The Guardian Angel (8)

 Since November 1970, we have paid a great attention to the national economy and built an economic base upon which the progress of society and the country’s growth have relied. We are committed to comprehensive development as a national responsibility to the State and society. We have developed agriculture and industry, built dams, big industrial installations, set up economic pluralism, encouraged talents, given opportunities to all to contribute to society’s development.

We have created solid economic and social base which has enabled us to complete our infrastructure, such as, electricity, roads, dams, potable water projects, schools, universities, hospitals, medical centers, social educational, cultural and health services, which have all contributed to raise our people’s living standards and meet their material and spiritual needs.

These big achievements push us to exert more effort and to shoulder responsibility and to realize social and economic increases which enables us to be competent partners in this world, strongly defending our rights and future.

We have to concentrate on balance in the national economy by working to increase production, expand the base of development and investment, reconsider Investment Law in order to close the gaps which prevented maximum benefit from it and make new investments.

We believe that developing and modernizing banking systems has become an urgent and necessary requirement. The government, in the next stage, should continue to develop agriculture, modernize agricultural investment methods, reduce production costs, discover new markets for agricultural products, so that this huge production will be turned into a supply source for the economy and not a burden on it. Also points of failure should be tackled in the process of land reclamation and dam building which have caused long delays in finishing the projects and increasing the costs ratio really, something which has caused the loss of additional revenues to the country.

“I call upon all Arab officials everywhere to adopt brave and responsible stances capable of reviewing the Arab situation critically and objectively with a view to setting up a new course of inter-Arab relations conducive to ending the state of conflict and to reaching the state of cooperation and solidarity.” The Late President added.

What makes us anxious today is the state of the Arab nation, their weakness, divisions and conflicts, fear of each other, fear of all the foreign dangers threatening them and working to impose hegemony and control on the Arab homeland, besides the Israeli aggression. Narrow regional interests surpassed pan-Arab interests and hence foreign forces were able to impose hegemony, and Israel was allowed to go on launching aggressions, to the extent that the Arabs were about to lose the potential for progress.

 “Some talk about making peace with Israel while we refuse peace between us. Peace with Israel will not be achieved unless peace is materialized among the Arabs.”

All the efforts we have exerted and those made by the international community to establish a just and comprehensive peace based on Madrid’s terms of reference have not achieved objectives yet due to Israeli policies which have refused to abide by peace obligations, and are adamant to pursue the policy of settlement and annexation. We have spent years of negotiations with Israel and achieved some progress with the participation of the US on both sides’ agreement on two main issues: pullback to pre 1967 lines and principles of security arrangements.

 “We are confident of restoring our occupied land in the Golan regardless of time, the might of aggressors and the circumstances of the Arabs.”

 “Today’s world is likely to be converted into a forest where force dominates and the norms, principles and values for which nations have struggled are absent. No doubt that the absence of discipline, weakening the UN role and the imposition of hegemony on “third world” resources threaten peoples of the loss of freedom in achieving self-determination and determining their options. Nevertheless, the forces of hegemony talk about human rights while they are grossly violated.”

What is taking place in today’s world under the absence of the international balance is the domination of unilateral pole, the double criterion, the hegemony of monopolist superpowers, the great evolution in communications and informatics, the increasing gap between rich states and developing nations, the breaking out of regional wars and ethnic and clan conflicts in different parts of the world, the economic and cultural doctrine of globalization, the destruction of national borders and peoples’ identities and the stereotyping of peoples’ lives, conducts, moralities and priorities are altogether arousing fear and worries among nations.

 “The homeland is a question of destiny, of the present and of the future. Let’s work to safeguard the home irrespective of great sacrifices.”

We have many duties to carry out in the forthcoming stage. The duties are demanded by the stage’s circumstances inside and outside the country. Our success in achieving those duties is connected with faithfulness in words and deed, with abidance by national responsibility, with seriousness in action, with self-confidence and with the love of the homeland. The burdens shouldered by Syria in the current stage require high degrees of responsibility.

The homeland is in need of much work, much sweat and blood of each citizen. The homeland is a question of destiny, of the present and of the future.

Let’s work to safeguard the home irrespective of great sacrifices. I promise citizens to be always with them in shouldering the home’s burdens. And this is why are ever immune to defeat because the Late President had left for us endless treasures of strategic relations with the real brothers in Iran, Russia, China, and worldwide. The Late President had left us with his own groomed and brought up great son, the president of all leaders.

Dr. Mohammad Abdo Al-Ibrahim