The days of the Assad regime are numbered.Image: trapezoid
Rebel officials are trying to clean up the government in Damascus just days after the regime fell.
Days after Assad's fall, officials from the victorious Islamists are trying to take over the state apparatus in Damascus.
On Tuesday, the Financial Times accompanied Mohammad Yasser Ghazal, a 36-year-old technocrat in the new rebel government, to the Syrian capital. He grew up in the United Arab Emirates and worked as a civil engineer in Saudi Arabia until 2014. He then moved to Idlib, Syria. He has a long beard and considers himself a devout Muslim.
Meet with regime bureaucrats
The walls of the Governor's residence are bare. The portrait of Assad that hung there now serves as a doormat. Some officials have already started searching the office.
The new authorities arranged for 30 heads of departments from the Assad regime to attend a meeting attended by the Financial Times. The rebels wanted to purge untalented officials.
Rebels inside the Umayyad Mosque in Damascus. Image: trapezoid
At the meeting, Ghazal asked the heads of various departments to explain their scope of responsibilities and functions.
Regime officials, citing government guidance from the 1930s and 1960s, were unable to answer direct questions about their responsibilities or provide information about why certain decisions were made. Problems are piling up and no one thinks they are responsible.
Das Public Relations Department
The head of the public relations department said that their tasks also include “international cooperation.” There is also a “Celebrations and Events Department”. Ghazal wanted to know more and asked what exactly the department did. Answer: “banner.”
Darauf Ghazal: “Is there a flag department?”
“Yes, when foreign dignitaries come, we put up a lot of flags. We fly them. It's a lot of work.”
department head
There is also a translation department under the same department head. Two staff members speak English. Ghazal wondered if there were also Russian and Farsi translations, since Russia and the Islamic Republic of Iran support the Assad regime and have repeatedly sent diplomats to Damascus. Regime officials responded: “No.” The Russian and Iranian representatives each brought their own translators.
In recent years, with no Western diplomats visiting, the two English translators have been completely useless. Ghazal followed up: “Aren’t there any English-speaking dignitaries visiting?”
“No.”
department head
Ghazal shook his head and just said: “This is a ridiculous state of affairs.” He will soon take on many of the governor's responsibilities himself. He previously helped establish an opposition government in Idlib.
Corruption is widespread
The Damascus Regional Government's remit is somewhat different; it is responsible for licensing hair salons as well as construction works, tourism and electricity.
New officials' first days in office will focus on assessing the extent of government corruption and eliminating jobs that were created simply to embezzle public funds.
Ghazal attributed the corruption to the government's reduction of civil servants' monthly salaries to about 25 francs per month. Syria has been experiencing an economic crisis since 2019. A bloated and ineffective government largely contributed to its own downfall.
Opposition flags were already flying on a building at the Syrian embassy in Lebanon.Image: trapezoid
The regime's legacy
Former regime employees continue to talk about “crises” and “incidents”. It took Ghazal a moment to realize that these were all the regime's euphemisms for the civil war.
Ghazal called the Assad regime's approach “primitive.” In Idlib, the rebel government is investing in digitalization. You can get an ID in five minutes, whereas in Damascus you had to wait months and accept bribes.
Just 15 minutes later, the Financial Times obtained media clearance from the new rebel government, while the Assad regime has refused to grant interviews to Western journalists for years.
The Islamists now in power in Damascus previously ran rebel-held Idlib province for years.
They planned to reform the Damascus authorities even before taking power. But there is still a lot of work ahead of them. Assad's more than fifty years of rule ensured corruption, nepotism and centralism.
Ghazal said a technocratic government would now be established. But this would still require international recognition, and the insurgent group would lose its classification as a terrorist organization. The United Nations, the United States and other countries designate the main insurgent group Islamist HTS as a terrorist organization. The United States offers a $10 million reward for the capture of their leader.
Ghazal stressed that the new government will not pay attention to the religious beliefs of its employees. Only performance matters.
“You have seen how the Assad regime trains them: they call us 'Sidi' (sir). You think they are broken. We just want them to get rid of this mentality. You are a dignified person, I am not Your master or something. I’m an employee just like you.”
Muhammad Yasser Ghazal
You may also be interested in:
Pro-Russian networks among European political parties are developing. Also: the Alternative for Germany (AfD). She hopes to get closer to the Kremlin with her Bulgarian allies.
His critics call Bulgarian politician Kostadin Kostadinov “Kosta Kopek,” an allusion to Russia's smallest monetary unit. Kostadinov is the leader of the right-wing extremist party Vasrashdane, which means “rebirth.” She is considered particularly loyal to the Kremlin, even among other European right-wing extremists.
