Call for Syria Reform

"Syrian parliament is usually a docile body"

By Roger Hardy, BBC's Middle East Analyst

An outspoken Syrian member of parliament has criticised the government for failing to introduce fundamental economic and political reform.

Riad Seif called for greater transparency of government and an end to corruption.

Such criticism provides a test for President Bashar al-Assad, only five months after the death of his authoritarian father Hafiz al-Assad.

Since then Syrians have been speaking out in favour of reform.

Anti-Corruption campaign

Syria's parliament is usually a docile body, but these are not usual times.

Mr Seif delivered this sharp critique in a speech to the assembly last week.

Assad has announced a campaign against corruption

But he says the speaker ordered his remarks to be deleted from the minutes.

So he released a statement to international news agencies - in itself a daring step given the firmness with which the Syrian authorities have traditionally suppressed dissent.

Mr Seif has done so in remarkably outspoken terms, calling for political and economic liberalisation, for independence of the judiciary, for the bureaucracy to be purged and for widespread corruption to be rooted out.

President al-Assad has personally spoken of the need for economic reform and he has launched a campaign against corruption.

But Mr Seif's remarks suggest many Syrians are impatient at the slow pace of change.