A Syrian vision of tomorrow

While the official Syrian Coalition of Revolutionary and Opposition Forces has outlined a possible but still unlikely political process, I spent some time in Turkey recently with Syrian activists who produced and have now posted the following paper (also in  Arabic) outlining their vision of a post-Asad future:

Syria: Vision of Tomorrow

A group of Syrian civil society activists meeting in Turkey examined the current situation in their country, suggested reasonable goals for a democratic transition over the next three years and defined courses of action to take their country in the desired directions.  While Syria’s future depends on how and when the Assad regime finally departs, it also depends on the opposition having clear ideas about what to do once he is gone.

1.  Equal rights

Goal:  Citizens with equal rights participate in building the nation.

Present situation:  There is no protection of equal rights in Syria today.  People are arrested and killed for what they say.  Kurds lack citizenship and property rights.  The judiciary is not independent.  People are arrested without warrants.  There is no freedom of movement, as people are arrested for being outside their residential area or based on their place of origin.  Some are executed without trial.  The police and courts are corrupt and arbitrary.  Security force violence against citizens is common.

Courses of action:

1. Syria needs active political parties competing for power.  A new parliament should be elected from the people and for the people, based on “one person one vote.”
2. New laws are needed to preserve equal rights of all citizens, reducing the role of religion in the state.
3. Distribution of state resources should be fair, taking into account destruction during the revolution and discrimination before the revolution.
4. Citizens should be encouraged to vote and to participate in unions, syndicates and civil society organizations.
5. The backlog of court cases should be cleared and courts should decide cases expeditiously based on the evidence.
6. A law on equal opportunity and merit-based employment should ensure that people are treated equally, without favoritism and discrimination in employment and elsewhere.
7. Official salaries should be increased and corruption at all levels punished.  The public should be given channels through which to complain about corruption and inefficiency of state institutions to an independent authority.
8. Civil society organizations should be created to inform citizens about their rights and provide them with legal aid.

2.  Civil state

Goal:  A civil state provides fairness, accountability and social justice.

Present situation:  There is no civil state in Syria today.  It is a military state composed of the army, security apparatus and civil servants who follow regime orders.  Army officers, security officers and high officials determine priorities.  They seek to transform the whole nation into an army, imposing military uniforms on school children, military lessons and military training camps, even at university level.  Civilians supporting the regime form popular committees and are armed to fight the opposition.  Seventy to eighty per cent of the wealth of the nation is concentrated in the hands of 2% of the society, creating fissures between social classes.  Eighty per cent of government revenue goes to the military, under the pretext of defending the border with Israel.

Courses of action:

1.  Religion has to be separated from the state in a new constitution.
2. An independent, rehabilitated judiciary and serious legislative body are needed.
3. The ruling elite and regime officials with blood on their hands must be held accountable in court, either in Syria or at The Hague, for its past crimes.
4. All forms of military indoctrination should be abolished from the schools and universities.
5. Military service should be voluntary.
6. The Ministries of Interior and Defense as well as the other security services need to be vetted for those with blood on their hands, their mandates limited by law to defending Syria and the public and put under civilian control, including parliamentary oversight.
7. The Free Syria Army and other armed groups will need to be disarmed, demobilized and reintegrated, with qualified individuals joining the army or the police and others entering civilian life.

3. Nonviolent dispute resolution

Goal:  Disputes are resolved by nonviolent means.

Present situation:  There is an absence of dialogue throughout the society.  The regime today controls nongovernmental and civil society organizations.  Peaceful activities like petitions, communiqués and rallies are repressed.  The main media are under government control.  The opposition media and lawyers working on human rights are persecuted.  Martial law is enforced.

Courses of action:

1. Dialogue needs to increase throughout Syrian society, especially between sects and with minorities.  Open debate and exchange of opinion should be the rule rather than the exception.
2. Much more information about minorities should be made available, so as to increase respect and dialogue between sects and ethnicities.  This should include mutual visits between groups as well as rallies for minority awareness and nonviolence.
3. Militias need to be disarmed and their members reintegrated in society.
4. The armed forces, police and other security forces should be retrained to use less force.
5. The press should be free and opposition expressed in the media.
6. Justice for criminal acts committed during and before the revolution, by all sides, needs to be done.
7. Trauma treatment should be made available to those who need it.
8. Civil society leaders, including clergy, higher councils of the minorities, tribal leaders, business people, and professors should take the lead in promoting broad societal dialogue
9. It should be clearly understood that Alawites, some of whom are pillars of the Assad regime, are not targeted by the opposition, which would welcome their participation and willingness to deal with abuses committed by members of their community.

