The following is a proposal on the blackboard of my conscience and a follow up to the document circulated by the 1000 Elite signers in Syria. I call on all of them and all Syrians everywhere to read and contribute to their country’s march to true freedom by adopting it or refining by reason and civilized debate as and whenever needed.
I pray that the moment of truth is nearing by the hour.

The following action items are for immediate consideration:
These are meant as trust building measures but action should not stop here.

• Moving all Palmyra prisoners to another facility under the eyes of a civilian committee that includes members of the parliament to observe their conditions on hand. It is understood that Palmyra prison has military and civilian (political) prison inmates. The civilians are mostly political prisoners held for crimes of conscience and they should be released at once as part of the reconciliation. On the other hand, military inmates are spending time per judgements by the Military Court, so they should be moved to a facility which guarantees their well being as human beings or released depending on seriousness of their crimes and convictions.

• Release of all prisoners who were imprisoned per judgements of the economic courts, since most of these stone-cold laws are being dismissed and rewritten as we speak today. Further more, an investigation into who subjected selectively these individuals for prosecution (given that most of them were not economic law offenders, but actually people who stood up to regime associates’ agenda).

• Privatization of the media: The government shall either abandon its monopoly on the media or guarantee the freedom of any entity in Syria to own mass media presence. The government shall keep one newspaper as its voice. The rest shall be privatized. The media role should be revised to make sure that it is one of the guards of democracy and source of information for a future constitutional guarantee of each citizen to be well informed.
  Furthermore: Weekly or bi-weekly media brief address via Radio or the press are mandatory to state what goals the President and all heads of political parties are working on the short and long run. This secretive housekeeping is doomed to end and it is the right of the people to know what their government is working on. It took months before the people heard Bashar Assad speak again (between his inaugural speech and his address of the Arab summit, which was a disaster). The president should report to the people directly ultimately as he is not out of this earth and not of a Godly matter like Hafez Assad Thought for 30 years.

• Dismissing and prosecuting the speaker of the house for threatening with death a member of parliament to serve as a precedent and deterrent action to discourage any Baathist of insulting any voices of questioning and change no matter who these voices are.

• Merging all security apparatus into one central body. It is understood that there is a need for specialization in the field(s) of national security, but so far it has been forever the case that the dividing lines are drawn for the convenience of the regime and NOT for the true needs of the country.
  Based on experiences of Eastern European block countries, it was found that members of the security forces of the ex-socialist or ex-communists were the future active membership of mobs and lords of crime-organization. It is suggested that all members of this apparatus be transferred to other posts or offices of the army pending an overhaul of the whole security branch.

• Restructuring the army: The rules should be revised to make sure that nepotism is dismantled in the army. All decisions regarding personnel such as enrollment/enlisting (or refusal of enrollment/enlisting), promotions, demotions, discharged (honorable and dishonorable) should go through a parliamentary committee that monitors the decisions of the army leadership to keep it out of intrusion with the policy making.
  In democratic nations around the globe, the possibility of holding the titles of President and Army Chief are not an impossibility, but it is suggested to separate these roles in Syria at least for the time being to guard against army reprisals or recourse off the path of "change" as implied is this document.
  No veto powers or policymaking is permitted to any members of any branch of the military. The only terms under which this could happen if for the member to retire or resign from his/her military post and then trying to participate in public elections.
  The army has been reduced to the last choice for students and professionals doomed to fail as a last haven. Intensive efforts should be underway to recruit the elite of students as the cadets of the future army.

• Restructuring the presidency: The separation of the titles which the president hold: The chief of army, head of the ruling front and general secretary of the Baath party to guarantee the optimal performance on all these functions/roles and to disallow conflict of interest (or questionable manipulation of these privileges for personal interest).
  There should be an understanding that such titles are not immune from being stricken off the records of the constitution and all laws and civil code that take them into consideration.
  The minimum requirements or qualifications of future presidents should be revised as part of a constitutional overhaul.

Following the legalization for all political parties and the dissolution of the Progressive Front there should be:

• Legislative Elections
  Free elections should be held. It has to be monitored by legitimate International organizations and Human Rights watch guard groups on the ground and electronically. The regime should keep all forms of military presence off the streets and avoid any intimidation of voters, but members of the military forces will be allowed to vote as any Syrian citizens.

• Executive Elections
  President Assad shall resign and call for executive elections following safe-guards against recourse and checkpoints placed in the constitution to regulate the conduct during elections.
  Governors of all provinces are not appointed anymore but elected by the citizens of each province.
  Following the legislative elections the government shall resign and the new parliament shall be responsible for naming the head of the next government (not the president). The new members of the parliament shall elect a speaker of the house and alliances within the house shall be allowed.
  Alternatively, the Prime Minister could be elected directly after a personal campaign with or without the sponsorship of any political party.
  In either case, he/she is ultimately responsible to present a list of his cabinet to the parliament for approval. Each individual cabinet member shall undergo hearings for the purpose of confirmation, which are obligatory and accessible to the public.

• Judicial Elections:
  Every measure should be considered to dissolve the current judicial gridlock which has the most questionable record of integrity and to replace it with one that upholds the law as called by the "document" put forth by the 1000 elite group. Honest, outspoken, undeterred by special interests and independent judges are the least of the requirements for such posts. There should be no reason why the public could not elect them directly. Justice is best served when it’s untangled in bureaucracy. A Supreme Court shall hear all cases of national interest, and its membership shall be decided by the parliament for worries that presidential appointments of members of such a court might have political bios. All judges who were a tool for rubber-stamping with legitimacy all actions of the Baathist shall be dismissed. Only those of them who prove that they had no criminal intentions would attain their licenses to practice law privately.
  There shall be no more secret trials held outside courtrooms for the purpose of ridding a regime of its opponents. All such judgements are considered null and void. The family members of all people affected by such action are encouraged to come forward at this point to seek compensation and reinstatement of all constitutional rights as citizens of the Syrian Republic.
  Following these Judicial elections, all people accused of crimes against humanity and the economy shall be tried fairly with clear evidence presented including members of the Assad family and all families associated with the Assad regime. Every effort should exerted to exhume the funds smuggled abroad and accounted for.

If the regime refuses even to discuss these ideas or any other ideas brought before it, then they bear the eventual consequences.