The death of the quarrelsome Syrian journalist and writer Hakam Al-Baba
Syrian writers, journalists, and intellectuals mourned the Syrian poet, journalist, and writer, Hakam Al-Baba, who died in Dubai today, Sunday, at the age of 62, following a struggle with illness.
The late was born in the city of Hama, central Syria, in 1961. He holds a diploma in media qualification, and a bachelor’s degree in theatrical arts, department of criticism.
The Pope was known for his strong opposition to the regime in Syria, and his positions were controversial due to their sharp nature once morest the regime, which some consider sectarian. And the last thing he wrote on his Facebook account was: “I may have become old, or I may be living in the ruins of the past… but I consider the Syrian revolution the most important thing I have lived in my life, and that it will triumph if it has not already.”
Writer Najm al-Din Samman said on his Facebook page: “The noise used to come with the advent of a ruler to whatever council we were in, and he would leave with his departure. This is his personality always. More than a rioter, less than a wise man. His poetry, his riotous articles, and his dramatic writings.” For television, you will remain, while the pope’s rule leaves with a lump in his heart, and in his throat a lump of thorns from every calamity that is still reaping the lives of Syrians.”
Syrian dissident Maher Sharaf al-Din wrote, “While the dictatorial regime wanted Syrian journalists to be satisfied with sitting in the stands and cheering him on as a single player, Al-Baba’s rule jumped off the fence separating the stands and the pitch to score a goal.”
The Syrian poet Fadi Jumer said: “Today, the rule of the Pope died…one of the clearest Syrian elites expressing the reality of the ‘elitist’ mentality produced by the Syrian society, and reinforced by the al-Assad regime.”
Journalist Muhammad Mansour wrote: “I mourn for you a friend I have not met for twelve years, a friend with whom I had a friendship that spanned nearly two decades, in which our meetings were almost daily, our dreams were almost identical, and our concerns were as if they were distributed equally between us. We lived.” Together for the sweet and the bitter: Two rebellious journalists in the corrupt and domesticated Syrian media system. They are prevented from writing here, expelled from there, and they search for a new horizon outside the borders, which opens before them once, and closes other times.
He added, “Hakam was a journalist who loved journalism with all his heart. He was breathing journalism, as if he was born for this profession by nature. He was truly talented, and a brave dramatic writer who was able to leave his mark in the Syrian TV comedy.”
The Syrian journalist Akram Khozam said: “The Pope ruled the man of difference undisputedly. He can become your friend in a moment, and in a similar moment he can leave your friendship. He combined poetry, script writing, and journalistic work. I am polemical par excellence. Personally, I disagreed with him a lot on several issues, but This difference did not sever the relationship between us.”
The poet Hassan Ezzat wrote: “The rule of the Pope, the rebellious, blatant, riotous poet who stands alone to the left of everyone, is with the revolution, its critic and critic of its opposition, the penetrating and the bitter critic opposes an extermination regime. Against everyone and attacks everyone, and does not last long in friendship or relationship with anyone, and all problems The dispute with him will be because of his party, his personal stances, and his writings that are governed by excitement, extremism, and provocation, so that he says, “I am here, they hated me, terrorized me, and revolted once morest me.”
Ezzat pointed out that the Pope’s poetic experience was not well read.
The Lebanese writer Yahya Jaber said: “We left the rule of the Pope, the quarrelsome, angry, extremist, compassionate, journalist, scriptwriter, enemy, lover, hater, generous, laughing Syrian, Umayyad, Arab, Arabist, sectarian. He was my friend and died today.”
One of the most prominent works of Hakam Al-Baba is “A Book on Fear: An Eyewitness to the Syrian Press,” which was published in two consecutive editions in April 2005 and September 2005.
He also published seven collections of poetry: “Disobedience” 1982, “Pass from Here” 1984, “Greater than Hell, Lesser than Tanour” 1985, “Uncle in the Morning, You Wretched” 1985, “Surah Reem” 1986, and ” The Family Biography” in 1989, and “What remains of Kalam” in 1991. He also published the script for his TV series “Ahlam Abu El Hana” in a printed book in 1997.
As a scriptwriter, he has five series, the first of which is “Five Star Family”, “Ahlam Abu El Hana” in collaboration with Salma Karkoutly 1996, “My Family and I” 1999, “Lack of Taste and Katra Ghelba” 2003, and “Days of Childbirth” 2007.
