The Syrian regime has invited its opponents to join the government in a bid immediately rejected by the country's opposition, reports Bassel Oudat Addressing the Syrian people last week, Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad declared his intention to include members of the country's opposition in an expanded Syrian government, the first time that Al-Assad has announced such a step or even admitted that an opposition to his rule exists. Denying that the decision had been taken as a result of the demonstrations against his rule that have been going on across the country, Al-Assad said that the opposition would be invited to join the Syrian government as a result of a process of reform carried out by the regime, including a political parties law issued two months ago and a new constitution currently being reviewed by the government. "Hand in hand with the new constitution and the political parties law, new political forces have arisen in Syria, and we must take them into account," Al-Assad said. "Some people have proposed that these new political forces should take part in a government representing the entire political spectrum in Syria. I believe that all political forces in the country should participate in government, as the government is the government of the nation and not an executive committee representing a single party or the state." The opposition figures invited to join the new government would be chosen according to "specific" and not "institutional" criteria. "We don't want an opposition that spends its time in foreign embassies or takes directives from abroad," Al-Assad said. "We do not want an opposition that uses blackmail under the pretext of a state of crisis in order to achieve its goals." Instead, the new government should be made up of politicians and technocrats working together in the interests of national unity, Al-Assad said, ignoring the Syrian opposition domiciled abroad, which in the eyes of the regime has been a partner in the "foreign conspiracy" ranged against the country. However, the Coordination Committee of Forces for Democratic Change in Syria, which represents the domestic opposition, immediately refused to participate in any government formed by the present regime or be split off from the opposition abroad. Chair of the committee Hassan Abdel-Azim said that the group entirely rejected Al-Assad's proposal, with Haitham Al-Manaa, chair of the committee abroad, saying that "if Al-Assad invited me to join the government, my precondition would be for him to step down as president first." "What we are demanding is root-and-branch change according to the will of the people," Abdel-Aziz told Al-Ahram Weekly. "We cannot carry out real reforms under the present regime," refusing even to enter into dialogue with it. "There are basic conditions that must be met, including withdrawing the army and security forces from residential areas, ending the killings and detentions, releasing all political prisoners and those arrested because of the demonstrations, and allowing peaceful protests. All this will need to take place before we can discuss a transitional period leading to a democratic and pluralist regime that allows the peaceful rotation of power," he said. "The Coordination Committee will not talk with the regime or participate in any government until these demands are met." Meanwhile, Syrian revolutionary groups say that the protests will continue until the ousting of the current Syrian regime, led by the Syrian Baath Party and presided over by Al-Assad. Shortly after Al-Assad's speech, Borhan Ghalioun, chair of the Syrian National Council (SNC) which represents the opposition abroad, urged Al-Assad to step down and called on the Arab states and the international community to refer the Syrian crisis to the UN Security Council. The SNC would continue to press for change until the regime was removed, Ghalioun said, and it would not enter into dialogue before it had achieved this goal. Other members of the Syrian opposition also refused to participate in any expanded government, saying that they did not believe that Al-Assad's offer was genuine. A better solution would be for the regime to enter into a national unity government with the opposition, with the aim of leading the country through a transitional stage leading to legislative and presidential elections. All opposition forces denied that they had held talks with the regime, insisting that there had been no such contacts with the regime or its symbols. Protesters against the Al-Assad regime have accused some opposition forces of having been "manufactured" by the regime or "concocted by the security agencies" because they have sometimes expressed sympathy for positions adopted by the regime. Such forces have spread confusion by claiming that the desire to overthrow the regime has "subsided" and that the regime is too strong and the army too cohesive to be overthrown by popular protests. Such forces welcomed Al-Assad's speech, describing it as "a vital step to ending the crisis in Syria and a comprehensive change in the structure of the regime." The new government should have an extraordinary mandate to implement new policies, these groups have said, which are believed to be fake movements established by the regime. One of their leaders is a former Baath Party figure still closely linked to the Syrian regime. In April last year, Al-Assad formed a government only half of whose members came from the ruling Baath Party, with the other half being leading Baath Party figures. This government was rejected by the opposition at the time, which pointed out that the Baath Party had been given the most important portfolios in the government, as has been the practice in Syria over the past 40 years. As soon as this cabinet was announced, the demonstrations against the Al-Assad regime increased, with demonstrators upping their demands from reform to the overthrow of the regime. Syrians are aware that under the country's political system, which guarantees a leading role to the ruling Baath Party, the government cannot take any initiative without the leadership's approval. It does not have the power to decide foreign, security, or media policy, and all economic questions must be decided by the president. Under the reforms announced by Al-Assad none of this would change, and the main opposition forces would not be given significant roles. Minor ministries would be handed over to the opposition in a window-dressing exercise that would see the interior, foreign and defence ministries remaining in the hands of the regime. The protesters against Al-Assad's rule have not demanded a cabinet shuffle, and nor have they asked for new laws governing political parties and the media or for amendments to the constitution. What they want is a complete transformation of the system in place in Syria and an end to decades of totalitarian rule. .
