Literary References On Saadeh
Dissertations
Beshara, Adel. Sa'adeh and the Greater Syria Scheme, Unpublished.
M.A. Prelim. Diss. Melbourne University, 1987.
Bodron, Margaret. Violence in the Syrian Social Nationalist
Party, MA Thesis, American University of Beirut, 1970.
Debs Y. Rabee'h. Secularism in the Writings of Antun Sa'adeh:
Origin and Development, Unpub. Ph.D. Diss. Melbourne
University,1987.
Maatouk, Mohammad. A Critical Study of Antun Sa'ada and his
Impact on Politics: The History of Ideas and Literature in the
Middle East, Unpub. Ph.D. Diss. University of London, 1992.
Melhem, Edmond .The Contribution of Antun Sa'adeh and Others to
Arabic Literature, Unpub. Honours Thesis, Melbourne University
1988.
Melhem, Edmond. The Syrian Social Nationalist Party and the
Lebanese Question, Unpub. Ph.D Thesis, University of Melbourne,
1996.
Mikdisi, K. Nadim. The Syrian National Party: A Case Study of the
First Inroads of National Socialism in the Arab World, Unpub.
Ph.D. Diss. American University of Beirut, 1960.
Georges Sassine, Societes et Religions Dans la Pensee Arabe
Contemporaine: Etude de Cas, Unpub. Ph.D. Dissertation,
University De Paris, 1983.
Sethian, D. Robert. The Syrian National Party, Unpub. Ph.D. Diss.
University of Michigan, 1946.
Articles
Aboud, Roula. "Seek Scholarly Truth Not Propaganda: A Reply
to Daniel Pipes," Middle East Quarterly, Vol. 2, No. 5,
Winter 1994, pp32-36.
Armanazi, Gayth. "The Concept of Greater Syria,"
an-Nahda, Sydney, December 17, 1987.
Beshara, Adel. "Conceptions of Peace Among Secular Arabs:
The Case of the Syrian Social Nationalist Party," A paper
delivered at the AMESA Conference, Christchurch, New Zealand,
Sept. 1992. Published in Middle East Quarterly, Vol. 1, No. 1,
Winter 1993.
Beshara, Adel. "The Constitution of the SSNP:
1934-1984," Sydney, an-Nahda, Jan-March, 1986.
Beshara, Adel. "Dr. Khalil Saadeh: Nationalist
Crusader," Middle East Quarterly, Vol. 3, No. 9, 1996.
Debs, Rabee. "Secular Trends in a Sectarian Society,"
Middle East Quarterly, Vol. 2, No. 5, 1994.
Haj, Muhammad. "Majnoun ... Kena Ismahu Antun Sa'adeh,"
(A Lunatic ... His Name was Antun Sa'adeh), al-Ra'y al-Ome,
Kuwait, 17 June, 1981.
Ma'aluf, Elias. "lam yazkur ahad Sa'adeh," (No One
Mentioned Sa'adeh), al-Bina', No.673.
Melhem, Edmond. "Betrayal and Intrigue in Lebanon's First
Armed Revolution," Middle East Quarterly, Vol. 1, No. 4,
Autumn 1994.
Melhem, Edmond. "The Feast of Sadanyeh: An Old Story
Revisited," Middle East Quarterly, Vol. 1, No. 1, 1993.
Melhem, Edmond. "Lebanon's First Coup d'etat," Middle
East Quarterly, Vol.2, No.6, 1994.
Omran, Ali. "Kabl Ta'ssis al-Hizb al-Sury al-Qawmi
al-Ijtimae': Ayna Kana al-Waee' al-Qawmi," (The State of
National Consc-iousness Prior to the Formation of the Syrian
Social Nationalist Party), al-Binai', No.791, p3.
Pipes, Daniel. "Party Politics in the Syrian Social
Nationalist Party." International Journal of Middle Eastern
Studies, 20, (1988), p303.
Saadeh, Antun. "The Maronites are Syriac Syrians,"
Middle East Quarterly, Vol. 3, No. 10, 1996.
Walker, Dennis. "Suraqian National Thought and
Culture," Middle East Quarterly, Vol. 1, No. 3, 1994.
