expression in many of his statements recorded in the minutes of the Chamber of Deputies, to which I referred earlier.. and it took firmer shape in him after we won the 1947 elections and became a political force of weight.

I should point out that in those days there were no soundly built parties with popular roots in the country.

The Communist Party was indeed not unknown in political circles, but it was not generally accepted by the public, because to them the word "communist" meant atheism, and our people hold fast to the bonds of faith, and atheistic ideas have no place in their culture.. The Arab nationalists were hostile to it, because it had an internationalist bent and fought the idea of Arab nationalism.. That is why Khalid Bakdash in Damascus and Ahmad Mahfal in Aleppo remained two horsemen trotting through the desert of public politics.. The communists were imprisoned and tortured at well-known times and put out secret leaflets. But their voices stayed confined within a small circle of people.. I even remember that when we were students at the University of Paris and formed the Arab Association of students from the Arab countries studying there, we excluded the communists from it because they were not nationalists, as we understood it.[1]

There was also the Syrian National Party, which became the Syrian Social Party. It was founded by the Lebanese Antun Saadeh in the early thirties to establish "the Syrian nation" on the lands of the Fertile Crescent, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and Palestine, with Cyprus added to it as its star.. This party too was not destined to win over the Arab public, which believed with unshakable faith in the unity of the Arab nation from the Ocean to the Gulf.. The idea of a "Syrian nation" was firmly rejected in wide political circles, especially since the party had a strict fascist organization. One of its most prominent leaders, Issam al-Mahayri, who won a parliamentary seat in Damascus, was our colleague in the Chamber of Deputies.. He became the head of this party, which is still active today, in Lebanon especially, and whose armed militias fought well in the Lebanese civil war in their struggle against the fanatical Kataeb.

This party softened its rigid "Syrianism", and its head, Abd Allah Saadeh, gave an interview to the Kuwaiti newspaper al-Qabas[2] in which he affirmed a development in the party's thinking toward "establishing an Arab front that will be a strong dam against the ambitions of colonialism and imperialism.. The conspiracies and challenges of the Zionist enemy have helped to strengthen solidarity among the Arab countries.. That is why we took an active part in the Congress of the Arab People.. and we also supported the Arab Front of Steadfastness and Confrontation, which is the central nucleus for achieving unity of struggle against the enemy and the integration that will lead in the future to the unity of the Arabs..".

Among those known to have belonged to this party in its early beginnings were Akram al-Hourani and Adib al-Shishakli.

The Arab Baath Party was newly formed in the late forties, founded on the principle of Arab unity, socialist philosophy and democratic freedom.

Its most prominent leaders at the time were Michel Aflaq, its philosopher and theorist, Salah al-Din al-Bitar and Jalal al-Sayyid.

In Aleppo in the forties a number of intellectuals had founded a party they called the "Arab Nationalist Party". Its most prominent men were the lawyers Zafir al-Rifa'i, Munir Ghannam, Rashad Barmada, Abd al-Salam al-Tarmanini and Mustafa al-Attar, the engineer Ramzi al-Aljati, the physician Mustafa Isa and Sa'id al-Basmaji.. Some of them had received their university education in Germany under the Nazis.. When the war broke out that the Iraqi Prime Minister, Rashid Ali al-Gaylani, declared on Britain to drive it out of his country with the help of the Axis powers, the German mission that was in Syria after the defeat of France, when the French forces in our country had gone over to the Vichy regime under Marshal Pétain, contacted a number of these politicians and offered them cooperation with the Axis powers in exchange for promises it made them about the independence of the Arab countries.. But when Rashid Ali fled to Germany and England occupied Syria and Lebanon, with the "Free French forces" under its command, it charged the founders of the Arab Nationalist Party with collaborating with the Nazis and arrested them.. Some of them managed to escape abroad. Later they were released and returned to their political activity.

When Rushdi al-Kikhya thought of founding a new party, he got in touch with them, trusting in their competence and the soundness of their direction.. He learned from them that they were in contact with Michel Aflaq and Salah al-Din al-Bitar.. These two visited Aleppo to broaden their talks with the group of the Arab Nationalist Party, and Rushdi al-Kikhya seized the opportunity to meet them, and they discussed forming a party from all of them together. The talks went on for more than a year.

At this time Akram al-Hourani was also appearing on the political scene, with his center of gravity in his city of Hama. Al-Kikhya contacted him too, completing his contacts with everyone in whom he saw good on the question of forming a strong new party.

