Assad Family Grip on Syria Hampers Reform

May 17, 2011

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, addresses the Parliament, in Damascus, Syria, March 30, 2011 (file photo).

There was a telling moment a few weeks back, as the Syrian president appeared before parliament. His army was using tanks and guns against his citizens, but inside the legislature, lawmakers heaped praise upon the president, some appearing overcome with emotion. Assad stood smiling broadly, basking in their accolades. The disconnect between government and the Syrian people is not what everyone hoped for when the Western-educated eye-doctor took power in 2000.

But Hilal Khasan, political science professor at the American University in Beirut, says the president is steeped in his family's political tradition.

"You cannot undo the work of the formative years," said Khasan. "Bashar was socialized by his father, and Bashar grew up in a household that considered Hafez al-Assad, the father, the owner of Syria."

For three decades, Hafez al-Assad ran Syria with an iron fist. He consolidated power in his fractured country by manning key government positions with members his family and others of his minority Alawite sect, a Shi'ite group in the majority Sunni country. He crushed his opponents, most notably an uprising in Hama in 1982, at the cost of thousands, perhaps tens of thousands of lives.

In what is referred to informally as a hereditary republic, Bashar al-Assad has continued the tradition, with his brother and brother-in-law among those holding top positions in the army and intelligence.