President Bashar al-Assad's speech focus on internal conditions
Syria, Politics, 7/18/2000

Following the oath taking ceremony, President Bashar al-Assad gave in a speech top priority to internal conditions, liberation of the Golan.

After he took the constitutional oath on Monday July 17, 2000, in front of the People's Assembly ( parliament), President Bashar al-Assad said the "Liberation of our territories is at the top of our national priorities and is as important to us as the achievement of a just and comprehensive peace that we have adopted as our strategic choice, but not at the expense of our territory nor at the expense of our sovereignty."

Al-Assad stressed is his speech: " We consider our relations with Lebanon an example of a relationship that should exist between two brotherly countries."

The following is the full text of the President speech:

Mr. Speaker, Ladies and gentlemen, distinguished members of parliament.

As I stand today in this graciousparliament all I can do is to start my address by thanking the Almighty God for Granting us the strength in this resolute country and for providing us with the appropriate means that helped us bear the painful tragedy that has befallen all of us. I would also like to thank you all for the precious trust you have put in me and which you have expressed through your endorsement of what was contained in the letter from the Regional leadership of the Baath Arab Socialist party that included nominating me to the post of President of the Republic. I truly appreciate all the efforts you have exerted in your deliberations relating to the contents of this letter, these deliberations that revealed the high sense of responsibility and your abundant feelings of love for your country.

From behind this podium I would like to express a very special thanks to all our people, old and young, inside and outside Syria who bestowed upon me their trust through voting in the referendum and through their active participation in this national duty. " I would also like to thank them for all the love and loyalty they expressed to me which had a great effect on me and granted me strength and optimism in the future.

The result of the referendum is an expressions of the will of the people and there is nothing I can do except to respond to the will of the people and to willingly accept to carry, the mission I am asked to carry and shoulder the burdens and tasks related to fulfilling my duty during these very delicate and sensitive circumstances which our country, our nation and the world at large are going through at the moment. I shall try my very best to lead our country towards a future that fulfils the hoped and legitimate rights ambitions of our people.

These tasks are both very difficult and very easy.

These tasks are very easy because the great leader Hafez al-Assad has prepared for us a firm ground, solid basis and a great heritage of values and principles which he defended and adhered to till he parted with us and moved to the after life. Added to this is the infrastructure and the great achievements in all fields and throughout the country that will enable us to launch our work strongly and confidently towards a future we all desire. Yet, these tasks are difficult because the approach of the great leader, Hafez al-Assad, was a very special and unique approach and therefore it is not easy to emulate it especially as we remember that we are required not just to maintain it but to develop it as well. This undoubtedly requires great efforts and work at all levels in the glorious period of Assad to continue what has been achieved and to multiply the steps determined to overcome the difficulties and cope with the challenges without giving up our national principles ordained in our hearts and minds. In all this we have to imitate his wisdom by transforming sorrows to a creative energy and the painful event to continuous work and achievement.

Ladies and gentlemen: I said this yesterday and I reiterate it today that I am not after any post nor I do avoid any responsibility. This post is not an end but a means to achieve an end. And now, and since my people have honored me with their choice of me as President of the Republic and after I have been sworn in an assumed the post but I have not occupied the position: the post has changed but the position remains unchanged since I was born and where the Almighty God wanted me to be and where our people desired me to stand since they have known that there is some pne who truly loves his people and whose people truly love him and are loyal to him and where my parents and family wanted me to be and in the place which I am determined to maintain and cherish to be strong by it and through it. This position that never changes is the position from which I serve my people and my country. The question now is what does this new post add to the position in which I have always found myself ? I have always say to those I met with, that the post is a responsibility but the position has imposed this responsibility on me beforehand. Some might say that the post gives the legitimacy, but the legitimacy is first and foremost the will of the people and their desire. The importance of your vote on my nomination stems from the fact that it is a response to the desire of our people whom you represent in all their different strata.

Hence, we can say that the responsibility is towards the interest of the people and the legitimacy in the people's will and their desire.

The post is only the framework combines the two and regulates their relationship. This post had added a huge burden to my position. a burden that consists of your love, trust, ambitions and hopes that I shall with the will of God, be able to shoulder with your help and support.

Every descent citizen has to put himself in the position I have indicated above, shoulder his / her responsibility and to believe in legitimacy even if he were in a situation that does not allow him to implement his ideas. The post does not engender responsibility, the opposite is true. the post deprives one of his responsibility and allows him to exercise it only through the authority granted to him. Whenever a person who has no sense of responsibility assumes a post he can take nothing out of it except power and power without a sense of responsibility is the source of chaos, carelessness and the destruction of institutions.

The ideal state of affairs is that every one should feel responsible and this does not mean that every one should occupy a post. Posts are basic junctures in which the performance of society is continuously checked, inspected and energized into directions from top to bottom and from bottom to top. This, if any thing went wrong at the bottom this would reflect at the performance of the top, and if any one at the top violated the rule this would reflected negatively on the bottom.

Thus society would not develop, improve or prosper if it were to depend only on one sect or one party of one group; rather it had to depend on the work of all citizens in the entire society. That is why I find it absolutely necessary to call upon every single citizen to participate in the process of development and modernization if we are truly honest and serious in attaining the desires results in the very near future.

As we are speaking about development, which I believe, is the major concern of every citizen in this country and in all fields, we have to know in which direction we are trading and what is the best way to take and what are the desired results. The answers to such questions constitute the compass that determines our current and future moves.

In order to achieve what we aspire to achieve we have to move at three basic fronts at one and the same time: First: to suggest new ideas in all domains whether in order to solve our current problems and difficulties in order to improve the current situation.

Second: to renew old ideas which are no longer appropriate to our reality with the possibility of discarding outdated ideas which can neither be renewed nor could they be beneficial; rather they have become an obstacle in the way of our performance.

Third: to remove old ideas and renew them in order to be suitable to the current and future purposes. Each work needs to be assessed in order to determine the percentage of progress and achievement in it. It is useful in this regard to adopt a set of measures.

The first measure is the time factor which we should use to the utmost extent in order to achieve what we aspire to achieve in the shortest time possible.

The second measure is the nature of the situation in which we like and the different circumstances which surround us.

The third measure is the potential we possess in order to start our pursuit to reach the designated objective, taking into account that the potentials are not fixed givens but they are susceptible to modification and change through our efforts and effectiveness.

The fourth measure is the public interest at which all previous measures meet and through which all of them should be determined. This is a measure and an objective at one and the same time, What is the value of any work we do if it is not navigated by public interest ?

But in order to make the required move, and with confidence that we shall succeed, we have to have a certain set of means the most important among which are The creative mind that cannot be stopped at any limit and does not confine itself to any fixed framework. Today and Tomorrow we are in desperate need to creative minds in order to push the development process forward. Some people may believe that creative minds are linked to age that they can frequently be found with the youth but this is not quite accurate. Some people of a young age have strong minds and some elderly people may depart this life with minds that are still so lively and creative.

Previous Stories:
  Syrian - Egyptian summit expected very soon   (7/17/2000)
  Lt. Gen. al-Assad takes constitutional oath today   (7/17/2000)
  Damascus: Journalist Mustafa al-Alloush released   (7/17/2000)

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