Plebiscite in Syria, a step in 9/11-instaled reforms

Mehdi Shakibayi: February 26 will remain in memories of the Syria people. They took on Sunday to polling stations in droves to vote Sunday evening in a referendum on a new constitution that would pave the way for multi-party parliamentary elections within three months.

More than 14 million people over the age of 18 are eligible to vote at 13,835 polling stations that will remain open for 12 hours.

The draft of the newly proposed constitution was made public several days before the referendum takes place. Copies have been distributed among the people to let them know what changes the new constitution will enact.

The draft constitution meets the democratic demands of the majority of Syrians, and will be based on pluralism.

Starting his presidential term, after death of his father Hafez Assad, the junior Assad sought a reformist plan however his presidential term was coincided with the September 11 attacks which led to US pressures over Syria to withdraw the side of regional resistance and join the US alliance which was a cover to further provide security to Israel.

The junior Assad refused to obey the US; in reaction, the then US president George W. Bush put the country into a black list of ‘terror’ along with Iran with both opposing the western colonial interests. Pressures followed and sanctions too. The reformist program incurred the heaviest damage among other things.

The occupation of Iraq caused the US forces to come close to Syrian borders, prompting Assad to shift from reforms to security issues as sole logical option. Damascus could pass through the pressure with prudence and took a sigh of relief when a democratic government came to office in the neighboring Iraq. But the US could not tolerate the failure as it sought an Iraq in her side to be presented as a model to other regional countries.

The US tried to pull the rug from under Syria’s feet through implicating Syria in the case of former Lebanese premier, Rafik Hariri assassination. The US had the resolution 1559 passed in the UNSC and forced Syria to withdraw from Lebanon where it was assigned under the 1974 Taef Accord to keep security. The victory of the Lebanese Hezbollah in a 33-day war against Israel however returned calm to the front of resistance, namely in Syria.  

In 2011, popular uprisings commenced in the Middle East and North Africa against the western backed rulers while only three Arab countries had sided with the line of resistance against the west: Syria, Iraq and Lebanon. It was natural that the waves of uprisings would be in favor of the Syrian government. However, Syria ironically faced a western-engineered domestic unrest run under the cover of democratic demands.

An experienced Syrian government however found the remedy and pushed for some reforms that were installed due to the Sep 11 events. The February 26 plebiscite is a step in the reforms and more steps will be taken in the near future.