Syrian Citizens Urge President Assad to Implement Sweeping Reforms

Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad recently received a petition signed by 287 Syrian citizens, most of them intellectuals, engineers, lawyers, and political activists. The petition urged him to launch a comprehensive national dialogue and sweeping reforms in the country. The petition was delivered via registered mail to the presidential palace on May 17, 2003 and was published two weeks later on the website of Akhbar Al-Sharq, [1] which is affiliated with the Syrian opposition. The following is the text of the petition : [2]

'The Strategic Reality that Surrounds Syria Has Changed'

"We turn to you, in this crucial time of challenges and perils, when the Israeli occupation in the West Bank and Gaza Strip and the American [occupation] in Iraq has changed the strategic realities that surround our country, Syria, and placed it between two enemies with forces that [Syria] has never before faced. And while the Arab regimes are either impotent or collapsing, the international [arena] is incapable of reining in the lawlessness of the U.S. and its ally Israel. Since Bush assumed the presidency, both have been united by aggressive, racist, egotistical, and evil policies and ideologies based on the principles of preemptive-defensive war, and consider it a moral obligation that should not be opposed by international law or by the U.N. and its laws."

"Honorable President, our country faces this looming danger, without being prepared for it. [Syria] must strengthen itself against [this danger] and enhance its ability to confront it, after having been weakened by cumulative mistakes that distanced the nation from public issues, exhausted the country and society, and exposed them like never before."

'Sweeping National Reforms Will Cure the Ills of Syria'

"…There is a genuine cure for our ills: sweeping national reforms, in which our citizens and national forces participate, as well as [implementing] a policy of salvation, as follows:"

"Releasing all political and prisoners of conscience, and allowing voluntary and involuntary exiles to return, and [amending] the situation of the citizens who have been stripped of their civil and citizenship rights for political reasons."

"Canceling the state of emergency, martial law, and all other state of emergency regulations."

"Rescinding the powers and activities of security apparatuses and preventing them from interfering with political life, except within the framework of and under the supervision of the law."

"Allowing freedom of opinion, expression, and association, freedom of movement and travel, political activism and union activism, and [implementing] all the laws listed in the International Declaration of Human Rights."

"Convening an inclusive national conference with the participation of Syrian political figures and forces to discuss ways of strengthening national unity and saving the country from crisis."

'Reforms Are Needed Before the U.S. Acts'

"Whatever happened in Iraq and Palestine is the start of what the Americans call the New Era, and they are now drawing its borders by the power of occupation. We must undermine their aspirations by correcting our situation and improving our nation. It does not escape Your Excellency that the only force capable of accomplishing that is a free nation – which was excluded from political and public involvement, and that must be brought back so it can regain its importance to defend the motherland." [3]

A Genuine Petition? The Reform Party of Syria (RPS) , a U.S.-based liberal Syrian national reform group, issued a communiqué identifying some of the signatories as former and current Ba'ath activists. The party suspects that the letter was instigated by the regime itself (pointing out its language includes Ba'ath party rhetoric and refers t the U.S. as an enemy). The RPS defined the letter as a public relations attempt on the part of the Syrian regime to improve Assad's image as a reformist after he was ignored at the summit of Arab leaders and President Bush at Sharm Al-Sheikh. In its communiqué, the RPS also reiterated its commitment to reform in Syria that would include, among other things, revamping the Syrian educational system, freeing Lebanon, and halting all support for terrorism.