'Rebranding the Syrian regime'

Via FLC

"... “The Ba’ath party is present in each and every city, town, university and factory. It will take other parties — existing or new — some time before they are established in various cities across Syria,” said Camille Otrakji, a Syrian political blogger based in Montreal. He said that, of five communist parties in Syria, one might qualify....
The politics and demographics of the opposition range wildly. Kurdish parties are meeting with pro-Arab Nassirist parties, while liberal secularists are coming together with the Muslim Brotherhood under the banner of the National Salvation Council. In addition, there are four other, loosely-aligned groups within the opposition — the National Democratic Grouping, the Damascus Declaration signatories and the Local Coordination Committees inside Syria that are working with protestors. Only the latter is entirely based inside Syria — and it is mostly led by anonymous, young activists.
“Some [opposition members] want to adopt more aggressive, free-market economic reforms, others want to reverse President Assad's initial steps in that direction,” Otrakji said of the disparate interests. “Some expect the country to be more secular, while the Islamists want it to be religiously conservative. Some want a genuinely peaceful revolution, others insist on severe punishment of the regime. Younger online activists want a central role for the young generation in decision making; older opposition leaders might not welcome the competition.”
... Otrakji still argues that the new parties and elections laws would “represent a giant leap forward for Syria” if it coincided with a constitutional amendment dropping Article 8. And he believes that dialogue with the regime is still possible and necessary. “Eight years after the Iraq war, the United States could not produce a Jeffersonian democracy in Syria's neighbor to the east,” he noted. “There are no magicians who will bring democracy to Syria overnight.”

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