The deology of Baath Party

THE IDEOLOGY OF BAATH PARTY

Syria as the important geographical part of Ottoman Empire had passed important political processes after the World War I. After separating from the Ottoman Empire the French played important role in the politics of Syria. The Arab Army recruited for the revolt was led by Emir Faisal, the second son of Sharif Husayn of Mecca, leader of Arab Hashimite family, and Arab official appointed by the Ottomans as The Protector of the Holy Shrines of Islam. 11 His forces defeated the Ottomans and drove the Ottomans out of Syria in 1916. In 1920, Faisal entered Damascus and was declared by Britain as the King of Syria. 2 However, the period of his rule did not last long. As the result of agreement between the French and the British to share Arab regions, French wanted to mandate Syria but, Faisal did not want to share his rule with another power. When he refused, a French army marched to Damascus, bombarded the city, and forced him to into exile.2 After the exile of Faisal the period of French mandate over Syria started (1920-1945). During this period French was faced with resistance by Syrian society. Despite being under social and political influence and hegemony of French, Syria remained strongly attached to the goals of Arab unity and Arab independence, firstly in Syria, then in a future Arab nation.3 Syria became independent country in 1946. However, independence did not solve the internal problems of Syria. On the one side the Druze and Alawi communities feared that they would be under the thumb of the majority on the other side Syria had problem with Israel and Syrian armies was defeated. As a result of these circumstances the intellectuals needed solution to unite Arabs and prevent the influence of a foreign power and Baath Party was the solution for their problem. The Baath Party (Hizbal

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The deology of Baath Party

Baath) was founded in 1943 in Damascus, Syria. Michel Aflaq and Salah al-Din al-Bitar were the founders of Baath Party. Anti colonialism and anti imperialism were the reasons for establishing of the party 4 In 1963, the Baath Party, which introduced new ideologies to the Arab world, took power. The main target was to advocate the formation of a single Arab socialist nation and unification of the all the Arab states into a single socialist nation. This paper aims to explain three basic components of Baathist ideology namely, Unity (wahda), Liberty (hurriya), Socialism (ishtirakiya). Before explaining these three components the ideas of Satial Husri which influenced the ideology of Baath Party will be clarified. Satial Husri (18821968) was the Ottoman and Syrian writer and prominent intellectual thinker in terms of the ideology of Arab nationalism. Satial Husri was the person who systemized secularized Arab nationalism.5 Michel Aflaq who was the ideological founder of Baath Party was affected from the ideas of Satial Husri. It can be inferred from the ideas of Husri that the base of his nationalist ideas is inclusive. In other words, he expanded the ideological frame of Arab nationalism. He asserted that Arab countries do not consist of only the Arabian Peninsula, rather it includes the countries where Arabic is spoken. So he did not define Arab nationalism with language and religious base. Because of these reasons as a Christian Arab Miclel Aflaq was easily influenced from the ideas of Satial Husri. Moreover, methodologically both Husri and Aflaq adopted German nationalism which defines a nation as eternal structure. According to zko 7 there are two reasons for embracing the German

nationalist ideology. Firstly, the geographical and strategic condition of the Arabs was similar to the status of Germany before 1871. In order to legitimize the term of nation Gernans claimed that nation is above the notion of government and necessary component to create a government. The founders of Baath also needed similar explanation to legitimize their

The deology of Baath Party

ideology. Secondly, after the First World War France and Britain opposed the Arab world so this situation created a distance between the Arab world and France and Britain. Moreover, by

supporting the cultural bases of Arab nation the ideas of Satial Husri affected the ideology of Baath Party. Arab Socialism (al-ishtirakiya al-Arabiya ) was firstly introduced by the founder of Baath Party. Especially, Michel Aflaq expressed what they understand from socialism in order to specify his opinions about socialism. As opposed to Western Socialism, Arab Socialism implied different conception. Moreover, as Michel Aflaq defined it as an indigenous movement drawing its strength from Arab heritage and rejecting both Communist and Western Socialist philosophies. Western socialism according to him was obliged to turn not only against capitalism but also against its allies, nationalism and religion. By contrast, Arab Socialism was inseparably linked with nationalism. It rejected the materialistic philosophy and acknowledging Islam as an embodiment of Arab national genious, it maintained belief in the soul as a great hope and propeller and propeller of (Arab) progress.8 When the historical processes of Arab world especially Syria after First World War is considered an intellectual movement like Arab Socialism ( al-ishtirakiya al-Arabiya ) was necessary and inevitable. Furthermore, the social structure of Arab Society was different from the societies in which socialism emerged. Therefore, this situation created a kind of socialism with different features and socialism was shaped according to structure of Arab Society. Moreover, the economic base of Marxist ideology which explained history with the concept of base-superstructure relation contradicted with Arab socialism because the theoreticians of Arab socialism except for economic relations gave importance to culture, nation and religion. It can be concluded particularly from the ideas of Michel Aflaq that socialism was not internalized ideology rather

The deology of Baath Party

it was an ideology to create solidarity among the members of Arab Society. In short, socialism and nationalism were inseparable according to Arab Socialism.