Walker, Dennis. "Antun Saadeh and the Syrian National
Character," Middle East Quarterly, Vol. 2, No. 8, 1995.
General References in
Arabic
Abd al-Massih, George. Rissallah min Rissallah (A Message From
the Message), Beirut, 1972.
Abd al-Satir, Moustafa. Ayyam wa Qadiyya (Days and Cause), Fikr,
Beirut, 1982.
Abifadel R, Antun Sa'adeh: al-Naqid wa al-Adib al-Mahjari (An-tun
Sa'adeh: The Immigrant Litterateur and Critique), Centre for
Higher Studies, Beirut, 1992.
Aboud, Aboud. Tarikh al-Hizb min Khalal Alam Sa'adeh, (The
Hi-story of the [SSNP] Party Through the Personal Sufferings of
Sa'adeh), Beirut, 1989.
Aboud, Aboud. Falsafat Noushu' al Hizb al-Suri al-Qawmi al-
Ijtimae (The Philosophical basis of the Foundation of the Syrian
Social Nationalist Party), Beirut, 1973.
Abu Amsheh, Adnan. Sa'adeh wa al-Falsafa al-Qawmiyya
al-Ijtimaeyya (Sa'adeh and the Philospohy of Social Nationalism),
Damascus, 1994.
Daher, Adel. al-Mujtama' al-Insan: Dirasah fi Falsafat Antun
Sa'adeh al-Ijtimaiyya (Man-Society: A Study the Social
Philos-ophy of Antun Sa'adeh, Mawaqif, Beirut, 1980.
Daye, Jan. al-Mou'allim Butrus Bustani (Sir Butrus Bustani),
Kikr, Beirut, 1981.
Daye, Jan. Gibran Tweiny wa Assr an-Nahda (Gibran Tweiny and the
Age of Renaissance), An-Nahar, Beirut, 1994.
Fansah, Nazir. Ayyam Husni al-Zaim (The Days of Husni al-Zaim),
Afaq Publications, Beirut, 1983.
Farzat, Muhammad. al-Hayat al-Hizbiya fi Suriya bayn 1908 wa
1955, (Party Politics Between 1908 and 1955), Dar ar- Rawwad,
Damascus, 1955.
Haddad, Youssef. Filistin fi al-Adab al-Mahjari (Palestine in the
Literature of the Diaspora), Beirut, 1982.
Hage, Badr. Silsalat al-Aamal al-Majhula: Dr. Khalil Sa'adeh (The
Unknown Works of Dr. Khalil Sa'adeh), Riyad al-Rayis Books Ltd,
London, 1987.
Hage, Kamal. Moujaz al-Falsafa al-Lubnaniyya (A Summary of the
Lebanese Philosophy), Beirut, n.d.
Hardan, Nawaf. Sa'adeh fi al-Mahjar: 1921-1930 (Sa'adeh Abroad:
1921-1930), Beirut, 1989.
Jreije, Gibran. Antun Sa'adeh munz al-Wilada hatta al-Ta'ssiss
1904-1932 (Antun Sa'adeh from Birth Until the Formation [of the
SSNP] 1904-1932), Beirut, 1982.
Jreije, Gibran. Ma' Antun Sa'adeh (With Antun Sa'adeh), SSNP,
Beirut, 1975. Junblatt, Kamal. Adwa' ala Hakikat al-Qadiya
al-Suriyya al- Qawmiyya: al-Fikra al-Qawmiya (Lights on the
Reality of the Syrian Nationalist Cause: The National Idea),
Progressive Press. Beirut, 1987.
Jreije, Gibran. Sa'adeh Taba'n (Sa'adeh Naturally), Bissan,
Beirut, 1988.
Khairallah, Shawki. Autobiography, Beirut, 1993.
Khoury, Antun. al-Hizb al-Suri al-Qawmi al-Ijtimae: Sira'
ma-ssiri (The Syrian Social Nationalist Party: A Fateful
Struggle) Fikr, Beirut, 1980.
Khoury, Sami. Radd ala Sati Husri (A Response to Sati Husri),
Beirut, 1956.
Lebanon, Ministry of Information. Qadiyat al-Hizb al-Qawmi (The
Case of the National Party), Beirut, 1949.
