Syria Today | Two Different Languages

Have the reforms heralded by Syria's regime since last March satisfied the aspirations of the Syrian people? Will they be able to defuse the uprising?

By Muhammad Atef Fares
Photo Fadi al-Hamwi

For Syria's regime, its legislative reform and the so-called "security option" - chasing "armed terrorist gangs" - are inseparable. But so far, a vast swathe of the opposition and all protestors refuse to negotiate the former without stopping the latter. Belittling the "reforms package", they claim that a main impetus for the uprisings is a backlash against the security's iron fist which has been controlling Syria for decades.

Carrots and sticks
The official version of the reforms, as presented by state media, is that they are being thwarted by a foreign attack. This is in order "to make Syria pay the price for its stances and defiance of the foreign plots in the region," President Bashar al-Assad said on October 10 to a delegation of South American countries from ALBA Alliance, according to the state-run Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA).

Deputy Foreign and Expatriates Minister Faisal al-Mikdad echoed this position in an October interview with Syria Today. "Western powers and their friends in the region do not want reform in Syria, because if the country becomes an example of democracy and pluralism, then some will be afraid," he explained.

Mikdad has also highlighted Syria's positive achievements in human rights. In a speech to the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva on October 7 he noted that the country "has effectively and positively contributed to the discussion of improving work mechanisms of human rights". He also argued that Syria's reception of a delegation from the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs and International Committee of the Red Cross proves that Syria has nothing to hide.

In support of this view, the pro-regime media differentiates between "the false image" of events in Syria broadcast by "biased" external media and "the reality of the situation on the ground". According to SANA, the "protests sweeping the country" are merely "gatherings" of dozens or at most hundreds of civilians with "rightful social and economic demands" following the Friday prayers. In a number of areas, these have been interrupted by "armed groups" opening fire on "law-enforcement personnel and civilians".

And while the UN claims that over 3,000 Syrians have been killed since mid-March, Syrian officials say more than 1,100 people have been killed by "terrorists". State media support this view through interviews with people in the street speaking about "masked gunmen and saboteurs attacking protestors as well as public buildings and utilities".

"Despite this [foreign attack], the reform process will be proceeding and it is being carried out based on a sovereign decision independent of any foreign dictates from whatever side," President Assad insisted to the ALBA delegation on October 10.

Since late March, the Syrian president has pursued reform through a series of dialogues, legislative reforms, and decrees. New legislation included the formation of a new government premiered by Adel Safar, and new laws regarding media, local administration and general elections. Presidential decrees abolished the Supreme State Security Court, regulated the right to peaceful demonstration and made the judiciary police, instead of the Ministry of Justice, responsible for investigating crimes.

Other decrees reduced the fee for exemption from military service, shortened the mandatory term of military service by three months, increased monthly salaries and wages for public sector workers, and required temporary state employees to be given permanent contracts within a year. Still others bestowed Syrian nationality on Kurdish residents registered in Hasaka's civil records as foreigners. President Assad also issued three amnesties, most notably Decree 61, which granted general amnesty "for crimes committed before May 31, 2011 including all members of Muslim Brotherhood and other detainees belonging to political movements."

President Assad also called for the formation of the national committee for preparing a draft constitution for Syria within four months, SANA reported on October 16. The regime also held the Consultative Meeting for Comprehensive National Dialogue in Damascus on July 10, though very few opposition figures attended.

Reviewing the government's progress, Minister Mikdad said that the door for dialogue has been open since the outset of the crisis, and that all political, economic and social spectrums are welcome. He added that the comprehensive national dialogue will commence in the coming period.

The wrong tree
However, many opposition figures believe that the reforms are "lies and cheats". The constant refrain of Haitham al-Maleh, a prominent opposition lawyer, is that "[President] Assad procrastinates in applying the reforms."

"The intention to reform does not exist," Maleh told the Kuwaiti daily Al-Jarida on September 13. "There are no serious calls for real reform. If [President] Assad wanted it, he would have done it when he first came to power."

