For the last 70 years and
since the Assad Family took over power in Syria, the country has been managed
as a private farm of the Family. In spite of the appearance of the
presence of the control institutions that make a State, such as a Central Bank
and Cabinets, including the Ministries of Oil, Economy, etc., the real decision
makers of the country have been the heads of the military and the security
forces in a close relationship to the presidential balance. In fact, the
security sector is the only sector in the country that can be
described as having functionally stability. This sector insures that all other
sectors work in the service of the ruling family, i.e. Assad, his sibling and
his cousins. Thus, any attempt to create an economic analysis or policy would
be marginalized by the security forces, or worse, they will be hi-jacked to
serve the security apparatus.
During the last 8 years of
revolution, things have not gotten better. The functionality of State’s
institutions, especially the Central Bank and the banking sector, witnessed
major collapse to their already backward structure. Today, the Syrian
regime, the Russian government that occupies Syria, and the Iranian regime,
which is defending the regime with its Islamic revolutionary guard and his
ultra-military militia, feel that they came out victorious from the war.
They are asking the world to pay them for the “Reconstruction of the Country.”
A flagrant demand which the US ambassador Nikki Haley unveiled its ugly nature
and rightly rejected any such request this weekend. Nikki Haley says that until
‘Iranian Influence’ is out of Syria and Russia steps up, the U.S. won’t help
fund ‘Reconstruction.’ However, in spite of eight years of military oppression,
the security and the military sector focus on the preserving the Assad family control
of the resources of the country has not been diminished by the revolution. The continuation of the regime, with or
without the Russians, will mean all reconstruction funds will go into a black hole
called Assad. Sooner or later, these funds will find their way to the Iranian
and Lebanese terrorists.
Mohyeddin Kassar
Chicago 9/28/2018
Data sources: The world Bank Statistics