Mouja'eece, Salim. Antun Saadeh wa al-Aklyrious al-Mourani (Antun
Saadeh and the Maronite Clergy), USA, 1993.
Moussali, Bashir. al-Hizb wa al-Dastur (The Party and the
Constitution), Beirut, 1973.
Nassar, Nassif. Tariq al-Istiqlal al-falsafi (The Path of
Philosophical Independence), al-Tali'a, Beirut, 1979.
Nassar, Nassif. Tassawarat al-Umma al-Haditha (Contemporary
Conceptions of the Nation), The Kuwaiti Institute for Further
Education, Kuwait, 1986.
Qubarsi, Abdullah. Ta'ssis al-Hizb al-Suri al-Qawmi al-Iitimae wa
Bidayt Nidallahu (The Formation of the Syrian Social Nati-onalist
Party and the Beginning of its Struggle), Beirut, 1982
Qubarsi, Abdullah. Nahnu wa Lubnan (Lebanon and Us), al-Turath
al-Arabi, Beirut, 1988.
Raad, Inam. Harb woujud la Harb Houdud (A War of Existence not A
War Over Frontiers), Beirut, 1977.
Raad, Inam. Antun Saadeh wa al-Inezaliyoun (Saadeh and the
[Lebanese] Isolationists), Fikr; Beirut, 1980.
Raad, Inam. Harb al-Tahrir al-Qawmiya (The National Liberation
War) Beirut, 1970.
Sharabi, Hisham. al-Jamr wa al-Rimad, (Autobiography) ,Al-Tali'a,
Beirut, 1988.
Shrayeh, Mahmoud. Khalil Saadeh wa Antun Saadeh (Khalil Saadeh
and Antun Saadeh), Beirut, 1995.
Social Nationalist Reform Committee, al-Thamin min Tammouz:
Wathaiq al-Thawra wa al-Istishhad (The Eighth of July: Documents
on the Revolution and Martyrdom [of Saadeh]), USA, 1992.
SSNP, Information Bureau. Antun Saadeh: Leadership and
Testi-mony, Beirut, 1981.
SSNP, Information Bureau. Istijwab Junblatt al-Tarikhi li
al--hukuma hawl Istishhad Saadeh Ome 1949 (Junblatt's Historical
Interpellation to the [Lebanese] Government Over Saadeh's
Martyrdom in 1949), Beirut, 1987.
General References in
English
Aboud Aboud, The S.S.N.P, an-Nahda, Sydney, 1982.
Beshara, Adel. Syrian Nationalism: An Inquiry Into the Political
Philosophy of Antun Saadeh, Beirut, Bissan Publishers, 1995.
Haddad, George. Revolutions and Military Rule in the Middle East,
Robert Speller & Sons, London, 1971.
Kader, A. Haytham. The Syrian Social Nationalist Party: Its
Ideology and Early History, Beirut, 1990.
Pipes, Daniel. Greater Syria: The History of An Ambition, Oxford
University Press, 1990.
Saadeh A. Safia, The Social Structure of Lebanon: Democracy or
Servitude?, Dar An-Nahar, Beirut, 1993.
Seale, Patrick. The Struggle for Syria: A Study of Post-War
Diplomacy 1945-1958, Oxford University Press, 1965.
Tibi, Bassam. Arab Nationalism: A Critical Inquiry, The
Macmi-llan Press, London, 1981.
Yamak, Labib Zuwiyya. The Syrian Social Nationalist Party: An
Ideological Analysis, Harvard University Press, 1966.
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Contents
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Antun Saadeh
Literary Works of Antun Sa'adeh
Sa'adeh, Antun. Complete Works, Vols. l-16, Information Bureau,
SSNP, Beirut.
------------------. Marhalat Ma Qabl Al-Ta'ssees, (The Stage
Prior to the Formation [of the SSNP]), SSNP, Beirut, 1975.
------------------. Nushou' al-Umam, (The Genesis of Nations),
SSNP, Be-irut, 1975.
------------------. A'da' al-Arab A'da' Lubnan, (The Enemies of
the Arabs the Enemies of Lebanon), SSNP, Beirut, 1979.
------------------. Mukhtarat fi al-Mas'alla al-Lubnaniyya
(Selected Writings on the Lebanese Question), SSNP, Beirut, 1976.
