Lifting Syria's 48-year-old 'emergency' law: Have the protesters won?
Syria's embattled president says he's scrapping a law that kept generations of Syrians under the government's thumb. But has anything really changed?
![Syrian protesters called for greater freedoms on Sunday, one day after President Bashar Al-Assad promised to lift a repressive 48-year-old emergency law.](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/kwxZzvJsdoMSKzpynNciwJ-415-80.jpg)
Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad announced over the weekend that his nation's decades-old emergency law will be lifted within days, meeting a key demand of anti-government protesters. But Assad also said "there will be no pretext to organize protests in Syria" now, and he's preparing new counter-terrorism laws that will give his security forces free reign against the opposition. Is Assad trying to find common ground with the demonstrators, or getting ready to crush them?
Assad is no reformer: Syria's "thug in chief" might be fooling Secretary of State Hillary Clinton with his talk of reform, says Rick Moran at The American Thinker, but his promise to "lift 48 years of emergency rule failed to quell fury on the streets." That's because while Assad was trying to paint himself as the good guy, his security forces were opening fire on protesters at a funeral. That's his idea of reform: "Shoot anyone who even looks like they might oppose you and before too long — no opposition."
"Assad's 'Responsibility to Protect' falls a little short"
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
![https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516-320-80.jpg)
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
This is only a first step: The scrapping of the emergency law is "good news," says Gulf News in an editorial, but the protesters haven't won yet. Assad is trying to have it "both ways" by promising reform while warning he'll smother "any future protests." There will be no real progress until he recognizes that "not all marchers are out to wreck the state," and that lifting the emergency law was just the first step toward "the comprehensive political reform that Syria needs."
"Simply scrapping emergency law is not enough"
Syria's future is still in Assad's hands: Those who know Assad best say he's not the brute his father and predecessor was, says Rania Abouzeid in TIME. Nevertheless, he is clearly still influenced by the "old guard" held over from his father's regime. Scrapping the emergency law was a "major concession," but for the Syrian crisis to end without a lot more bloodshed, the embattled leader's former admirers say, "Assad the man will have to overrule Assad the president."
Create an account with the same email registered to your subscription to unlock access.
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
-
The lab-made meat that 'could kill the EU'
Under The Radar Concerned at 'unintended consequences for farming' some farmers are 'turning rabid' over the rise of cultured meat
By Chas Newkey-Burden, The Week UK Published
-
Magazine solutions - August 2, 2024
Puzzles and Quizzes Issue - August 2, 2024
By The Week Staff Published
-
Magazine printables - August 2, 2024
Puzzles and Quizzes Issue - August 2, 2024
By The Week Staff Published