SYRIA: The 10th congress of Syria's ruling Baath party concluded yesterday after adopting modest but significant reforms.
The party, an ideological movement which has controlled all aspects of political and economic life since taking power in 1963, agreed to confine its role to setting strategy and overseeing the work of the administration. The party also accepted its separation from the executive.
This means that senior party officials will not occupy top positions in the government as has been the case. On Monday, Vice-President Abdel Halim Khaddam, a long-serving party and government official, declared his intention to step down. Other key figures are expected to follow suit.
The congress, which last met in 2000 to confirm the succession to the presidency of Dr Bashar Assad on the death of his father, recommended that independent political parties be permitted to operate on condition that they do not undermine the unity of the society or organise on the basis of religion or ethnicity - excluding the Muslim Brotherhood and Kurdish ethnic groups.
This means that the 10-party National Front dominated by the Baath could be seriously challenged by opposition parties and that the Baath could be transformed from the ruling party to a ruled party.
The 1963 emergency law, which provides for phone taps, bans public gatherings and prescribes detention for dissidents, is to be amended to permit such impositions only in cases involving national security.
The Syrian Command, the party's top body, is to be reduced from 21 members to 15, half of whom are to be fresh faces.
The congress also discussed a range of reforms of the state-controlled economy in line with a programme drawn up by the State Planning Commission. The reforms include privatising loss-making public companies, rationalising ministries and streamlining bureaucracy. President Assad called for prosecution of corrupt individuals.
Major plans for reform have been obstructed by the party's old guard, which is determined to maintain its power and privileges. However, Dr Assad warned the party that growing pressure from the US for regime change means that maintaining the status quo is no longer an option.
