Two things are happening soon in Syria's politics. First of all the Syrian Muslim Brotherhood. The Syrian Muslim brotherhood is a sister organization to the Egyptian brotherhood, it is an Islamic political party who's ideas were transferred to Syria in the early 1930's from Egypt, but only became prominent politically in the 1950's. the Muslim Brotherhood was outlawed in 1980, anyone caught and accused as being a member of the brotherhood was sentenced to death. The Hama revolt carried out by the Brotherhood, and subsequently the crushing of the revolt by the iron fist Ba'athist regime (also known as the massacre of Hama) was the last fight between the Syrian regime and the brotherhood. Leaders of the Syrian brotherhood were exiled.
Coming back to recent events; in 2006 exiled leaders of the Syrian muslim brotherhood formed an alliance with other opposition members most notable AbdulHalim Khadam who was the Syrian vice president to Bashar Al Assad, the alliance was called the "National Salvation Front" and was created to bring the Syrian regime to an end and usher in a democratic government. To most Syrians this was seen as a joke mostly due to the reputation of AbdulHalim Khadam due to his activities in both Lebanon (during the time Syrian forces were present in Lebanon) and Syria.
Having seen their credibility dwindle, and the increase of popularity of the Syrian regime under the leadership of Bashar Al Assad, not only within Syria but also across the Arab world, and having seen their efforts go ineffective to the much efficient and effective Syrian foreign and internal (to an extent) politics and policies the leadership of the Syrian Brotherhood are reconsidering their position, carrying out an "auditing approach" to their position and policies. The Muslim brotherhoods' membership to the "National Salvation Front" is also under revision and a decision will very soon be made as to whether or not they should uphold their membership to the "Salvation Front" or terminate it in order to be able to resume political activities in Syria.
The Syrian government have signaled a willingness to allow the Syrian Brotherhood back into Syria but of course under their rules and conditions. It will be a tough nut to crack for the Syrian Brotherhood where they will have to make some concessions but I believe this will benefit both sides.
Secondly, the Syrian government will be undergoing a cabinet reshuffle soon. It is said that there will be two additional ministerial roles added. This will include reinstating the role of 'Deputy Prime Minister for Services', and the addition of a 'Deputy Prime Minister for Administrative Development/Reform' along with the currently existing role of 'Deputy Prime Minister for Economic Affairs' occupied by Abdullah Al Dardari. Thus, and for the first time there will be three deputy prime ministers in the new government.
According to the sources of AlQuds AlArabi the new appointments will be completely from an academic background with a great amount of experience in their fields of expertise and that there will be no appointments of well known politicians within the Syrian political circles. This comes as Syria moves towards a new stage of its "social market economy", as well due to the current world economic crisis that is bound to hit Syria.
1 comment:
I thought this was a particularly interesting development. I always thought that the Brotherhood had made a political mistake in joining the NSF, and this has cost them much in credibility. Still, it would be interesting to see a Syria which manages to bury the ghosts of the past, albeit whilst remaining imperfect. I'm watching these developments with interest.
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