Sometimes an obituary will startle me slightly, shake me out of silly conceptions and lazy thinking. Before I read Daniel Nehme’s obituary, the nature of the Syrian political and educational systems– the number of political parties, the existence of law degrees, the apparent ability to be known as a Communist, never occurred to me. Now, I can imagine that, just like everywhere else, the parties were a sham, the law degrees available mainly to the rich and favored, the Communists weren’t really Communists, and so on. But in these short paragraphs I saw more than I had before. It’s a big world out there, people.
Daniel Nehme, prominent politician and Communist, dies at 78
Sunday, December 7, 2003
(12-07) 19:47 PST DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) —
Daniel Nehme, a member of the central leadership of Syria’s ruling political coalition, has died at age 78, the official Syrian Arab News Agency said Sunday.
SANA said Nehme, appointed a leading member of the National Progressive Front in 1972, died late Saturday from a heart ailment at the Shifaa hospital in Damascus.
The National Progressive Front is made up of seven political parties, including the Baath Party of President Bashar Assad. Nehme was also a member of the politburo of Syria’s Communist Party.
Nehme joined the Communist Party in 1944. A year later, he graduated from Damascus University and began practicing law in the Mediterranean port city of Latakia. As a communist, he was jailed several times, once for three years of hard labor starting in 1951.
He had also worked as the editor-in-chief of the Communist Party’s al-Nour magazine.
Nehme will be buried on Monday in Mashtal Hilo village near Tartous, some 144 miles northwest of Damascus. He is survived by his wife, Nadima Yassouf, their four sons and two daughters.