------------------. Marahil al-Mas'alla al-Philistiniyya:
l921-1949, (The Stages of the Palestine Question), SSNP, Beirut,
1977.
------------------. al-Muhadarat al-Ashar, (The Ten Lectures),
SSNP, Be-irut, 1980.
------------------. Marahil al-Mas'alla al-Lubnaniyya (The Stages
of the Lebanese Question), SSNP, Beirut, 1977.
------------------. al-Islam fi Rissalatayh:al-Massihiyya wa
al-Muhamm-adiyya, (Islam in its Two Messages: Christianity and
Mohammad-anism), SSNP, Beirut, (4th Edition),
1977.
------------------. Shuruh fi al-Aqida, (Explanatory Notes on the
Doct-rine), SSNP, Beirut, 1958.
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On
what motivated
me to establish the Syrian Social Nationalist Party?
This short letter was written by Sa'adeh
during his first imprisonment in 1935, at the request of his
lawyer Hamid Franjieh. It offers a valuable insight into the
political and intellectual atmosphere in which the Syrian Social
Nationalist Party (SSNP) was formed. The letter also sets out in
a clear fashion the pattern of Sa'adeh's early political
thinking, his views on the fundamental national problems of
Syria, and the factors which shaped the development of the SSNP
during its formative stage. It is a moving account of a rising
political thinker trying to break into a hostile political system
against enormous odds.
" I was only a child when the Great War broke out in 1914,
but I had already begun to perceive and comprehend. The first
thing that suddenly occurred to me, having witnessed, felt and
actually experienced the affliction of my people, was this
question: What was it that brought all this woe on my people?
Soon after the end of the war, I began to look for an answer to
this question and a solution to this chronic political problem
which seems to drive my people from one adversity into another,
constantly delivering it from a lesser evil to make it an easy
prey to a greater one. It then happened that I left the country
in 1920 while dormant sectarian rancours were still widespread
and the nation had not fully buried its corpses.
The situation in the Diaspora was only a little
better. Various tendentious movements had their effects and badly
factionalised the community. Although they were all Syrians, a
sizable group among them had yielded to extreme inter-sectarian
hatred, so that, a Lebanese patriotism concept arose in turn,
which is itself also an outgrowth of the leadership of religious
institutions and of their authority and influence [in society].
Obviously, I was not seeking an answer to the above-stated
question for the mere purpose of satisfying a scientific or
intellectual curiosity. For a scientific knowledge which does not
benefit is no better than a harmless ignorance. Rather I sought
an answer to that question purely for the purpose of determining
the most effective way to eradicate the causes of that woe. After
a preliminary systematic inquiry I came to the conclusion
that the loss of national sovereignty was the primary cause of my
nation's past and present woes. This led me to pursue the study
of nationalism, the question of communities in general, and of
the issue of social justice and its evolution. In the course of
my inquiry and research I became keenly aware of the importance
of the idea of a nation, its meaning, and the complexity of the
factors from which it emanates. It was on this issue that my line
of thinking became completely distinct from those of all others
who became profoundly pre-occupied with the political life of my
country and its national problems. They worked for freedom and
independence in an abstract manner which took their
pre-occupation outside the national endeavor in its correct
sense, whereas I wanted the freedom of my country and the
independence of my people in it. The difference between this
better-focused conception and the previous ambiguous and highly
abstract conception is clear. I tried with all the Syrian
political panics and associations that I happened to join, or
form, or have contact with, to direct their thinking towards the
insights that I had myself gained, but I did not have too much
success in this regard.
Even a contrast with the ideas of the political bosses would help
make my own position clearer, in the sense that my position
became more and more founded on a national basis, whereas their
stances had been and continued to be determined by political
pragmatism. Politics for the sake of politics could not possibly
constitute a national act.
Accordingly, and in view of the fact that a comprehensive
national endeavor dealing with the question of national
sovereignty and the meaning of the nation, could not be emptied
of its political contents, I decided to enter the political field
by following the path of a new social nationalist renaissance
that would guarantee the purification of the existing nationalist
beliefs and their unification into a single ideology and would,
in turn, foster the kind of solidarity (Esprit de Corps) which is
essential for national cooperation, progress, and the protection
of the national interest and rights.