Al-Kikhya also contacted Dr. Sami Kabbara and Munir al-Ajlani in Damascus.

But all these consultations produced no positive result:

Akram al-Hourani founded his own party, the "National Youth Movement", which later became the (Arab Socialist Party), and Aflaq, al-Bitar and al-Sayyid ended up founding the "Baath Party" in 1947. Munir al-Ajlani joined no party. And Dr. Kabbara contented himself with fighting the regime through his newspaper al-Nidal, whose editorials captured the attention of young people angry at the state of government and the country's social and cultural backwardness.

The scattering of the opposition across several political bodies did not weaken the resolve of al-Kikhya, who held firm, planning his project. It so happened that in 1945 young men returned from their studies in France, equipped with the learning they had received at university and with the political education they had acquired from the French parties and the tragedies of the Second World War. They were Maarouf al-Dawalibi, Anwar Ibrahim Pasha and the author of this book.. Rushdi al-Kikhya invited them to consult with him about forming a political party to fill the void in public life.

Ahmad Qanbar was an old friend of Rushdi al-Kikhya, and the two cooperated politically, one at the level of parliamentary work and the other behind the columns of his newspaper al-Nadhir.

And so the means became available to set out on the road to founding the party, especially after the leading figures of the Arab Nationalist Party, the lawyer Rashad Barmada, Dr. Mustafa Isa and the lawyer Mustafa al-Attar, joined this rising bloc.

Rushdi al-Kikhya emerged as a major leader in Aleppo after he achieved three great victories:

The first: the huge reception organized through his efforts for Dr. Nazim al-Qudsi on his return from Washington, where he had been sent as Syria's minister plenipotentiary, as soon as the World War ended. The splendor of the reception dazzled the supporters of the men in power, and they felt that something important, which did not please them, was taking shape on the near horizon.

The second: the success of the deputy Dikran Jarajian, the candidate of the opposition led by Rushdi al-Kikhya, in the by-election held in Aleppo at that time after the death of the deputy Michel Rafi'.. The government's candidate, whom the Prime Minister Saadallah al-Jabiri backed with all his strength, was defeated.

Dikran's success was a painful blow to the camp of the right.. represented in the government of the day, especially since elections were still held in two stages.

The third: the resounding, crushing victory that he and his brothers won in the 1947 elections, when elections came to be held in a single stage and in a secret booth. The remnants of the National Bloc opened their eyes wide to the events around them and feared that if they stayed imprisoned in the illusions of their old glories the train would leave without them, so they hastened to organize themselves as a party.

The quickest among them was Jamil Mardam, who had become Prime Minister. He formed a party he called the "Republican Party" from among his old political colleagues. But we had scarcely heard of its formation when we heard of its death by heart failure, because its founder was removed from power and so the reasons for his party's existence died.

Even so, the men of the Bloc did not despair of founding a "modern" party of their own, and decided to gather themselves in a party they called the National Party, and gave its presidency to the mujahid Nabih al-Azma.. This party benefited from the fragrant reputation of its president. When he abandoned it one day.. its legs gave way and it began to stagger in an unenviable void.[3]

Sabri al-Asali and Fakhir al-Kayyali belonged to this crumbling party.. and continued to carry its faded badge on their heads, but they soon realized that they could not play any political role with this tie alone, so they rode the wave of progressivism dominating the political scene and raised the banner of a leftist direction in which their faith was doubtful.

In the city of Homs some believers in the school of gradual evolution stood on the opposition list of Hani al-Siba'i, who had put his hand in Rushdi al-Kikhya's since the previous term, the two of them leading a constructive opposition movement.. On this basis the people of Homs turned out to support the new direction, elected the opposition list and defeated the National Party's list in its entirety, exactly as the people of Aleppo had done. And so the opposition grew with the addition of the deputies of Homs, foremost among them Faydi al-Atassi, Dr. Farhan al-Jandali and Isa al-Suryani. It was also joined by the deputy for Jableh, Uthman Hasan Isbir, Muhammad al-Shawwaf, deputy for Latakia, Dr. Muhammad al-Sarraj, deputy for Hama, who had won there as an independent, Abd Allah al-Tamir, deputy for Salamiyah, Shakir al-As, deputy for the Golan, Abd al-Hamid Duwaydri, deputy for Idlib, and a number of deputies: from Raqqa, Rashid al-Uwayd, and from Jabal Druze and Hauran (Hayil al-Surur). From all these deputies the opposition parliamentary "Constitutional Bloc" was formed. The rapid succession of events in the region ripened in the minds of the deputies of this Constitutional Bloc the idea of moving to found the coming party, and its bureau decided to call a congress to be held at Falougha in Lebanon on 8 August 1948. The invitation went to the deputies and to a selected group of others. The attendance was large. The discussion of principle and substance went on for several days. Those assembled agreed that founding a modern, organized party had become vital for the country, and so it was decided to found a party named the "People's Party".