4. Women and children

Goal:  Women and children have full rights and women are a main pillar of society.

Present situation:  Women and children suffer particular deprivation of their rights in Syria today.  Children have been arrested and tortured.  Their schooling is riddled with Ba’athist propaganda.  Children born without a father cannot have the mother’s family name.  Women are murdered in so-called “honor” killings.  Divorce, inheritance, custody and alimony laws are biased towards men.  Women married to non-Syrians cannot pass citizenship to their children.  Rapists are given the opportunity to marry their victims.

Courses of action:

1.  Civil society organizations should devote their attention to protecting the rights of women and children and informing women of their rights.
2. The civil status law has to be amended.
3. Child labor should be abolished and laws enacted that punish parents who allow children to work.
4. Recreational centers are needed for children and orphans.
5. Full a citizen rights should be guaranteed at age 18.

5. Economy

Goal:  A stable economy satisfies citizens’ needs.

Present situation:  The Syrian economy is weak.  Mainly monopolized by the governing minority, no local or international investments can operate without control by the Assad family.  The revenues from sale of oil and gas go directly to the pockets of the ruling family.  High customs duties make many goods too expensive for ordinary Syrians.  Some customs border points are controlled by influential members of the regime, in addition to free-market shops at the borders.  Smuggling is common and known to state officials.  Lattakia port is a particular problem.

Unemployment is high.  Suitable jobs are scarce.  New ones are not being created.  Ordinary people have difficulty meeting necessary expenses.  Employees have few guaranteed rights in either the public or private sectors.  Agricultural land is confiscated without compensation.  Infrastructure was in bad shape even before the revolution.  Services in the provinces and villages are poor, which encourages migration to cities.  That causes more poverty, unemployment and congestion.  Regime economic policy—like free trade with Turkey—has not benefited the Syrian economy.

Courses of action:

1. Syria should be opened to foreign and domestic investment, which will create jobs and contribute to stability.
2. Taxes need to be lowered and the system made more equitable.
3. Agricultural products should be subsidized and support provided to rural communities, in order to decrease migration to cities.
4. Foreign exchange should be free and reserves of foreign currency held by the central bank restored.
5. Labor rights need to be enacted in law and guaranteed in practice.
6. Corruption should be punished.  An independent accountability office should ensure efficient and non-corrupt use of state resources.

6. Religion

Goal:  All Syrian citizens should have a free choice of religious practice and affiliation.

Present situation:  The Syrian regime has been built since its beginnings on ethnic and racial discrimination, creating fissures between the various ethnicities and sects.  For some sects, the freedom to practice religion has been limited.  The regime has closed mosques and prevented people from praying.  The regime exploits religion to serve its own interests, fooling large numbers of people in the society.  Unfortunately, some of the opposition is also exploiting religion for its own interests.

One of the regime’s tactics has been to make minorities afraid of the majority and possible future extremism, thus portraying itself as a protector of minorities.  At the same time, the regime has brutally oppressed certain ethnicities and religious sects and marginalized some areas due to their ethnic and religious affiliation.

Courses of action:

1.  A constitutional provision should establish free choice of religion and equal rights for minorities.
2. The Ministry of Religion should encourage moderate Islam as well as awareness and respect for other religions.
3. The judiciary, the state and the educational system should discourage extremism.
4. Civil marriage should be made available to all citizens.
5. In reconstructing Syrian cities, mixed neighborhoods should be encouraged.
6. The government should establish cultural centers for different ethnicities and sects.

The group looks forward to renewal of nonviolent mobilization on March 15, the second anniversary of the revolution.  This will include boycotts of regime-affiliated companies intended to compel the regime to end its reign of terror against the Syrian people and enter a serious dialogue for peaceful transition of authority.

February 11, 2013