Syria gets an interim constitution

Syrian President Ahmed Al-Sharaa has announced a new constitution for Syria, and promised democratic elections in five years. The constitution continues with some of the elements in the constitution that prevailed in the previous Bashar Al-Assad regime.

One-third of the members of parliament will be nominated by the president, and the executive is constituted by the president himself and no one else. There is also the provision for parliament to sack the president. But this is seen as inconsequential because the president will always command a majority in parliament.

There is the freedom of expression and of press and social, political, and economic rights for women. More importantly, the interim constitution stipulates that the head of the state will have to be a Muslim, and the laws that will be followed will flow from Islamic jurisprudence. And a committee has also been formed to draft a new constitution.

It is not clear whether the new constitution will be more expansive than the interim document, and whether it will recognise the diversity – religious, ethnic and cultural – of Syria.

What seems to be clear from the announcement about the interim constitution is that the new government wants to set up a democratic framework and it wants to move towards a politically open society. It is to be assumed that it will be a multi-party polity and the elections will reflect the differences of opinion that is part of democratic politics.

President Al-Sharaa has shown that he is wanting to move away from the closed-system perpetrated by the Assads – Bashar and his father Hafez – and at the same time he is also moving away from a puritanical Islamist framework given his background of being a part of jihadi groups.

As soon as he took over power in Damascus, he dissolved the Islamist group he had led, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham. It was on organisation that was declared a terrorist group by the United States. But the Western governments had to ignore the fact because it was this group that had successfully overthrown the Assad regime. And Ahmed al-Sharaa seemed to be aware of the issues involved when he dissolved his organisation, and members of the militant group were merged with the Syrian army.

In the latest move, Al-Sharaa made a pact with the Kurdish group, Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in the north-east of the country, which was another anti-Assad group. The armed men of the group have been merged with the security forces of the country.

There are two challenges before the Al-Sharaa government. The first is to maintain political stability in the country, and reconcile with the different political groups, including the pro-Assad Alawites. He has to prevent Syria from slipping into another civil war. He would need political and diplomatic skills to avert this.

Apart from the Shia sects, he has to be inclusive in bringing in the Druze. While Iran will be inclined to support the Shia resistance, Israel would want to support the Druze.

The second challenge is getting caught in international rivalries. He would need to maintain good relations with Turkey and Iran, Russia and the United States. Given the economic and diplomatic pressures, this would not be an easy thing to do.

He will have enough support from the Arab states in the neighbourhood, and this should help him to consolidate his power inside Syria and maintain neutrality in the global arena. Most importantly, Al-Sharaa must ensure democracy in Syria because there is no greater guarantee for Syrian stability and security than a democratic government in Damascus.

The people of the country must have a say in governance and they should enjoy the social and economic freedoms that democracy ensures.