Syria and the New Constitution: The End of Reform?
This led to talk that democracy would be introduced “within a year.” But the promise was retracted after the Islamists won elections in Algeria, and the Soviet Union disintegrated. So the Syrian political opposition, and the people, have been awaiting reform since 1990.
What they got, in 1991, was “economic reform,” enshrined in Law 10/1991, which paved the way for the liberalization of the economy. That is when the living standards of growing numbers of workers and wage earners began to deteriorate and economic policy began to favor the private sector.
Subsequently, the young Syrians currently demonstrating in the streets, along with the political opposition, looked to President Bashar Assad to introduce reforms. They waited for him to deliver on the promises he made in this regard after he assumed power in 2000.
The constitution is the latest in a series of cosmetic reform measures put forward by the regime. But all he ended up doing was deepening the “economic reform” that was to be the root cause of the outbreak of the uprising. Economic liberalism triumphed. The private sector assumed control of 70 percent of the economy. We saw extreme concentrations of wealth develop, along with extreme impoverishment. Thus by the time the revolution began, the time for reform had certainly passed.
http://english.al-akhbar.com/content/syria-and-new-constitution-end-reform
Sound a little like the US? Peaceful protests by OWS-type people? But according to conspiracy theorists, it all the West's fault, because Assad responded with bullets and tanks instead of pepper-spray.