SARG ANTI-CORRUPTION PROPAGANDA GROWS IN RUN-UP TO

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 DAMASCUS 000255 SIPDIS SIPDIS NEA/ELA; MARCHESE FOR NSC E.O. 12958: DECL: 03/11/2017 TAGS: KCRM ECON PGOV SY SUBJECT: SARG ANTI-CORRUPTION PROPAGANDA GROWS IN RUN-UP TO ELECTIONS Classified By: Charge d'Affaires William Roebuck, reasons 1.4 b/d ¶1. (C) SUMMARY: Over the past month, the SARG has publicly highlighted its purported efforts to crack down on corruption. This effort is the latest in a long line of sporadic SARG campaigns to manipulate the issue of combating corruption for internal political purposes. It is also part of a broader SARG push to burnish its self-proclaimed reform credentials in the run-up to the April parliamentary elections and the June/July Presidential referendum. Beyond propaganda, however, the SARG also uses these periodic campaigns as cover to punish individuals who have breeched the bounds of acceptable levels of corruption, become too powerful or otherwise run afoul of the inner circle of the regime, or have out-lived their usefulness. End Summary. ¶2. (C) RECENT SARG &CRACKDOWN8 ON CORRUPTION: In February, the government-owned newspaper and "mouthpiece" on corruption issues, Al-Thawra, started publishing almost daily stories on SARG efforts to combat corruption. The extent of the campaign was highlighted by a recent report that announced that PM Otri sacked more than 50 mid to low-level public officials for corruption in one day, compared to approximately 100 corruption firings reported in all of 2006. Who is controlling and directing the SARG's current anti-corruption campaign is hinted at by the Ba,ath Party Central Committee's direct involvement in the highest-profile case involving the Minister of Communications. In February 2007, an editorial published in al-Thawra newspaper accused the Ministry of Communications of corruption for giving a contract for internet improvements without the proper tendering process. In an unusual step, the Central Committee discussed this issue during a recent meeting and asked that PM Otri investigate the case. Salem is one of the highest-profile reformers in the SARG and is reportedly resented by many for his access to Asad and lack of Ba'ath Party credentials (and for his "public" anti-Ba'athist criticisms. At a dinner in 2005 at the Ambassador's residence, Salem proudly proclaimed that he was not a ba'athist and that he found their ways of governing wrong-headed. He infuriated old-guard MP and former DFM, Sulieman Haddad, who was also at the dinner. We heard about blowback from the dinner for months afterwards.) The Central Committee ultimately ordered the firing of no less than the Director-General of Syrian telecommunications, Haytham Shidyaq (Salim's closest deputy),as well as two of Shidyaq's deputies. ¶3. (C) In addition to Salim, a number of high-profile businessmen have likewise been caught up in the corruption campaign. Firas Bakkour, the scion of a leading Sunni business family, was implicated, along with Amr Salim, in the internet tendering scandal. In another example, the Ministry of Finance recently seized the assets of Sakhr Altoun, a leading Christian businessman who is the exclusive agent for Hyundai and Jaguar, on customs bribery charges. (Note: Sakhr Altoun's father, Salim Altoun, spent years in a luxurious SARG jail cell freely directing his business empire's continued growth. End note.) This high-profile case has excited the interest of average Syrians because it targets a well-known figure, but as in previous cases, it could also be read as an attempt by the SARG to remind the business community that they operate at the whim of the regime. ¶4. (C) SARG PROPAGANDA FOR THE UPCOMING ELECTIONS: The recent SARG anti-corruption campaign appears to be linked to the Syrian elections this year. Embassy contacts who frequently tout the regime line have been quick in recent meetings to emphasize that it is President Asad himself who is leading Syria,s anti-corruption efforts, which has led some to speculate the campaign is designed to promote the image that the SARG is trying to reinforce prior to the upcoming presidential referendum. Corruption will also be one of the key platform issues for the upcoming parliamentary elections scheduled for April 22-23. Government ministers are already trying to promote their own specific anti-corruption efforts to help position them for the expected post-election cabinet reshuffle. For example, the Ministry of Justice has recently announced its &investigation8 into briberies involving traffic police ) an issue that appeals to the average Syrian who daily faces this petty corruption. ¶5. (C) Comment: The regime ensures that all levels of the Syrian business community are co-opted by systematic corruption, just as it ensures, with a welter of Emergency DAMASCUS 00000255 002 OF 002 Law provisions and ordinary laws and regulations, that most Syrians constantly find themselves violating various legal provisions as they go about their lives. With this sword of Damocles hanging over their heads, it is that much easier for the SARG to manipulate them. The upcoming elections have encouraged the SARG to make corruption an issue of greater prominence, especially as the SARG did not deliver on other promised reforms like the election law. As in previous years, however, the recent push to combat corruption is unlikely to address any of the underlying causes and will likely disappear as soon as the elections are over. It should also be noted that President Bashar al-Asad's political image as a campaigner against corruption was carefully constructed by his father years before he assumed power. That anti-corruption posture remains a defining aspect of Asad's image as a political reformer, however ill-deserved, and a key source of his appeal, such as it is, to the Syrian man on the street. It should also be noted that a limited campaign against corruption is in Syria a cut-rate version of political and economic reform. It is easier to initiate and control than meaningful systemic reforms. It also poses no threat, if properly directed, to members of the inner circle of the regime and their proteges. ROEBUCK