Sunday, June 24, 2012

Qadri Jamil: exposing the official Syrian opposition

Akram sent me this:  "Qadri Jamil is playing politics. So let's play politics starting with the following question: Is this "man of principles" starting to make "concessions" and "understandings"? And let's talk about two subjects: The corruption and the national coalition cabinet
1- The corruption
Jamil is known to be the let's-root-out-the-high-profile-corruption man. During a debate organized by NBN TV (of Nabih Berri) just before the legislative elections, Qadri Jamil said (Arabic):
Our program can be summed in two points: hitting the high profile corruption centers, and recuperating the looted money…. I'm saying high profile because there's also the low profile corruption. The thing is that the high profile corruption covers about 80% of the whole corruption cake. High profile corrupts are limited to no more than few hundreds. I think a bold step in this direction is necessary… The parliament bears a historic responsibility of opening these files and holding those corrupts accountable before the people in a transparent and public manner…
In a previous editorial of Kassioun, Qadri Jamil wrote (Arabic):
The sole necessary solution is to strike the high profile corruption centers and to, promptly, redirect the (recuperated) resources towards the national economy… Some say such radical measures aren't affordable considering the current situation, but I say similar measure can have great social and political consequences that can, greatly, affect the course of crisis in Syria
An endless number of examples of this rhetoric can be found. Now let's look at what has been modified during Jamil's first five minutes in the office. In a recent interview with Qassioun (Arabic):
The vision, the concepts and the program are all there, starting from fighting corruption of all levels
Aha!!! So where the "high profile corruption centers" have gone?
2- The national coalition cabinet:
Qadri Jamil always says his party will never participate in less than a national coalition government. According to a statement of the Popular Will Party in June 6 (Arabic):
The party's leadership thinks participating (in the government), in the framework of the Popular Front for Change and Liberation, is possible only if it was a government of national unity that includes representatives of both the parliamentarian majority and the opposition
And then watch this trivial shifting (Arabic):
We haven't decided yet. When the agenda of a national coalition-like cabinet is agreed on, then we can talk about seats
And finally the confession (Arabic):
This isn't a cabinet like the previous ones that were based on the old 8th article logic, but it isn't either the national coalition cabinet that we are looking for… Given that conditions for a perfect national coalition cabinet aren't available enough, we accepted to participate in this cabinet in the hope that it will grow up to be a full national coalition cabinet when the objective conditions are there.
Slight shifting? Could be and could be not. But let's not forget that this is the beginning only. What I'm quite sure about is how sad and funny, at once, will be watching this man getting rid of all those big words (weighs) in a gradual manner so he can keep flying while the country is sinking and the "high profile" corrupts are flourishing."