17 - 23 January 2002
Issue No.569
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Al-Ahram Weekly Online 17 - 23 January 2002 Issue No.569 |
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Early spring in Damascus
Syria is successfully leading Arab opposition to military action against Iraq. Meanwhile, the country's reform programme continues with mixed success, reports Michael Jansen from Damascus
With the war in Afghanistan over, US Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz said last weekend that the Philippines and Somalia, rather than Iraq, will be the next theatres of the "war on terrorism." Arab opposition to an attack, and more particularly Syrian opposition to military strikes against its eastern neighbour, is the main cause behind Washington's decision.
In an interview with Al-Ahram Weekly, Syrian Information Minister Adnan Omran said that Syria's position on Iraq "is the position of all Arab countries. We don't agree to an attack on Iraq or any Arab country." Omran said military action "would be a violation of international law." "There is no justification for any such action. An attack would create a precedent and encourage other strong countries, such as Russia and China, to follow this example. That would be a most horrible prospect for the coming century," he added.
Syria also rejects US and European pressure to curb Lebanese and Palestinian groups resisting Israel's occupation of Arab territories. Omran dismissed the US and Europe's inclusion of dissident Palestinian groups, which have political and public relations offices in Damascus, on their lists of terrorist organisations.
In Syria and Lebanon, said the minister, "You have more than half a million Palestinian refugees, and more than that number in Jordan. If you have this many refugees, it's natural for leaders to emerge in those communities and advocate the just cause of those refugees. The stranger thing would be not to have leaders." Omran said that only such leaders can "press the international community into doing something to bring these people justice" by implementing the resolutions of the UN Security Council.
He pointed out that Israel is in violation of 23 Security Council resolutions and remarked that anyone striving for the implementation of these resolutions "is fighting on behalf of the Security Council itself" and "can use the UN flag."
Syria dismisses the inclusion of Lebanon's Hizbullah on the US list of terrorist organisations. He said that the "European list is less subjective, Europe did not surrender to the Israeli lobby's pressure" by placing Hizbullah on its list.
Omran, a senior minister who kept his job when the cabinet was reshuffled last month, said Syria is prepared to resume serious peace negotiations at any time.
"We never close the door. But we don't have illusions and we are not deceived by any diplomatic gestures," he stated. Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon "has made it very clear that he does not belong to the peace camp, that he is a man who is looking for war," said Omran. "So far the US has supported Sharon. We hope that the US will reconsider its position."
Syria approaches these issues from a pan-Arab perspective, Omran explained. "We believe very much in Arab unity as an ideology not just a political position. Many things happened to divide the Arabs in the past century." He thinks Arabs should follow the example of Europe to achieve unity. "We have a more solid basis [than Europe] in terms of common history, language, ethnicity and culture. The problem is that we are still suffering from the effects of colonial rule. But gradually we are working towards economic unity and political cohesion." Only afterwards, said Omran, will there be "a common constitutional framework. When we speak of unity it will be with the full agreement of all the parties concerned."
Since Syria's reformist President Bashar Al-Assad succeeded his father in June 2000, the country has been, as Omran put it, "a workshop that keeps going 24 hours a day, to rebuild, to legislate, to amend old laws, to restructure the economy towards investment, to encourage the private sector and at the same time to build basic infrastructure to serve the citizens."
Syria has already passed around 70 per cent of the laws and regulations needed to support its planned transformation. Under the new press law, for example, seven new newspapers have come onto the market and another nine will appear soon. The press, he said, has made the president's anti-corruption campaign the "number one issue." When Al-Assad met his new cabinet, "he highlighted corruption. There are investigations going on everywhere in the government and administration. No one is immune from prosecution," said a confident Omran.
On the surface, anti-corruption measures do seem to be proceeding. One of the new crop of newspapers recently reported that some of the ministers dropped from the cabinet in last month's reshuffle might face prosecution for corruption. Furthermore, an authoritative source revealed to the Weekly that President Al-Assad told Prime Minister Mohamed Mustafa Miro and his cabinet, which has 18 new ministers, that there must be progress by the end of 2002. A new government under a new premier could be the price of presidential dissatisfaction.
Nevertheless, the era of reform promised by President Al- Assad in his June 2000 inauguration speech has been stymied by politicians, administrators and businessmen who benefit from the entrenched political system and the command economy. Last year's legislative achievements have not been matched by implementation. No private banks have been set up under the law authorising their establishment, and administrative red tape still deters potential investors. Until there is a modern banking sector and procedures are simplified, little foreign investment can be expected. Syria's annual growth rate remains a meagre 1.5-2 per cent per annum.
According to Nabil Sukkar, a leading economic consultant, the attack on the US had two harmful consequences for Syria. The drop in oil prices caused by the global recession reduced export earnings (which account for 70 per cent of total earnings) and tourism collapsed. Syria has offset these negative developments by increasing its oil exports (thanks to the 150,000 barrels a day pumped to Syria by Iraq) and expanding trade with Iraq to $1 billion. Trade in Syrian industrial goods is expected to rise this year, after tariffs with Lebanon are abolished under the two countries' free trade agreement. Syrian agriculture, which accounts for 28 per cent of Gross Domestic Product, has been rescued from a prolonged drought by plentiful rain this season.
Syria's political liberalisation programme -- the "Damascus Spring" -- was cooled last year, however, when 10 dissident academics, professionals and deputies were arrested. Despite this, several Syrian sources said the detainees pose no danger to the regime which has released hundreds of political prisoners, including leftists and Islamists. It is believed that the 10 could be released during the Muslim feast of sacrifice at the end of next month.
Although these arrests cooled the atmosphere, they did not completely freeze the "Damascus Spring." Syria is moving forward and changing. Damascus airport has been upgraded, taxi drivers now carry mobile phones, Internet cafes are proliferating and new shops and restaurants are opening. While children threw snowballs at each other in the streets of Damascus following a storm last week, the scent of spring still hovered in the air.
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