As for its program, it was to rest on principles the people would accept and that expressed their ambitions and directions in the fields of nationalism, society, the economy and democratic government.. A committee was charged with drawing up the party's program and internal rules, and this was done with full competence by specialists prominent in their fields. Those assembled approved the program and the internal rules by vote, and the party became a reality.. Rushdi al-Kikhya was expected to become its president, but he declined and nominated the mujahid Nasib al-Bakri, deputy for Damascus, known for his real part in the Great Syrian Revolt of 1926 and a stubborn fighter against the French occupation, and he was elected president of the People's Party. The congress also elected Ali Bouzo, also deputy for Damascus, as secretary general of the party.

Below is a brief account of the party's program (first heading), and then of the effect it had on the men in power and their supporters (second heading).

First Heading: A Look at the Program of the People's Party

This program contained the principles in which the party's founders believed and which they agreed to take as their charter for raising up the country and saving it from what it was suffering, for charting its road to the future, for spreading justice among people and their equality in rights and duties, and for establishing a social order shaded by social justice.

Below are the most prominent of these principles, arranged in sections:[4]

A. The Arabs, in all their lands, are one nation.

Until its full merger is achieved, the party considers that it should move toward it by one of two paths:

The first: establishing a federal union between Syria and the Arab countries that meet the conditions of such a union in terms of the soundness of their political situation.

The second: relying on the Arab League organization (which already exists) to achieve the following aims:

1. Unifying foreign policy and foreign representation.

2. Unifying the Arab defense forces.

3. Unifying legislation.

4. Treating the Arab countries as a customs unit.

5. Treating them as an integrated economic unit.

6. Abolishing passports among all the League countries.

7. Unifying Arab currency and founding a joint central bank.

B. A balance among the powers of the state is a basic condition for consolidating the republican system and popular government and securing internal peace and general welfare (Chapter Four).

C. Supporting the independence of the judiciary, strengthening it morally and in learning, resisting every attempt to diminish its independence or infringe its immunity, and raising its standard, so that the judge remains bound to his conscience and the law and to nothing else.

Clearly this expression must mean keeping the judge away from the notion of divided loyalty, that is, not belonging to a political party, so that his neutrality is not open to suspicion, because suspicion attached to a judge strips him of his best qualities, which are neutrality and justice.

D. Reforming the government apparatus so as to guarantee its specialization, competence and integrity. Here I would like to answer those who said that the People's Party forced civil servants to join it. This is an unjust slander. The People's Party never appointed party officials, except for one governor, Prince Ja'far al-Jazairi, and one secretary general of health, Dr. Munir al-Sadat. Both submitted their resignations along with the resignation of the People's government in 1951. As for all the other grades of officials, they were not permitted to join the party. We worked, truly and sincerely, to protect the state apparatus from the spread of the epidemic of partisanship within it.

E. Widening the powers of officials, establishing their responsibilities, and strengthening decentralization in the districts in relation to the governorates, and in the governorates in relation to the center (the capital).

The party was accused of regionalism because it called for decentralization. The situation was completely unacceptable: citizens with business to attend to had to travel to the capital to follow up a small matter.. which cost them more than they could afford or bear.. And they often heard: come back in two days, only to hear the same tune when they returned.. Their stay in hotels and their visits to restaurants could drag on longer than their modest budgets could stand.. not to mention the disruption of their work in their own towns.

F. Caring for the army and the security forces, raising their standard, arming and training them, and keeping them out of politics.

