US-Syrian expats raise concerns during meeting with Assad

“I was one of some 30 Syrian-Americans invited to go to Syria to meet with President Assad and share with him our thoughts and concerns,” one of the participants, who asked not to be named, told Today's Zaman.

“We were all quite impressed with the humility and warmth with which the president received us. He listened to us for hours. He was very receptive and never interrupted anyone. He acknowledged many major mishaps and missteps and a systematically flawed security force culture, or the lack thereof, yet made it clear that he is working on that. He explained how it was not possible to revamp the security apparatus when Syria was home to over 2 million Iraqi refugees. I never imagined I would be able to speak to any president -- let alone the Syrian president -- with that much openness and honesty,” he said.

“Mr. President explained that the two articles in the constitution that are in everyone's crosshairs are all but history as far as he is concerned, yet removing them is not as simple, as it requires an act of parliament as well as the fact that removing them affects many other articles that make it a much less simple project. He made it clear that he would much rather rewrite the entire constitution,” he added.

When asked about the main issues raised with President Assad, the participant said: “The urgent need to stop the bloodshed on the street was first and foremost, along with the need for faster reform and the pressing need for better media.”

The Syrian expat said that while sparing no criticism of the Syrian government and security forces, most delegates still believed an international media campaign of misinformation was indeed taking place concerning Syria.

“There were documented instances of pure fabrication of news on Al-Arabia and Al Jazeera. The Syrian media also failed at full, honest disclosure,” he suggested.

According to the expat, “Part of the problem is the government's restricting media access, which was a mistake.”

Such a restriction leads to “a situation where the barrage of unsubstantiated eyewitness reports shaped the story and took over the narrative,” he argued.

With regard to the future of the protests in Syria, he regretted that he does not think it will stop any time soon, yet is optimistic that one might have already seen the worst.

“I think it depends on the speed of reforms, the ability to meet the benchmarks and dates that President Assad gave the people,” he underlined.

According to him, “only 10 percent of Syrians, who are beneficiaries of corruption, do not want reform, but the 90 percent majority, who are pro-reform, have managed to sharply split into different groups. One group wants to see reforms happen gradually under President Assad's leadership, while another first wants him to step down and wants reforms second; those who see continued demonstrations and protests as a must, even with the tension and dire economic consequences they are leading to, and those who see that enough has been achieved already and believe an interruption of protest for a couple of months is what is needed to grant the government the chance to deal with the proposed reforms.”

He warned that “polarity within the Syrian community in and out of Syria has never been this sharp.”

‘A true reformer' with limited ability of control

Portraying President Assad as “a true reformer,” he said: “His aspirations for the country are quite admirable, yet his ability to have the existing power centers in Syria rapidly buy into these aspirations is not clear at this time. Tremendous change for the better has already taken place in Syria. And I believe it to be irreversible. No one can take back the free speech we now enjoy.”

When asked who he believed is behind the killing of people, he indicated Mukhabarat forces, as well as a fringe armed element that has infiltrated protestors. “Police forces, due to their relatively small number and unarmed status, have had to call for reinforcements from the security forces, which are not trained to deal with civil protests.”

On the question of whether President Assad is really in charge, controlling the security forces, he said: “He can control them as long as he does not push them too hard. He cannot tell them to relinquish 40 years of privilege overnight. Reliable sources behind the scenes indicate there are disputes and struggles within the ruling party and elites, between a pro-reform minority lead by President Assad and the majority old guard of the status quo. Even though the pro-reform tide is slowly but clearly winning, the rather slow pace it is progressing at is costing President Assad quite a lot of his credibility and approval, now believed to be just about 50 percent, a very sharp decline from the 80-90 percent he enjoyed even as recently as February 2011.”

He highlighted that the president is walking a very tight line. “If he pushes too fast at reform, he risks a revolt by the system. If he continues to reform slowly, he faces increasing anger on the streets.”

Regarding the demographics of the protesters, the US-Syrian expat expressed some concerns. “The protests that started in February are different from what we have now. Those initial protests were truly peaceful. Demands were legitimate. But now we have a very different pattern in the protests. Especially in socioeconomically underdeveloped areas, you see kids on the streets throwing rocks at police, cars and shops. There have also been numerous accounts of people being paid cash to demonstrate as well as accounts of business and store owners being bullied into closing their businesses and joining the demonstrators to be spared harm. Regardless of protestors' good or bad intentions, losing government authority is very bad.”

He also claimed that the image of Turkey has been fading in Syria. “Many people are now refraining from buying Turkish products. Turkey has lost a great deal of its high regard in public opinion. Now only the religiously conservative -- 20-35 percent -- still hold the same high regard for Turkey, which almost the entire nation held just six months ago.”