Ein Issa – North-Press Agency
Dr. Ahmad Youssef
The Autonomous Administration experiment in north and eastern Syria which was announced in January 2014, was not an ordinary political and administrative situation, not only in the Syrian geography, but in the Middle East, as it remained outside the realm of the traditional political and popular movements in the regions where its administrative and organizational bases were gradually established.
That uncompleted vision which resulted in the experience as a whole to face the challenges of being recognized on the internal and external levels, the matter which led to various forms of difficulties in its development. However, the statesmanship and the ability of societal organization has led to the curtailment of the internal obstacles to the extent that this experiment was about to be declared as ideal to be generalized in all of Syrian geography.
If the big steps in the political world are always faced with great challenges, it’s an indication for the observers that the experiment of Autonomous Administration is taking great steps towards consolidating its concepts in coexistence and the management of the social system in all its branches. The executioners of this project based on the coexistence of the components that share the same geography, saw themselves facing the most powerful global terrorist organization in the 21st century at an early stage of this experiment, to eliminate it by destroying the infrastructure and superstructure. That confrontation has led to the drain of lots of the resources of the administration during the period 2014 – 2019, but this doesn’t mean that the latter has lost its power and is on the brink of the abyss, because its geography has got financing capabilities that distinguish it from the whole geography of Syria. So, where do these financing capabilities come from?
Great Wealth
The political geography of north and east of Syria controls the Syrian economic wheel, because of its geological characteristics which are supposed to form a source of negotiating power for the Autonomous Administration, as it has about 60% of GDP, which gives it a privileged role by which it constitutes a source of both food and water security for all of Syria.
The people of the Middle East are used to see in their wealth a vengeance that disturbed their livelihood, where they get only crumbles of their bounties, only wars and scourges which are punctuated by some phantom periods of stability. Does this vision apply on the people of the Autonomous Administration regions as a new and different experience from the stereotype of other administrations in the region? Or does the administration have the characteristics that make it distinct in its policies in various fields, thus its acquisition of the capabilities that transfer it to the world of real stability in an environment least to say that it’s the epicenter of extremism and chaos for nearly a century.
There’s no doubt that the answer to such a question in the circumstances of instability and the multiplicity of the inputs and diversity of any political process and the resulted lack of awareness of the outcome of that process is very difficult.
Intellectual rationalism dictates that there should be no definitive answers in this field. Whatever the answer to the question is, which carries question marks that our perceptions are incapable of absorbing due to the accumulation and multiplicity of the internal and external influences on public policy-makers, administrative decision-makers and implementers alike, the Autonomous Administration of northern and eastern Syria finds itself facing many obstacles that limit its administrative capacity over its geographical region with its ethnic and sectarian diversity.
Various obstacles to be the basis for future challenges
Recognizing the objectivity of the non-deterministic answers to the reality in the north and east of Syria does not spoil an issue if the administration looks for obstacles that play its role in weakening its ability to consolidate its planned system in its strategic fields and to humiliate it gradually. Perhaps the biggest obstacles to its work lie in the difficulties encountered in the judiciary, which did not settle on a stand-alone system, it’s not similar to the judicial system based on a comprehensive legal system and accurate in its vocabulary, nor is it a social system based on custom without taking care of the adopted legal system globally, and did not crystallize its independent personality between the social and legal systems.
The economic factor is no less important and dangerous than the legal one, the Autonomous Administration is still in its primitive stages in this field, where the lack of economic vision is reflected in all its behaviors that fall within the framework of economic policies, which is characterized by poor integration, horizontal and vertical segments. In scrutinizing the economic system, the clear picture of the weak perception, is transfigured by the importance of the macroeconomic policies, so it’s substituted by temporary procedural behaviors that emphasize the weakness of the overall perceptions of this vital aspect of the administration, and hold the causes of the future collision between intellectual data and practical realities.
If the economic data confirms the contradictions of the prevailing economic situation between the factors of achieving sustainable development which are transfigured in the availability of natural and human resources, and between the factors that curb the development which is transfigured in the absence of a clear economic vision, and if that contradiction warns of wasting efforts in the absence of economic strategy, the security and political challenges play a heavy role in constraining factors of development through the preoccupation of the current efforts by focusing on the two specific fields, and neglecting the other aspects that their negative aspects will appear in the future through its repercussions that will be evident in the poor social services which are provided by the administration for the population.
The problematic situation of these obstacles is reflected in the lack of a clear vision of the political horizon of the region that results mainly from the lack of transparency in the mechanisms of dealing by the Coalition countries with the Autonomous Administration as a political and administrative system of a geography equal to one third of Syria, and inhabited by five million people, and the convergence of the interests of the regional powers with the emotional belonging of local forces to fight the constituted political system by various means, in order to ensure that it doesn’t achieve its goals, which is set in its places and impede its achievement under any circumstances.
Moreover, the threat of Islamic State (ISIS) that changed its strategy to fight the gains of northeastern Syria components after its territorial defeat and maintaining a part of the group’s manpower where its individual moves in the governorates of Hasakah, Raqqa and Deir ez-Zor seem clear in carrying out terrorist attacks that seek to create chaos and investing external pressures on the Autonomous Administration in this direction to achieve its objectives in destroying the foundations of the administrative and political structure.
Globally, many experiences confirm that great wealth has turned into sand unless they are protected by effective human capacities and capable of building development models, and drawing their behaviors from integrated thought methodologies. Thus, the question is, where is the genuine role of the Autonomous Administration regarding this matter? As time bears the answer to this question.