After I was able to determine my nation on the basis of modern
science, which forms the cornerstone of every national
construction, and to establish the social and political interest
of this nation in the aspects of its internal situation and its
external and internal problems through the social, political and
economic inquiries which I undertook, I realized that I would
then have to devise means that would protect the new social
nationalist renaissance as it surged ahead. It was this that
first suggested to me the idea of forming a secret political
party that would initially incorporate those forces of our youth
that stand out for their integrity and lack of affection for the
corruption of debased politics. So I founded the Syrian Social
Nationalist Party and I unified the various nationalist beliefs
into the one idea namely Syria is for the Syrians and the Syrians
are one nation. I also laid down a number of reform principles,
namely, the separation of religion from the state, turning
production into an infrastructure for the distribution of wealth
and labour, and the establishment of a strong army that can play
an effective role in determining the destiny of the nation and
the homeland. Furthermore, I adopted a clandestine format for the
party to shield it from the onslaught of the various factions in
society which dreaded its creation and growth, and the
authorities which would not desire such a party to exist. I then
organized the party on a central hierarchical basis and in the
fashion that focuses on the quality of each recruit in order to
prevent internal confusion, and to avoid all forms of
factionalism, destructive competition, and other social and
political ailments, as well as to foster the virtues of
discipline and duty.
I laid all of this down and went ahead with founding the party in
total disregard of the existence or non-existence of the mandate.
Thus, the party was not founded exclusively as a counterweight to
the mandate, but to unify the Syrian nation into a sovereign
state that has the will to determine its own destiny. Since the
mandate was only a passing phase, calculating its position and
the party's attitude toward it is a purely secondary political
consideration. The party was not founded on the principle of
foreigner hatred or chauvinism, but on the principle of social
nationalism. The mandate may have temporarily boosted the
popularity of the party and strengthened the motives to create
it, but it remains a subordinate issue which has limited
importance.
At any rate, the national question, by its very nature, would
inevitably have to come to grip with the conflict of survival
between national sovereignty and mandatory
rule."
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- Speech
of June 1, 1935 of the Leader of the Syrian
Social Nationalist Party
The Speech of June 1, 1935, was the
first major policy address delivered by Sa'adeh to the
members of the Syrian Social Nationalist Party (SSNP). In
it, Sa'adeh spelled out in a clear and unequivocal terms
the position of the party on the fundamental political
issues of the day, and dealt systematically, for the
first time, with its basic strategy and aim. The picture
we gain from this speech is that of a political party
seeking to break away from the daily routine of
conventional politics in an atmosphere of uncertainty and
profound sense of insecurity. As such, it is a meaningful
starting point for grasping the oft-repeated- aphorism
that the SSNP is not a political party in a conventional
sense.
" Ever since the hour in which our social national
ideology began to bring together thoughts and feelings,
to unite the forces of youth threatened with dispersion
by the political and national chaos that blanket our
country, and to transform this union into a new system
(nizam) with new methods, deriving its life from the new
nationalism, namely the system of the Syrian Social
Nationalist Party - ever since that hour, dawn has
followed darkness and movement has come out of lethargy
and the force of organization has burst out of confusion.
We have become a nation after having been mere human
herd, and a state resting on four fundamental pillars -
freedom, duty, organization, power - which are symbolized
by the four pointers on the flag of the Syrian Social
Nationalist Party.
Ever since that hour we have repudiated by our actions
the judgment of history and begun our true history - the
history of freedom, duty, organization, and power, the
history of the Syrian Social Nationalist Party, the true
history of the Syrian nation.
Ever since the hour in which we united our hearts and our
hands to stand or fall together for the sake of the
realization of the highest ideal proclaimed in the
principles of the Syrian Social Nationalist Party and in
its aim - ever since that hour we have put our hands on
the plow and directed our eyes forward toward the ideal.
We have become one community, one living nation seeking
the beautiful free life, a nation loving life because it
loves liberty and loving death when death is a
path to life.