Furthermore, Maleh believes that some of the new "reformed" laws are worse than the ones they were created to replace. For instance, the 1963 Emergency Law was replaced by Decree No. 55, which makes the judiciary police, attached to the Ministry of Interior Affairs, responsible for investigating crimes which threaten the security of the state. In this case, according to Maleh, a policeman can arrest anyone without a warrant and detain him for 60 days – a period which can be extended indefinitely.

"Decree No. 55 is more terrible," said Maleh, who served time as a political prisoner on several occasions since the 1960s. "It is worse than the state of emergency, as 13 security branches still suppress and intimidate Syrian people."

When speaking about the need for real reform with Saudi daily Asharq Alawsat on July 13, Maleh also pointed to Decree No. 14 from 1969 which says that it is not possible to hold a security member accountable for a crime committed during his missions unless his boss agrees. Article 16 of the same decree grants security officers with immunity from prosecution, "thus intensifying the state of distress among the Syrian people," Maleh commented. He has also stated in numerous interviews that there are 250,000 Syrians abroad who are banished and cannot return to their home country for "fear of police action".

In this context, according to Maleh, the core issue in Syria is freeing the political prisoners, ending the security forces' control over Syrians' daily life, and withdrawing the army from the streets. Maleh refused to speak about dialogue while "the gun is on my head", and added: "this regime is holding dialogue with itself".

Syrian lawyer Zain al-Abideen al-Dalaty summarized the problem as corruption, lack of accountability, a shady judiciary system, and model of a state which relies on security forces and in which the citizen still constantly feels its direct influence over him.

Dalaty claimed that the regime provokes the people to demonstrate by firing on unarmed protestors. He said the government made lots of promises to mediators which it did not fulfil, including basic services. "The security forces control everything and no one listens to us," Dalaty said. However, he added, there are some pockets of protestors who have demonstrated and not been harmed.

"The medium is the message"
The media's role in relation to reform is also controversial. The popular response to reforms is presented positively in the pro-regime media and negatively by anti-regime media outlets. For instance, when Bouthaina Shaaban, presidential advisor for political and media affairs, announced the increase of state salaries in late March, the state-run Syrian TV broadcast interviews with citizens in the streets who praised the increase.

On the other hand, many foreign satellite stations such as Al-Jazeera, Al-Arabiya and BBC Arabic showed amateur videos they claimed were of "Syrian protestors chanting in local Syrian accent 'O Bouthaina Shaaban, the Syrian people are not hungry!'"

Mazen Darwish, a legal activist, criticized the official media's version of reforms. He said that while the regime requires surgery, it is still applying make-up. For Darwish, there are private media, but there are no independent media, because the government gives operating licenses only to those within its "net of interests". Therefore, he calls for freeing the media from the control of the legislative authority.

"Only the executive authority has the competence to produce media, and consequently it controls the first threshold of media freedom of expression," said Darwish, who has been banned from travelling since 2008 when he was charged by Damascus Military Court for "insulting the State administrative bodies, and inciting sectarian conflict". "The new [media] law is a form of fooling. It gives the government the upper hand on the media," said Darwish.

Turning a blind eye
Syrian philosopher and opposition figure Tayyeb Tizini believes that while the regime is incapable of reform – because this very reform would enact its destruction – it pretends not to see the problem, or thinks that it does not exist.

Tizini, who was arrested while attending a peaceful sit-in outside the Ministry of Interior Affairs on March 16, according to Reporters Without Borders, said in an interview with Syria Today that there is no political option, and that instead only a single fist is used. "[The veins of] this fist will coagulate because it has frozen while grasping society, and it will decay by itself."

Tizini said that the internal economy and many institutions were destroyed throughout what he called "quadrant totalitarian law". In this model of state power, there are four pillars: remaining in power, controlling all media, monopolising [the nation's] wealth, and monopolising all referents.

Tizini suggested that reform in Syria now equals the existence of NBSyria itself. "For the regime it is a 'to be or not to be situation'," he said, adding that "the security state's big motto is 'we must corrupt whoever is not corrupted yet, whereby all become dirty and controllable.' And this is what happened," Tizini continued. "Syria was drained of good manpower and active democratic labour trends in all fields." Tizini concluded that reform starts with holding people accountable for their actions. "When people are held accountable, the mountain will crack and the plain will appear."