“Most opposition groups have been calling for much more,” analyst Ammar Abdulhamid told the Associated Press news agency.
“For instance, we want the emergency law to be completely removed.”
Mr Abdulhamid, who used to work for the Brookings Institution, a Washington-based think-tank, added that the Baath party, which has been in power in Syria since 1963, would not introduce changes that might jeopardise its supremacy.
Year: 2005
M’enfin Oui, C’est Fini!
While mice were busy pretending they were lions in Damascus, Arabs and Kurds were at each other’s throats in Qamishly, and kidnappings of businessmen continued in Aleppo, where Islamists have made sure that alcohol is effectively banned.
Is there any doubt left that something is indeed boiling in the country? Continue reading “M’enfin Oui, C’est Fini!”
Syria’s Baath Party Urged on Economy
Quoted by the Associated Press
“We will know in the next few days whether this regime is committing suicide or whether it still has some survival instincts left,” said Ammar Abdulhamid, an analyst who returned recently from a six-month fellowship at the Washington-based Brookings Institution.
Michel Kilo, a pro-democracy activist, said Assad’s focus on the economy shows he is a proponent of the “Chinese model,” a reference to that country’s policy of liberalizing the economy while resisting political change.
Abdulhamid said the conference will likely aim to give Syrians a socio-economic package that will appeal to the grass roots.
“It’s the strategy of somebody desperately clinging to power,” he said. “There is so much lack of skill and know-how and so much corruption that they really cannot implement a good package.”
No Time to Waste
Tharwa Editorial
Maashouq and Qassir – two assassinations in the span of a week. Someone out there is making it quite clear for one and all that there is no room for dialog or negotiations. Indeed, a war has obviously been declared against the voices of reason and moderation in the Region, one that is likely to have disastrous consequences for the immediate future.
For the voices of reason and moderation in this bedlam Region have always been too few, a determined effort to silence them in this manner could produce the “desired” results in a relatively short period of time, leaving the Region to be torn apart by the dark forces of ignorance, avarice and extremism. Continue reading “No Time to Waste”
The Ammar Abdulhamid Archive 