AS THE southern Syrian town of Deraa staged a general strike yesterday, prime minister-designate Adel Safar held consultations on the formation of a cabinet and preparations were made for lifting the country’s emergency law imposed in 1963.
Ahead of several days of threatened protests, dubbed the “Martyrs’ Week”, to honour those who died since demonstrations erupted on March 18th, opposition groups claimed that the government has called for dialogue. However, this has not been officially confirmed.
Having disappointed many Syrians by not announcing dramatic reforms a week ago, President Bashar al-Assad appears to be going ahead with the changes required to meet the political challenges posed by the Arab spring of discontent.
Dr Safar, a former minister of agriculture, would seem to be a low-profile choice for this critical period in the region’s recent history. A specialist in arid area farming, he could, however, be the man to deal with the aftermath of four years of drought that has impoverished hundreds of thousands of farmers and forced them to migrate to Syria’s cities.
Dr Assad has also appointed a new governor for Deraa, the epicentre of two weeks of protests. Muhammad Khaled Hannous has replaced Faisal Kalthum, who was accused by residents of the poor agricultural town of blocking property transactions and denying farmers permits to bore wells.
His decision to arrest 15 teenagers who had spray-painted anti-regime slogans on walls sparked the unrest that spread to the Douma suburb of Damascus, the port city of Latakia. The estimated death toll in clashes between protesters and security forces ranges from 67 to 130.
While he admitted that reforms promised in 2005 had not been implemented, analysts argue Dr Assad does not want to capitulate to protesters by giving in to their demands too quickly, since it is feared this could could ultimately topple the regime.
The Syrian leadership is determined not to follow the examples of Tunisia and Egypt where veteran presidents fell after making concessions. So far, Dr Assad has shown himself to be a “moderniser”, said one commentator, “now he has to become a reformer”.
The Syrian authorities blame “conspirators” for inspiring the protests and have threatened to do battle with these dark forces.
While this accusation seems farfetched to Western minds, some Lebanese hold that Syria constantly faces destabilisation from a variety of quarters, including the pro-western political alliance in Lebanon led by caretaker prime minister Saad Hariri, the US, Saudi Arabia and Israel.
The fact that anti-regime exiles in the US and elsewhere have been using Facebook and Twitter to call on people at home to revolt fuels the conspiracy theories.
Lebanese pollster and researcher Abdo Saad spoke for many Arabs when he observed that the ongoing uprisings in the region “will affect all the regimes in the Arab world. If in Syria the president can offer true reforms, the regime will survive. What protects Assad is that Syria is the only Arab country supporting the Palestinian cause and the [Hizbullah] resistance [to Israel]. He himself is not corrupt and he preserves Syrian national dignity. Syria is the only Arab country that is not subservient to Israel and the US.”
The Arab uprisings were, Mr Saad added, “about dignity. They are giving us back our dignity. If the Syrian regime falls, the country could split. Syria is a country of minorities” and a Sunni majority that was “not overwhelming”, who preferred to “stick to the present system” rather than risk disintegration and conflict.