Bashar Assad

From Metapedia

Bashar al-Assad (born September 11, 1965) is the President of the Syrian Arab Republic and Regional Secretary of the Baath Party. He became his country's leader in 2000 shortly after the death of his father President Hafez al-Assad.

[edit] Personal

Standing about 6' 3", Assad has a distinct physical build. He speaks English at an advance level [1] and is fluent in French, having studied at the Franco-Arab al-Hurriyet elite school in Damascus, before going on to medical school at the University of Damascus Faculty of Medicine. He then went on to get subspecialty training in ophthalmology in London's academic hospitals. He is married to Asma' al-Akhras, a Syrian Sunni Muslim whom he met in Great Britain, where she was born and raised.

The al-Assad family are members of the minority Alawite group, and members of that group have been prominent in the governmental hierarchy and army since 1963 when the Baath Party first seized power. Their origins are to be found in the Latakia region of north-west Syria. Bashar's family is originally from Qardaha, just east of Latakia.

Initially Bashar had few political aspirations. Hafez al-Assad had been grooming Bashar's older brother, Basil al-Assad to be the future president. However, Basil's death in an automobile accident in 1994 suddenly made Bashar his father's new heir apparent. When the elder Assad died in 2000, Bashar was elected President unopposed with apparent massive popular support, after Syria's Majlis Al Shaa'b (Parliament) swiftly voted to lower the minimum age for candidates from 40 to 34.

[edit] Presidency

Upon becoming President, Bashar al-Assad promised economic and political reforms to Syria, but he has so far delivered little change from the status quo. The Baath Party remains in control of the parliament, and is constitutionally the "leading party" of the state. Bashar al-Assad, however, was not strongly involved previously in the running of the party. Until he became President, Bashar's only formal political role was as the head of the Syrian Computer Society, which was mainly in charge of introducing the Internet to Syria.

Immediately after he took power, a reform movement made cautious advances during the so-called Damascus Spring, and Assad seemed to accept this, as he shut down the notorious Mezze prison and released hundreds of political prisoners. The Damascus Spring however ground to an abrupt halt as security crackdowns commenced again within a year, and although Bashar rules with a softer touch than the all-out totalitarianism of his father, political freedoms are still extremely curtailed. The security apparatus has eased its grip on society, but remains solidly in control, and while a small dissident movement has now firmly established itself, it is both powerless and pressured by the regime. Sporadic protests are occurring among the Kurds in north-eastern Syria, long discriminated against by the Arab nationalist Baathist government.

Economic liberalization has also been very limited, with industry still heavily state-controlled, and corruption rife throughout the state apparatus. Mild economic sanctions (the Syria Accountability Act) applied by the USA further complicate the situation. Of major importance are the negotiations for a free trade Association Agreement with the European Union, but progress is slow.

The military plays an omnipresent role in Syrian politics — Hafez al-Assad headed both the military and the air forces, and it was a military coup which brought him to power in 1970. Bashar entered the military academy at Homs, north of Damascus, following the death of Basil, and was propelled through the ranks to become a colonel in January 1999.