***With the death of President Hafez al Assad on 10 June, Syria became the first Arab republic to revert to a hereditary system of government, Hazhir Teimourian writes from London***

AS mourners gathered in old Ornayyad Square in central Damascus to await President Hafez Assad's coffin, it was remarkable how many faces In the crowd were those of youths.

Did so many turn up on 13 June because they were grief struck by the death of Assad?

Or was it because the overwhelmingly young population Identified itself with the 34-year-old successor. Bashar al Assad, hoping that under him Syria would open up to the modern world and become part of it?

In authoritarian countries, school children, soldiers in civilian dress and government servants are often bussed In to where the cameras want them to be. "But here such efforts seemed superfluous. Hundreds of thousands of people had turned up and their tears were genuine.

For 30 years, the people of Syria had not known any other leader. "He was the big tree under which we gathered." one distraught mourner said. More accurately. perhaps. Assad was the grumpy old grandfather one misses terribly after his death, though he had become impossible to live wit hl

But did Assad hand over power to his son because he wanted his successor to be In closer touch with the younger generation? Certainly not.

For years, the government of Syria had become a family business for the Assad clan and

it was the preservation of that privilege — in the name of 'national stability' — that would have been on Assad's mind when he began grooming Bashar to take over from him some years ago.

He certainly knew that hereditary rule was an anathema to all the principles of his governing Socialist Arab Renaissance (Ba'ath) party, and that he was humiliating the vice-presidents and senior ministers bypassed in favour of his son.

This apparent conversion to the merits of a kind of monarchy Is not, however, confined to Syria. Apart from Saddam Hussein in Iraq, where Uday Hussein is said to be eyeing the (op Job. several other Aral) presidents are Also clearly grooming their sons to take over from them.

They include:-

• President AH Abdullah Salih of Yemen, whose son Ahmed is a colonel in the army and a member of parliament;

* Chairman Muammar Gaddafi of Libya, whose elder son Seif ed-Dln is a businessman with extensive links to the Libyan oil industry; and

• President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt, who has never appointed a vice-president since lie came to power In 1981 But his younger son Kamal was re-cmilv appointed to the secretariat of (he ruling National Democratic Party.

Of the 21 states in the Arab world, eight are formally hereditary systems — Saudi’Arabia. Oman. Jordan. Morocco, and the emirates of Kuwait. Bahrain. Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. Kuwait has a reasonably powerful parliament. but women have no vote. And Jordan's parliament has weak opposition.

If Iraq. Yemen. Libya and Egypt Join Syria and go the same way. more than half of all Arab countries will be ruled by dynasties.

The Palestinians have even made up political Jokes about it. "No matter how unattractive our leader may be.” one runs, "at least he [Chairman Yasser Arafat) has no son to inflict on us."

The Syrian parliament's hasty amendment of the constitution to allow Bashar al Assad to succeed his father (by lowering the minimum age), led to another Joke:

"We are now making preparations for an amendment to the Palestinian constitution. The minimum age for a presidential candidate will be four, and women will be allowed to serve as president.” (Arafat's daughter Zahfa Is four years old)

The development certainly puts a spring In the steps of Gulf monarchies — long sneered at by the 'progressive' Arab republics. But it is difficult to imagine that several generations of Arabs who have been brought up on slogans of repub-

licanism and democracy will easily be persuaded of the wisdom of change.

What will make the new trend less sustainable is its farcical appearance, for none of the would-be hereditary presidents is expected to change his country's constitution formally to become a monarchy.

As for the future of Bashar, no doubt part of his apparent popularity among the youth of Syria is his own young age and — by Implication — his modern outlook.

Up to his elevation, his only official position was his chairmanship of the Syrian Computer Association. He has said that the country needs to join the global Internet revolution. But the slogan Is likely to remain an empty one for some years to come. Hooking up to the Internet and opening up to the rest of the world would not go smoothly with a one-partv state and absolute hereditary power.

In the meantime, Syria's population — 17.2 million tn July 1999 and growing rapidly at the rate of 3.2 per cent ot year — is one of the youngest in the world An estimated half of all Syrians are under the age of 20

For them at least. Bashar — whose name means the bringer of happiness' — has huge expectations to fulfil

— Gemini News

The author Is a writer spe-eta stay in Middle Eastern politics and history.