Before the Syrian Social Nationalist Party was
constituted, the Syrians were not a nation in the true
sense of the word. All that existed was a certain
dissatisfaction with an unnatural situation which the
Syrian people could not accept and in which they could
not find satisfaction for their vital needs. Some people
took up the leadership of this popular dissatisfaction
and exploited it in order to obtain the positions they
sought, and they bolstered up this leadership by the
remains of
family power derived from the principles of a bygone age
- principles which consider the people as herds to be
disposed of by certain families, dissipating the
interests of the people for the sake of their personal
power. And when these so-called leaders found that the
family and the home were not sufficient in this age to
uphold leadership, they resorted to certain words beloved
by the people - the words of liberty, independence, and
principles - and they played upon these words, words
which are sacred when they indicate an ideal for a living
nation, but which are corrupt when they fire a means for
assuming leadership and a screen behind which lurk
ambition and private aims.
The word "principles" should be noted in
particular, for it should represent the living power and
the basic needs of the nation. But these so-called
leaders have used the people as a means for expressing
some of these principles, and in a very subtle way
reversed the order of things. This may have been the
outcome of impenetrable ignorance, but even so they have
concocted a tragic-comical order which makes the people
serve the interests of these leaders and sacrifices the
people for the sake of these interests; they have almost
succeeded in their scheme. Obviously, only very misled
people could see elements of a national cause in any of
this.
Thus it came to pass that in this age, which is the age
of the struggle of nations for survival, and in this
difficult times when the factors of corruption and
division and national nullification are rampant amidst
our people, the Syrian Social Nationalist Party rose, as
dawn rises from the darkest hours of the night, to
proclaim a new principle. This is the principle of will -
the will of a people that wants sovereignty over itself
and over its country (watan) in order to realize its
lofty
ideal; the will of life for a truly enduring nation. It
is the principle that principles exist for the sake of
peoples, and not people for the sake of principles - the
principle that every principle that does not serve the
sovereignty of a people over itself and its country is a
corrupt principle, the principle that every true
principle must serve the life of the nation.
The Syrian Social Nationalist Party therefore is not a
mere society or group, as may still appear to some
members whom time have not yet permitted to understand
the fundamental principle which the Syrian Social
Nationalist Party embodies, or the need of the Syrian
nation in this age. The Syrian Social Nationalist Party
is indeed much more than a society which brings together
a number of members, or a club which was established for
a particular set of people or youth. The Party is an ides
and a movement which embraces the life of a nation in its
entirety. It is the renovation of a nation which some
imagine to have collapsed for ever because the various
factors which have conspired against its national spirit
have been so great that an ordinary nation could have
hardly borne their impact and still preserve its
existence or the hope of surviving. It is the rise of an
extraordinary nation - a nation unique in its capacities,
surpassing in its powers, rich in its
characteristics - a nation which does not accept the
grave as its place in the sun. This is what the Syrian
Social Nationalist Party means to those who have united
their faith and their belief in it. This is what the
Syrian Social Nationalist Party means for the Syrian
nation. The purpose for which this Party was established
is a sublime purpose: to make the Syrian nation the sole
title holder of sovereignty over itself and its country.
Before the rise of the Syrian Social Nationalist Party,
the destiny of this nation depended upon external wills.
And after moulding ourselves to suit these external
wills, our views were always directed toward them. But
now the existence of the Syrian Social Nationalist Party
has changed this situation. It is our own will which
decides everything. We stand on our own feet and defend
our fight to live by our own power.
From now on, our will guides the rudder. Every member of
the Syrian Social Nationalist Party feels that he is
being liberated from foreign hegemony and from external
dominating factors because he feels that the Party is
like his own independent state, which does not deprive
its power from a mandate or rely upon external authority.
The truth, fellow comrades, is that we have bound
ourselves together in this Party for the sake of a very
important task which is the establishment of our state,
so that every one of us will become a subject of his
independent state. This task is no doubt difficult. Will
we be capable of it? The answer to this question stirs in
our souls and resounds in our breasts, and may issue from
our mouths. To inscribe it on the pages of history will
depend upon our struggle, for history does not record
hopes or intentions, but actions and facts. And I do not
doubt, with these faces displaying the manifestations of
power and resolution before me, that our actions and our
facts confirm the judgment of our will which does not
know incapacity.
