Opinion | Columnists
Allied to, created by or friends of the Baath
The multi-party law in Syria will be released within this month. This is a reform promised by the Syrian regime during the Baath Party Conference of June 2005.
- By Sami Moubayed, Special to Gulf News
- Published: 00:00 March 7, 2006
The multi-party law in Syria will be released within this month. This is a reform promised by the Syrian regime during the Baath Party Conference of June 2005. This means (in theory) ending the monopoly over political party life in Syria, imposed by the Baath and its socialist allies since the party came to power on March 8, 1963. This single reform has added new life among Syrian activists.
For months now, ambitious politicians have been busy, drafting political parties that they plan to launch once the law goes into effect. The Baath Party has presented its own draft and vision to the Syrian parliament of how the multi-party law should look like.
This draft has put a damper on the hopes of ambitious and free-minded Syrians, since it creates such a rigid system that makes political manoeuvring almost impossible and maintains the supremacy of the Baath.
The Baathist Speaker of Parliament Mahmoud Al Abrash has said that "rotation of power is unlikely". He added that Article 8 of the Syrian Constitution which says that the Baath is the ruling party of state and society will not be abolished or amended. Abrash added that if it were to be amended, this would need a majority vote in parliament, something unlikely since the parliament is dominated by the Baathists.
The Baath draft for multi-parties says that any person applying for a party licence should be no younger than 35 years and have no criminal record. This automatically creates a problem for many of the ambitious political activists in Syria.
Parties that are "chaotic, terrorist, fascist, theocratic, religious, ethnic, sectarian, tribal, etc" will be denied licence.
This clearly is to prevent Islamic parties such as the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood and banned Kurdish parties that preach Kurdish rather than Arab or Syrian nationalism.
Other regulations say that members of political parties cannot be working in the Syrian government. This was the case in the French-mandated Syria, where the civil service was strictly bureaucratic and non-political, but was changed after independence in 1946.
This clause, however, does not apply to the Baath Party, whose members are found all over the civil service. If a citizen is guilty of joining an unlicenced party, he/she is fined and imprisoned.
Forbidden
A party is also fined for receiving funds from outside Syria and its leaders can either be fined or imprisoned for a maximum of 2 years. All the new parties are forbidden from fund-raising outside Syria and can only rely on membership fees, donations from private citizens, and funding by the state.
All parties are clearly prohibited from operating outside Syria or even marketing their views with Syrians in the diaspora or among non-Syrians. This is currently being challenged by a multi-party law draft proposed by the National Progressive Front (NPF), a coalition of parties headed by the Baath, which says that marketing views outside of Syria is allowed, but fund-raising from abroad is not.
Also, all the new parties cannot use religious places to market their views and are they allowed to use the state media and facilities for propaganda. This does not apply to the Baath.
The Baath has proposed the creation of a higher committee for party affairs in Syria, to be headed by the head of the Shura Council (a to-be-created post that has been non-existent since the 1920s), the Minister of Interior (Baathist), the Minister of Justice (Baathist), the Minister of State for People's Assembly Affairs (Baathist) and three independent judges.
Their draft clearly says, however, that party offices cannot be monitored or invaded by police or the security services unless there is a judicial warrant and suspicion of criminal activity.
The founding conference of any newly created party cannot be held unless 500 members have joined the party. The party has the right to issue its own publications but not allowed to interpret or debate any clauses in the Syrian Constitution, in clear reference to Article 8.
The main qualifications of the founder should be: "that he has not acted in behaviour that is opposed to the Revolution of March 8". This means any person opposed to the Baath who has written, preached, or acted in the opposition since 1963 will be denied a political platform. The founding members should be 10. They should all abide by the general rule which is: "To preserve the objectives of the Revolution of March 8."
Another clause in this domain is Article 17, which says, "It is prohibited to re-launch any party that was disbanded before the year 1963."
Meaning, the National Party of Damascus, the People's Party of Aleppo, and clearly the Muslim Brotherhood, will not be allowed to re-operate.
The only three parties operating before 1963 which will be working in Syria are the Baath, the Syrian Social Nationalist Party (SSNP) that was banned in 1954 and re-permitted in 2005, and the Communist Party.
With these regulations, it is doubtful whether the multi-party law will be really effective in Syria. It means that the only parties allowed to operate will be the ones that are allied to the Baath, created by the Baath or friends of the Baath.
Dr Sami Moubayed is a Syrian political analyst.
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