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Ba'ath Party will need a
role
By Farangis Najibullah
PRAGUE - The pan-Arab Ba'ath Party, which calls
for the unity of all Arab states, was founded in 1947 in
Damascus. According to Ba'ath doctrine, the politically
and territorially divided Arab countries are merely
regions of a collective entity called "the Arab nation".
The Iraqi Ba'ath Party was established as a
clandestine movement in the early 1950s. During that
decade, it and other opposition parties formed the
Underground National Front and participated in the
activities leading to the 1958 revolution that toppled
the Iraqi monarchy.
In 1959, the Ba'ath Party
plotted to assassinate then-Iraqi leader General Abd
al-Karim Qasim. Their attempt failed, and some party
members were arrested and tried for treason, while
others fled the country.
The party's second
attempt to overthrow Qasim in February 1963 was
successful and resulted in the formation of the first
Ba'ath government. It lasted only nine months until the
party's coup partners were able to expel all Ba'athists
from the government. Five years later, in July 1968, the
Ba'ath Party staged another coup and has been in power
ever since.
Experts say that Saddam Hussein has
gradually molded the Ba'ath Party into an effective
instrument for ruling a massive police state. Saddam
concentrates enormous power in his hands. In addition to
being president, he is also prime minister, the
secretary-general of the Iraqi Ba'ath Party, and
chairman of the Revolutionary Command Council - the
Ba'ath Party's governing body, which exercises both
executive and legislative authority.
Iraqi
opposition groups in exile and international human
rights groups accuse the Ba'ath leadership of rampant
abuse of power, corruption and supporting ethnic
cleansing and extrajudicial killings. The Ba'ath Party
tolerates no opposition.
Mahmoud Usman, a
Kurdish politician, told RFE/RL that the party is
particularly hostile to Kurdish movements. Usman has
participated in past negotiations between Iraqi leaders
and Kurdish representatives on the issue of Kurdish
autonomy. "[The Ba'ath leadership] believes only in
using force against opponents. They don't believe in
dialogue; they don't believe in solving problems
peacefully. They are cruel. They don't believe in having
an opposition with a different opinion, an opposition
that criticizes them. If you ask [Ba'ath leaders] about
the opposition, they would say that all of them are
[foreign] agents. They don't think there should be an
opposition," Usman said.
According to official
figures, the Iraqi Ba'ath Party has more than 2 million
members and sympathizers. Many educated Iraqis,
qualified specialists and intellectuals are connected to
the party. Their absolute dominance in Iraqi political
life has led many observers to question what will become
of the Ba'athists should Saddam go. Some members of the
Iraqi opposition are calling for extreme post-war
measures, such as the complete "de-Ba'athification" of
the country, much like the purging of Nazis from West
Germany following the defeat of the Third Reich.
Other observers speculate that the US may choose
to work with Iraq's traditional political structure,
removing Saddam but leaving power in the hands of his
ruling party.
Jeremy Biney, a Middle East expert
based in London, told RFE/RL that the party is likely to
play a role in any post-war transition scenario. "The
party has taken over all elements of the Iraqi state.
There is no way that can be replaced immediately. There
is no way that there can be a rapid purge of the Ba'ath
Party. The leadership needs to change and will change
pretty quickly. For the majority of members of the
Ba'ath Party - many of whom may have joined the
organization just to get ahead in Iraqi society rather
then because they are particularly pro-Saddam - they
will probably have to stay in place, continuing their
jobs in Iraqi bureaucracy, etc," Biney said.
Safa al-Falaki is a member of the Ba'ath Party
and a former diplomat who over the past three decades
has served as Iraq's ambassador to Malaysia, Portugal,
Nigeria, Romania and the Netherlands. Al-Falaki said
that it would be impossible to follow a possible war
with a transition period that does not include
Ba'athists, in part because many educated Iraqis are
connected to the party.
"I don't think the Iraqi
system should get rid of all Ba'athists," he said.
"There are about 2 million Ba'ath members. [Only] a
minority of them are really pro-Saddam Hussein. I
believe the majority of the members simply ignore the
party. Most Iraqi experts, educated people, and
intellectuals, one way or another, are linked to the
Ba'ath Party. You cannot really ignore them. You have no
alternative in this country."
Usman said that
ordinary Ba'ath members should take part in any
opportunity to rebuild the country. "[After a possible
war in Iraq,] if there will be a constitution, if there
will be democracy in Iraq, if there will be a law for
party activities, and if these [Ba'ath members] meet the
conditions and work according to the constitution, I
think they should be allowed to work. No party should be
excluded," Usman said.
Al-Falaki compared the
situation to that of post-communist states in Eastern
Europe and the former Soviet Union. He said that Iraq's
transition may resemble what has happened in former
Soviet states, that "the same people [former communists]
are in power again but as members of other parties, not
as communists," al-Falaki said.
Al-Falaki added
that in any potential post-war period, the Iraqi Ba'ath
Party might have the opportunity to reform itself into a
more liberal, democratic movement. But such a
transformation, he added, would take a great deal of
time and effort.
(©2003 Asia Times Online Co,
Ltd. All rights reserved. Please contact content@atimes.com
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