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Al-Ahram Weekly 29 June - 5 July 2000 Issue No. 488 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly 29 June - 5 July 2000 Issue No. 488
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Egypt Region International Economy Opinion Culture Features Travel Living Sports Profile People Time Out Chronicles Cartoons Letters Switching smoothly
By Khaled DawoudAfter two days of emotional speeches confirming "support, loyalty and allegiance" for Syria's designated leader, Bashar Al-Assad, the Syrian parliament declared on Tuesday that 10 July will be the date for seven million voters, out of the country's 17 million people, to express similar feelings. The public referendum, in which Bashar will run as the only candidate, is the last constitutional step needed to confirm the 34-year-old heir apparent as president. Son of the late President Hafez Al-Assad, Bashar will be the country's 16th president since independence. On 17 July, he is expected to be sworn-in at another special parliament session.
As in the days following the senior Assad's death on 10 June, the Syrian leadership, ruling Baath Party and parliament met nearly every day this week to ensure that all the necessary constitutional procedures were on track.
On Saturday, Bashar, already named commander-in-chief of the armed forces two days after his father's death, chaired for the first time the meeting of the Baath Party's highest decision-making body, known as the Regional Command. The 21-member committee confirmed the decisions taken by the party's ninth general congress -- the first in 15 years -- which ended last week, declaring Bashar as the Baath's secretary-general. The Baath Party Congress also witnessed the shuffling of the Regional Command and its 90-member Central Committee. The only new members of these bodies are figures well-known for their loyalty to late Assad and his choice of successor.
On Sunday, the 250-member Syrian parliament met to "debate" Bashar's nomination for the presidency, which was submitted by the Baath's Regional Command. The text of the nomination said that "comrade Dr Bashar possesses the required qualifications to lead the country ... and his nomination came in response to the people's will and the slogan of renovation within continuity." Bashar is referred to as "doctor" due to his training as an ophthalmologist. The party's nomination added that "Dr Bashar received his education in the school of the late leader, where he was taught wisdom. He represents the junction between the experienced generation and the modern one."
After reading the text of the party's nomination to parliament, Syrian parliament speaker, Abdel-Qader Qaddoura, formed a 70-member committee to prepare the nomination proposal which the deputies approved by consensus on Tuesday. The debate on the nomination letter was due to end on Monday evening, but Qaddoura said he received 200 requests from members of parliament to speak in favour of Bashar's nomination, so the period for discussion was extended beyond the four-hour evening session.
Syrians gather outside the parliament on Monday in support of the nomination of Bashar to presidency
(photo: AP)While some MPs broke into tears as they recounted memories of the late Assad, others appealed to Bashar "in the name of peasants and workers to improve living conditions." One deputy who dared to raise a "technical" objection to the constitutional procedures followed since Assad's death, was silenced and shouted down by his colleagues.
The objection came from deputy Monzir Moussali, who said the constitutional amendment adopted on 10 June, just hours after Assad died, which lowered the minimum age for president from 40 to 34, did not cite the reasons for the amendment.
Qaddoura said the error was unintentional, and abruptly closed the subject. Three hours later, and before the end of Monday's session, Moussali spoke again, but this time to apologise for his "mistake" and declared his unwavering support for Bashar's nomination.
"I stand by my point, but several parties ... have described me as an opposition member in the assembly," Moussali said. "In this country and in this assembly, our only opposition is to imperialism and its conspiracies against our country. We are all in the same trench and follow the same path." Speaker Qaddoura responded: "Your apology is a sign of respect for this institution and a confession that you have erred."
In a clear attempt to confirm Bashar's image as an open-minded, youthful leader, one Syrian official was quoted in the government-controlled press on Tuesday as saying that the future Syrian leader had followed Monday's parliament debate, carried live on television, "and was not happy with the way deputies silenced Moussali. He thought Moussali was right in expressing his concerns."
But that was just one of the signs from the Syrian leadership that business was as usual in Damascus, and that Assad's death would not lead to instability in Syria.
When UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan arrived in Syria on 22 June to become the first international figure to meet with Bashar, whom he called "Syria's future leader," he was assured that Damascus was committed to reaching a peace agreement with Israel. Syrian Foreign Minister Farouk Al-Sharaa said Syria was ready to resume talks with Israel "at any time."
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak responded swiftly in a cabinet session on Sunday by saying his country was also willing to resume talks with the new Syrian leader. However, both Israel and Syria reiterated their conditions for the success of the talks. Al-Sharaa said Syria insists on Israel's full withdrawal from the Golan Heights to the lines of 4 June 1967, while Barak insisted that Israel would not compromise on its request for full control over the banks of the Sea of Galilee. The debate over control over a few hundred metres along the lake's northeastern bank was believed to be the stumbling block which led to the failure of the last summit in Geneva between late President Assad and US President Bill Clinton in March.
On Tuesday, Israeli radio claimed that "Syria sent a message to Barak saying it is interested in resuming negotiations immediately over the return of the occupied Golan Heights in exchange for peace." The message was allegedly relayed to Barak by a UN official who met Bashar last week. A Syrian diplomat denied that Damascus sent any direct messages to Barak, and said that Israeli radio was clearly referring to the content of Al-Sharaa's statements made after the meeting between Bashar and Annan. "There is no need for secret messages. This is our declared position. We want to resume talks, but won't compromise on withdrawal from the Golan," the diplomat told Al-Ahram Weekly.
On the domestic level, and also to reaffirm the slogan of "renovation within continuity," the Syrian News Agency (SANA) reported on Saturday that prosecutors filed corruption charges against two former cabinet ministers and a businessman who allegedly embezzled large amounts of money, nearly $123 million, on a government transaction to buy six Airbus jets.
A fourth party to the case, former Prime Minister Mahmoud Al-Zoghbi, committed suicide 21 May as he was about to be served a judicial summons. He had resigned in March after 13 years as premier. Al-Zoghbi's deputy prime minister for economic affairs, Salim Yassin, his transport minister, Moufid Abdel-Karim, and a businessman living in Spain, Mounir Abu Khadour, have been referred to the Economic Security Court for trial, SANA said.
The official daily Teshreen, said Sunday that the country's anti-corruption drive, which Bashar started while the late Assad was still alive, continued to be a top priority. "Fighting against corruption is our objective, as modernisation demands that we remove those who used the law for their own interests," Teshreen said.
