President Bashar al-Assad has given in to the demands of the growing opposition in Syria. Syrian human rights activists have decried Assad's retraction of power as pure political posturing, a ceremonial repeal which does nothing to alleviate the political oppression of the Levant. Only with a stern call for massive dispersal has Assad's government issued a retraction of the half-century emergency laws.
The lifting of emergency is a graceful political facelift which only exposes the penetrating corruption of the hideous Assad regime.
With Assad's relinquishing of overt supervision over the Syrian nation, the people in theory will no longer fear arbitrary detainment, search, seizure, and arrest at the hands of the State. This rescission of government dominance, however, does not address the long-imposed muzzling of the press and opposition groups against the ruling Baathist party, two essential elements for any free society. Furthermore, extreme immunity protections still safeguard law enforcement from the consequences of their rampant misconduct and torture of dissidents.
If previous revolutionary trends are a reliable harbinger, Assad's ease of his grip on the Syrian people will only embolden them to rise up against the 50-year dictatorship which has harmed them, harassed Israel, harangued the United States, and halted the spread of freedom and democracy throughout the Middle East.