Al Ashqar went even further when he wrote about his encounter with the leader and said that it was Saadeh's wise decision that the party principles remained intact, and those who wanted to negotiate upon them-and I was one of them-were wrong in their estimation.
The Triumvirate's work was the first trial for the party. However, a stronger shock came on the heels of al Maliki's death in 1955, when the SSNP was falsely accused of organizing the assassination. SSNP members in Damascus were tortured. This was happening at a time when the party was in its zenith in Syria. It had its cadres not only within the intellectual circles but also within the young officer corps of the Syrian army and the parliament.
It was thus that the new General Secretary of the party, George Abd al Masih, planted the first seeds of division within the party after the martyrdom of Saadeh. This happened when George declared his rebellion on the party leadership. The leadership expelled him in the accusation that he was involved in the assassination of Colonel al Maliki. George continued his rebellion and separated himself and his cohorts from the party. This became known as rebellion of 1957.
The Trap the Party Fell In
The revolution known as the Revolution of 1958 came. It divided the Lebanese deeply. This was a sectarian revolution that divided the country into two camps. The party tried to become the solution and the salvation from this cruel sectarian strife. People knew how the party looked at sectarianism. It was higher than the strife and it could really be the salvation. However, some of the party leadership lost their cool and allied themselves with one faction in the revolution.
The SSNP was no more the party that despised sectarianism. The principles that Saadeh had fought for so hard was washed down the drain. Newcomers, mostly political opportunists, turned the party's principles and theories around. It was in vain that some true SSNP members tried to show that the party was innocent from such political manipulations.
O my God! All I need is one drop of your peace to extinguish the fire in my soul. O my God! Your protection that has thought me to dismiss all fear is once again attacking my soul to fill it with fear, hatred, and suspicion.
O my God! How can something like this happen?
How is it that a person opens his eyes to see his child, a piece of his body that he nurtured with his blood, mind, soul, and every other facility of his self, so that the child grows to be a man? And when the child grows to be a man he [the parent] instead of observing the
beautiful product of his labor sees the bitter reality that the child is not his. Neither has he had any attachment to his son, nor the son to him.
This was the bitter cup that the members of the Qawmi Party had to drink from when they witnessed what their party's stance was during the events of 1958. They were totally disturbed, even fearful, that their leaders had gone to such shameful lengths that would become the coup-de-grace for the party, and make it the talk of the town.
I therefore declared that I abhor this stance. This was not the party on whose ideology I had sworn to endeavor.
The issue was not that simple. I wish it was, because that way it could have been solved through joking and smearing it as all such political problems are solved in Lebanon. It was an issue of utmost danger. I had believed in the cause and had dedicated my life to it.
It was on its doctrine and precepts that my whole life was based upon. I had faith in it. Nothing is harder on the self than being put in the position of condemning what you believe in. It does not make you happy. It is even less painful to be skinned rather than having your ideology being extracted from your mind and soul.
I Declared My Withdrawal
It was under these circumstances that I left the party in 1958. Adib Qaddura, a secretary of the party, followed in my footsteps. He also declared that his departure was in protest of the stance that party leaders adopted to stand beside [Lebanese president] Kamil Sham'un. Abdullah Muhsin, another secretary of the party, and a group of his followers were also against taking sides with a section of the Lebanese, whom the party considered to be one of its diehard enemies; A section that had to be neglected, marginalized, and fought against like all other sectarians whatever their religious belonging.
However, it must be stated that the party condemned the stance it observed during the revolution of 1958 when its leadership were freed from their prison cells to which they were condemned after the foolish coup d'etat that they attempted in 1968. They even called for a general conference of the party at Melkart Hotel in 1969. However, the cadre came out divided from this conference because of the divergent ideas of the leadership regarding political and ideological issues.
