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Syria Reneges On Nascent Reforms
DAMASCUS, Feb 18 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Syria's government struck back this week against a budding reform movement hatched in Damascus after Syrian President Bashar al-Assad ascended to power last July.
Bashar, the son of Syria's late strongman, Hafez al-Assad, seemed to be tolerating greater political freedom in a country that, historically, had been governed by the iron fisted rule of the ruling Baathist regime in power since 1963.
Bashar, an eye doctor by training, has privately tolerated the forming of organized political groups, the opening of non-Baathist party newspapers, freed several hundred prisoners, closed a notorious jail on the outskirts of Damascus and broadened Syrian's access to the Internet. Critics of the regime can also now speak more freely and circulate pro-democracy petitions.
There is even talk of establishing the first private satirical newspaper. Given this, though, there has been no blossoming of an opposition press.
But this past week the limits of tolerance for greater political freedom were revealed. In a sign that the path to reforms maybe beginning to see stumbling blocks, authorities have in recent days told the organizers of the growing number of political salons that they need official permission to operate.
In specific moves, the Baathist-dominated Syrian parliament authorized the judiciary to question Riad Seif, the country's leading opposition MP, who hosts the most celebrated of the free-wheeling political salons.
Seif said that Parliament Speaker Abdel Qader Qaddura had agreed to "a judicial complaint accusing me of harming the constitution." He said the action against him was taken after he announced on January 31st, during one of his gatherings that he planned to create a political party called the "Social Peace Movement."
Seif, a 55-year-old businessman, told his guests that he was calling for "free elections open to all political forces," along with an independent judiciary and a separation of powers. Seif, elected in 1994 and again in 1998 as an independent MP representing the business community, also demanded a committee to be formed to draft a new constitution.
Seif's bold call for a new constitution is seen as a veiled threat to overturn the Baath party's supremacy, guaranteed by the country's 1973 constitution.
Seif said the judicial action was meant to intimidate him so that he shuts down the Wednesday discussions at his home in Sehnaya, near Damascus. As many as 200 people flock there weekly to join in the raucous debates.
The salons, generally organized by intellectuals or business people and held in private homes, have multiplied over the past several months. Seif's salon has been the scene for brazen attacks on the government's corruption and its poor handling of the economy.
Another man who runs a salon called Najati Tayara said he had been informed that he had to give fifteen-days notice if he wanted to hold a debate - and then wait for approval. The man said he had subsequently called off a conference on a cultural theme.
As part of the crackdown, the government is insisting that salon organizers notify the government 15 days before each scheduled session and supply the names of the participants and the topics to be discussed. The government will then decide whether or not to grant permission.
Salon organizers have complained bitterly about the new requirements.
The condition of furnishing names "is almost impossible to meet since the forums are open to everyone," said Habib Saleh, organizer of a salon in Tartus on the Syrian coast.
In a sign of the government's annoyance, Syrian Vice President Abdel Halim Khaddam said Saturday the salons had crossed "red lines, which are society's security and stability."
In a Baath party meeting, Khaddam warned that salon organizers have exploited the freedom granted to them in an attempt to sabotage the regime. "We were expecting a dialogue. Those who want a dialogue do not begin by criminalizing the regime," he thundered.
Khaddam affirmed the government's commitment to political reform, but said that economic reform was the greater priority. "We are going to develop the political system, but we must not change it before assuring basic security and employment for our people," he said. "If it takes one, two or three years, this will not be a problem."
Reformists see no hope on the horizon. Where Khaddam has invoked the former Soviet Union as a cautionary tale for what happens when a country rushes towards reform, Seif has invoked parallels with the crushing of freedom movements in the Soviet era.
"It seems that the Damascus spring has ended," Seif said.
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