Liberty ( hurriya ), was another intellectual component of the Baathist ideology. Similar to the notion of Arab Nationalism, liberty was also interpreted according to the cultural and social background of Arab society. The term of liberty according to Baathist ideology consisted of freedom of expression, belief and right of suffrage and struggle against colonialism.9 The Baathist understanding of liberty included internal and external independence and collective action was required against external threat so rather than individual, collective action was determinant factor for gaining liberty of nation. Moreover, as related to liberty, in the Arab world the Baath Party was one of the earliest to demanded that women be given the right to vote. Therefore, the combination of socialism and liberty was problematic. According to Abu Jaber, in order to revolt against the existing forms of government in the Arab world, the Baath adopted the idea of popular democracy. The curious thing is that the Baath Party, adopting popular democracy, never changed its adherence to parliamentary democracy in its constitution (p153). 1 Arab Nationalism in other words unity (wahda) was another ideological part of Baath Party. There was hierarchical importance among the three ideological components of Baath Party. That is to say, nationalism is over socialism for them. Socialism was not the main target as Michel Aflaq asserted that Our socialism thus is a means to resurrect our nationalism and our people and is the door through which our Arab nation enters history a new. Socialism thus, as seen by Aflaq, is a means by which Arab glory can be regained (p.101). 12 Moreover, in order to legitimize the idea which combined socialism with unity Baath intellectuals have found a way of accomplishing two aims. According to Charles Issawi, they can combat their

The deology of Baath Party

colonial adversaries in the international sphere who do not wish to see the Arabs unite, and the domestic problems of an underdeveloped society. Bitar identifies the enemies of Arab

unity as colonialism, Israel, communists, capitalists, and reactionaries (p.102) 13 Furthermore, Michel Aflaq emphasized three points when he define Arab Nationalism. First one was the link between the birth of Arab nation and Islam. He explained that the aim of Prophet Mohammad was to create Arab nation. By supporting this idea Aflaq created a link between history and his ideas to legitimize nation-state. Moreover, he served the pragmatic approach of history to re-structure the historical processes. Lastly, he agreed the idea of Satial-Husri which regarded that being Arab means speaking Arabic ( zko, p.50-53). From disintegration of the Ottoman Empire to the establishment of Baath Party Arab community had passed several stages. First World War was important turning point for Arabs because the Arab territories of the empire were exposed to colonialist power. France and Britain were the main competitors for sharing the Arab territories. The period between two world wars can be regarded as preparation period for the idea of unity and negotiation among Arab intellectuals. According to zko (p.30) just before the end of Second World War the Arab countries in the processes of independence constituted the Arab League in 1945. However, this formation was not dominant in the international politics. As zko stated that the Arab League of 1945 was not effective and powerful that they were not active in the decision making process of 1948 Arab- Israeli conflict. As the result of disorganized political structure and the effect of previous mandate system the need for unity and integrity were emerged in the Arab world. Baath Party was emerged in consequence of this historical background. The basic principles of the party were centered on the idea of unity, socialism and freedom within an Arab Nation. However, the idea of socialism was not same with

The deology of Baath Party

communism of Western society rather it was regarded as supplementary part of Arab nationalism. Ignoring class division, religious privileges among social groups were the other

differences of Baath Party when comparing previous political groups. Even Michel Aflaq who is the ideological founder of the party was Christian Arab. Furthermore, international circumstances affected both internal and external policies of Baath Party especially in Syria. In 1950s related to nationalistic the ideal of territorial Arab Nation was the main character of external politics. After realization of impossibility of Arab unity in 1960s Baath Party gave importance to socialism. However, when Hafez al-Asad ruled Baath Party in 1970s terms of nationalism and socialism lost its first meanings. Although these two terms theoretically remained in the main code of Baath Party, practically Asad regime followed more pragmatic and liberal politics. (zko p.209)14 Today, Baath Party is still important in the politics of Syria. In the other Arab countries like Iraq, Lebanon, Egypt Baath Party is also important figure of politics. However, beside of Syria after establishment period Baath Party had passed some transformations in different countries. The most important example is Iraq, as the supporter of socialism, liberty, unity Baath Party was represented by Saddam Hussein who suppressed the subject of Iraqi society by using chemical weapons or other types of violence. Although todays Baath Party is far from its establishment ideology and is criticized by even Syrian society, this party has been regarded a turning point in the Arab world.

The deology of Baath Party