Within the Party, we have liberated ourselves from
foreign authority and from external factors, but we still
have to deliver our nation and liberate our whole
country. In this important work we shall meet many
difficulties, internal and external, which we must
overcome, beginning with the first, namely, the internal,
because we cannot overcome the external
difficulties completely except after having conquered the
internal ones. The first internal difficulty which
confronts us is the lack in our community of deep
national traditions to be reared on and to hold to. Our
personal selves are always in conflict with our general
self in all that has to do with our national causes and
the way we meet them. Add to this the conflicting
traditions derived from our sectarian organizations, and
the effect of these traditions in resisting the national
unity of the people.
I must declare here that the Syrian Social Nationalist
Party has found a means of overcoming these difficulties
by its system (nizam) which breaks down both the
traditions that oppose the unity of the nation and
individual psychologies which opposes the psychological
individuality of the nation. Our final success depends,
in fact, upon our understanding of this truth and upon
the application of the four pillars of the Party which
bind us indissolubly, namely freedom, duty, organization,
and power. Our understanding of the reality of this
change which the Syrian National Party has begun to
effect in our national life prevents us from ignoring the
nature of the change and the means by which it can be
accomplished. The truth which comforts our heart is that
the Syrian social nationalists, on the whole, believe
completely in the necessity of this change and show their
full readiness and their firm resolution to realize the
victory of the principles of the Syrian Social
Nationalist Party, each beginning with himself. In this
struggle between the forces of reaction and the forces of
renovation, we believe in the victory of the new forces;
the forces that want to overcome all that stands in their
way, to come out from a state of putrefaction, knowing no
organization and no power, to a healthy state whose
symbol is organization and whose emblem is power, the
power represented in the Syrian Social Nationalist Party.
Likewise, I have on this occasion to declare that the
system (nizam) of the Syrian Social Nationalist Party is
not a Hitlerite or a Fascist system, but that it is
purely a Syrian system which does not stand on
unprofitable imitation, but on basic originality which is
one of the characteristics of our people.
It is the system which is indispensable for the molding
of our national life, and for the preservation of this
remarkable renaissance (nahda) which will change the face
of history in the Near East and liberate it from the
influence of the reactionary forces which cannot be
trusted and which may constitute a serious danger,
threatening every renovating movement with corruption
under the auspices of the traditional parliamentary
system that is powerless to reform itself.
I should add also that our system is not built on an
accumulative basis which piles a number of people, said
to be of eminent position and standing on top of masses
of other men. Such bases represent mere inflation and
cumulation in their clearest forms. Our organization is
built rather on bases which are living, and which lead
individuals to order and open before them the scope of
evolution and growth in accordance with their capacities
and attitudes.
I have been told, and I have heard it many times, that
certain members joined the Party expecting to see in its
hierarchy men of inflated position, but their wonder was
soon transformed into admiration when they found that the
internal policy of the Party is directed toward reliance
upon real strength - the strength of arms and hearts and
brains rather than on the strength of position. The
position of many of the people of the age which we want
to abolish is derived mostly from principles which do not
agree in essence or in their form with the principles
which will renovate the living power of the nation.Our
national principles have guaranteed the unification of
our direction, and our organization has guaranteed the
unification of our action in this direction, and we feel
that change has begun to produce its natural results.
The principle that Syria is for the Syrians and that the
Syrians are a complete nation is beginning to liberate
our being from the bonds of fear, lack of
self-confidence, and submission to external wills.
- Nationalism is nothing but the confidence
of the people in themselves and the reliance of the
nation upon itself. From this point of view, we find that
this principle of ours gives us the necessary living
force to impart to our national personality a special
ideal and an independent will, which is the basis of
every independence. Furthermore, the principle that the
Syrian nation is one social community is a principle that
must filter through to the depth of our souls, because it
is the principle which places the personality of our
nation above all the desires and the inclinations
inherited from a certain kind of education which the
religious missions and schools continue to impart. This
constitutes a situation which it will be one of our main
actions to terminate in order to substitute in its place
a new nationalism which will guarantee the unification of
our feelings. Likewise, the principle of the abolition of
feudalism and organization of the national economy on the
basis of production is one which has been decreed so as
to form the basis of our economic progress which is
indispensable for the production of material power and
sound living for the whole of the nation.
