أفضل خدمة يسديها الأسد لبلاده

هي التوقف عن اصطياد المعارضين

التحرير

دايلي ستار- 12/5/2007

Assad can best serve his country by ending the witch-hunt

Saturday, May 12, 2007

Editorial

Syria 's government is like those of many Arab countries in being uncertain over how to take the next step at a time when the world is changing more quickly and more profoundly than ever before. This week's events seem to remove any doubt that Damascus is bent on retrenchment, that absent a foolproof plan to keep political liberalization from getting out of control, it would rather stay where it is or even retreat into the past. This would be unfortunate, especially since the only way to pursue such a strategy would entail the imposition of heavy socioeconomic costs on the Syrian public - and in any event the effort itself would almost certainly be in vain.

Thursday's sentencing of dissident Kamal Labwani to life in prison, commuted to 12 years, was not the act of a system infused with confidence in its own future. Coming as it did on the same day that Syrian legislators nominated President Bashar Assad for a second seven-year term, the sentence actually undermined his consistent efforts to portray his leadership as popular and stable. The facts of the matter are that Assad has a new Parliament controlled by his Baath Party and on May 27 a referendum will officially grant him a new mandate to remain in office. This should make him and the system over which he presides more than magnanimous enough to tolerate criticism from what is still a tiny and disorganized opposition.

Apart from the damage inflicted on Syria 's image, cracking down on dissent also distracts the government's attention from far more pressing matters, including the possible resumption of talks with Israel over the hoped-for return of the Golan Heights seized by the Jewish state in 1967. Pursuing critics at home also undermines the efforts of international players working to end Syria 's continuing isolation from much of the West - and diverts resources from efforts to combat the effects of that lonely position.

These and other issues are important to all Syrians, but they also matter to the Lebanese. Beirut and Damascus are not on good terms right now, but geography and history dictate that this stage will pass. Come what may, a weak Syria would carry all sorts of potential troubles for Lebanon , so this country has a vested interest in seeing its neighbor regain the optimism and vigor that followed Assad's initial rise to power in 2000. His youth and personal experience were touted then as evidence that a new generation had come to the fore and that with it would come a new approach to the full gamut of civil and human rights. The initial results of his softer line on dissent frightened many representatives of the establishment, though, and they successfully engineered a return to the Baath's traditional stance toward its opponents.

A medical doctor and a family man, Labwani is hardly a bomb-throwing radical. His associates say he plans to appeal, and with luck the verdict will be overturned. If it is not, Assad would do himself a huge favor by pardoning Labwani and ending a witch-hunt that only serves to discredit the president, his party and his country. Far from impairing Syrian national security, such a move would enhance it by freeing the government to get ready for the next stage of development.

The full weight of globalization has yet to make itself felt in Syria , but it inevitably will. This gives Assad and his colleagues two choices: They can try to implement reforms that allow it to shape the outcome of this process, or they can batten down the hatches and watch their edifice decay until it is swept aside by forces far beyond the ability of any government to defeat.

http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=1&article_id=82173&categ_id=17

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نشرنا لهذه المقالات لا يعني أنها تعبر عن وجهة نظر المركز كلياً أو جزئياً

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من حق الزائر الكريم أن ينقل وأن ينشر كل ما يعجبه من موقعنا . معزواً إلينا ، أو غير معزو .ـ