In this passage lie all the problems of the People's Party in its domestic policy. It was convinced that the task of the armed forces was to defend the homeland against the dangers closing in on it from the Zionists. It agreed with full enthusiasm to everything asked of it to build up the country's military strength. But some officers had other leanings and party ties.. which other officers did not share.. and so the struggle broke out inside the army.. A bitter conflict arose between those who controlled the army, party men or followers of certain international creeds, and the politicians of the People's Party in particular.. until the union with Egypt ended this struggle.. To build a cohesive army embracing all the elements and groups of the nation, Rushdi al-Kikhya opposed "the principle of the cash substitute", that is, exempting a citizen from military service in exchange for paying a fee to the state treasury.. He regarded this fee as a bribe for the sons of the rich, so that they would not do their sacred duty toward their country.

He made a long and searching speech at the session of 4 December 1947. Some members of the People's Party were so keen to strengthen the army that they began to reject certain social reforms because they cost money.. wanting to devote the largest possible sum to the army.

During this period I submitted a proposal calling for funds to be allocated in the budget to be spent on the old and infirm who had no one to support them. Dr. al-Dawalibi came to reproach me for this proposal, and said to me: this is harmful to the homeland and could serve the interests of colonialism.. I was surprised at what he said, but he went on: postpone your project; it will cost the state a great deal of money, and our army has a better right to it, because it stands against a deadly danger and we are in the midst of a war our forces are fighting with the utmost bravery.

I said to myself: perhaps the professor is right. And I dropped the matter.

G. In the field of education, the People's Party adopted "making education free at all its stages and primary education compulsory".

Rushdi al-Kikhya attached great importance to spreading education and extending culture in the country for the sake of a civilized homeland.. In 1939 he attacked the government because it had assaulted students who were marching in a demonstration to express their feelings and support their demands, called for those responsible to be tried, and praised the students for their national selflessness and their sound leanings, which in any case were not partisan.[5]

He loathed the freedom of the foreign schools, and so he called for them to be supervised.[6] And he insisted on spreading primary education to reach every village, and called for the villages themselves to contribute to the cost of building schools.[7]

Free secondary education in particular was dear to me and close to my heart. I remember that as soon as I entered the Chamber of Deputies after the first general elections I won, the 1947 elections, I called for free secondary education and was met by the government's supporters and the Prime Minister himself with every sign of disapproval, until the word rang out in the hall: this is communism.. communism.

So I asked the party's permission to submit a bill to the Chamber of Deputies on 11/12/1947. This is its text:

"Secondary education shall be free for all the sons of the nation."[8]

In the explanatory memorandum I said "that the sum that enters the state treasury from secondary school fees is only around 400 thousand liras, two thirds of which come from examination fees.. So deciding on free secondary education is no burden on the treasury, because the real sum is only 100 thousand".

I raised the question of this proposal again on 25 May 1948.. but it lay breathing its last in the drawer of the finance and education committees, until the 1950 constitution was drawn up and free education was decreed by its Article 28, and so we removed one of the great obstacles from the path of the poor among the sons of the people.. Rushdi al-Kikhya was the strongest supporter of every liberal principle contained in the constitution.

H. The greatest of the party's economic principles was "the just distribution of agricultural land" and the solution of its problem, according to the following principles:

1. Restricting the distribution of land newly brought under cultivation to the real farmers.

2. Setting a ceiling on landholding in the future, whether by ownership, usufruct or lease.

3. Amending the agricultural laws in force so as to protect the peasant and guarantee that he enjoys the fruits of his labor (Article 38).

I. Placing foreign trade under the direct control of the state, to protect the national wealth and to seek a balance of trade between exports and imports, limiting imports to necessities and doing without luxuries.

J. "The party considers that taxes are not merely a means of covering the state's expenditure but a means of securing social justice.." (Article 44).

The members of the party were sincere in their convictions and upright in their conduct, and they worked together and individually to achieve these aims.. which passed faithfully into the 1950 constitution, for whose adoption they and their leader deserve the greatest credit.

Endnotes:

[1] One of the ironies is that one of these "communists" became an extreme right-wing Minister of Economy in the days of the secession.

[2] On 3/2/1979.

[3] We recall that the National Party amended its program in 1949 and became a monarchist party when there was talk of a possible union with Iraq. When the efforts toward this union came to nothing it became republican again.. which cost it a great deal of respect.

[4] See the party's program in Appendix No. 1, its internal rules in Appendix No. 2 and the names of the founders in Appendix No. 3.

[5] Session of 14 January 1939, p. 138.

[6] Session of 30 October 1944, p. 311.

[7] Session of 27 January 1945, p. 211.

[8] Session 11 of the first ordinary term, dated 18 December 1947, p. 381.