-
- Embodied in the principles of the Syrian
Social Nationalist Party is the way of liberating our
thoughts from decadent beliefs and fancies which have
prevented us from seeking what we ought to seek. Such is
the fancy, cultivated by a group of spiritually weak and
mentally sterile people, that we are a weak nation
incapable of doing anything and with no hope of
achieving a purpose or a desire and that the best that we
can do is to recognize our incapacity and let our
national self disappear from among the nations and be
content with any state which we attain. The members of
the Syrian Social Nationalist Party have liberated
themselves from such false fancies and have taken upon
themselves to liberate the rest of the nation from them.
This is a responsibility incumbent upon every member of
the Syrian Social Nationalist Party, a responsibility
which is greater than all other responsibilities, a
responsibility in comparison with which every other
responsibility is small indeed. As the sense of this
responsibility develops and grows, there grows with it
the living force of every member of our group.
The rising Syria is built on the new national forces
represented by the Syrian National Party will be
different from the old Syria laid down by tradition,
given over to the fancies of those who have lost their
national spirit and their self-confidence. The Syria of
the Syrian Social Nationalist Party is the Syria of
national unity organized in such a way as to make the
abilities stored up in it a general force capable of
achieving what it wants. We have full faith that the
spirit created by our
principles will achieve a final victory and overcome all
the internal difficulties. If this needs time, it is
because time is a necessary condition for every important
achievement. -
- As for the external difficulties, these
become small once we overcome the internal ones and once
the will of our nation is crystallized in our system
(nizam) which guarantees its unity and prevents the
divisive forces prevalent outside the Party from
infiltrating into our solid unity for which we are ready
to sacrifice everything.
- At this juncture, I do not wish to deal
with our external problem as a whole. This I shall do on
another occasion which I hope will be soon. Now, I shall
merely mention a general principle which applies to the
whole of our history, namely, that the destiny of Syria
has been decided by external bargaining without the
actual participation of the Syrian nation itself. It is
on this principle that the big powers rely on in their
rivalry to spread their influence upon us. I wish to
declare now that the establishment of the Syrian Social
Nationalist Party and its continuous growth will take it
upon themselves from now on to dispel such fancies from
the heads of ambitious politicians.
-
- We feel now the existence of a strong
Italian propaganda in this country in particular, and in
the Near East in general. We feel a similar propaganda
from Germany and similar ones from other countries. The
Leadership of the Syrian Social Nationalist Party warns
all its members against falling prey to foreign
propaganda. We recognize that there are considerations
which call for the establishment of friendly relations
between Syria and foreign nations, in particular the
European states, but we do not believe in the principle
of propaganda. Syrian thought must remain free and
independent. When it comes to foreign relations, we are
always ready to clasp the hands that are extended to us
with a frank, good intention and in a situation of common
understanding and agreement.
The foreign states which desire to establish solid, free
relations with us should recognize in the first place our
right to live and should be ready to respect this right.
Otherwise, the new Syria will not remain silent in the
face of political maneuvers intended to lead our nation
to make the political mistakes which were committed in
the past and which have done her so much harm.
The task of preserving our national revival is among the
most important tasks of the Syrian Social Nationalist
Party and we shall not fail to undertake it in the best
possible way. Foreign propaganda may spread in the chaos
of parties, but when it reaches the Syrian Social
Nationalist Party if finds a solid barrier through which
it cannot pass because the Syrian Social Nationalists
form a Party which is not built on anarchy and because
they follow only the policy decided upon by their party.
They are not a disordered group but an organized force.-
- I repeat once more this organized force
will change the face of history in the Near East. Our
forefathers witnessed the conquerors of the past and trod
on their remains. But we, we shall put an end to
conquests.
Amidst the confusion of irresponsible talk and shouting
spread all over this nation, the Syrian Social
Nationalists undertake their work with calmness and
confidence; and the spirit of the Syrian Social
Nationalist Party is growing in the body of the nation
and it is organizing its groups. The day shall come, and
that day is near, when the world will see a new sight and
an important event: the sight of men clad in black sashes
on gray suit, with sharpened spears shining above their
heads; men walking behind the banners of the Red Tempest
carried by giants of the army. The forests of spears will
advance in well organized ranks and the Syrian nation
shall have a will which cannot be checked. For this is
destiny. "
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Antun Saadeh