Salam Fayad: Revolutionary or over-reaching?

Salam Fayad: Revolutionary or over-reaching?

Preparing for a long sit-down interview is a daunting task for television crews. This time, it was no different. The team turned the office of Dr. Salam Fayad, the Palestinian Prime Minister, upside-down. This is necessary to essentially create a studio set for the interview.

Thankfully, the always busy Prime Minister was not in the office while this was happening; he walked in when we were done getting ready.

"What have you guys done with the place? It’s like a hurricane hit it" exclaimed Fayad as he walked into his transformed office. We smiled, greeted him, and assured him we would have everything back in order when we’re done.

The busy politician listened to our apology as he checked on other business. He looked up, smiled, and asked for a moment to gather his thoughts. But as we proceeded, it became apparent this politician knew exactly what message he wanted to send.

The man for ‘impossible tasks’

The Prime Minister was appointed by the Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas following the violent Hamas takeover of Gaza in mid-June 2007. At the time, many observers believed he had an impossible task. I found out he shared their opinion.

The reason for that is simple. The American-educated economist runs a government with limited funds and control. It was born out of the most serious domestic crisis Palestinians have faced in modern history; an internal division that continues to this day. And Israel still occupies the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, which is the only part of the Palestinian homeland Salam Fayad has control over. But he promised to change the Palestinian reality and move forward. In many ways, he has succeeded.

In the past two years, Dr. Fayad has won international recognition for restoring law and order to a once lawless West Bank, combating corruption, and achieving fiscal transparency.

This all came at a price though. Hamas accuses him of trying to uproot it from the West Bank and ironically some in Fatah, which holds a majority of seats in the government, accuse him of carrying out a ‘white coup’ against the movement! But Salam Fayad does not respond to these accusations. And he's unapologetic about the overhaul his government has done in the security apparatuses. The sense of personal security in the West Bank is very high, no doubt, but it is the sense of political security others say Fayad’s government threatens.

Fayad counters that unless the government has a complete monopoly over security and arms, Palestinians would have no hope of building a state or ensuring that the bloodshed Gaza sunk in does not repeat in the West Bank.

Rising star, controversial politician

Salam Fayad is a novice to politics in the traditional sense. He served as the International Monetary Fund’s representative to the Palestinian Authority from the mid-1990’s until 2001. Back then, he was an unknown to the Palestinian public.

But in 2002, Salam Fayad was appointed as Finance Minister by the later Yasser in an effort to show Palestinian seriousness about fiscal reform and fighting corruption.

Dr. Fayad does not belong to any of the traditional Palestinian factions. In 2005, he formed his own ‘Third Way’ bloc, which won two seats in the Palestinian Legislative Council [for himself and Dr. Hanan Ashrawi].

And despite the political attacks from the traditional political factions, the Palestinian public overall says Fayad has won their trust as a clean politician. But they don’t give him enough support however as a possible Presidential nominee. And the Prime Minister insists he is not interested in the position of President.

Statehood through ‘positive unilateralism’:

This fall, Dr. Fayad and his newly formed government announced a plan they said will prepare Palestinians for statehood by 2011.

Two prominent Israeli think tanks published papers that attack this plan, calling it ‘dangerous’. Israeli officials share their opinion and some have threatened to cancel the Oslo Peace Accords in response, saying Fayad’s plan was ‘unilateral’.

‘Of course it’s unilateral. It cannot be but unilateral’ Fayad assured me. But it’s positive unilateralism he said because it’s about building and development in the occupied Palestinian homeland ‘so that by mid-2011, if the Israeli occupation is not over, the world will say Palestinian statehood is a fact, a reality but the only thing that is wrong with this picture is the Israeli occupation’. Incremental? Perhaps. Revolutionary? Time will tell.

His agenda for state-building despite the occupation and for bringing the world to embrace Palestinian statehood as a reality, rather than political rhetoric is gaining strength.

And to achieve this goal, the Palestinian Prime Minister says he is working on two tracks. On the ground, he is building where the policies of Israeli occupation are choking life out of the economy and agriculture; namely in the areas most affected by the wall. This is a cornerstone in his government’s policy; ‘cementing steadfastness’ they call it. And internationally, his government is re-introducing political language and action the past 16 years of ‘peace process’ had managed to sideline; international law and justice.

Change of game, I asked him. ‘Of course’, he replied. ‘When you’ve been doing as badly as we have, you have to change; you have to make it better’ he added. ‘We’re saying we can’t leave it up to Israel, the Occupying Power, to end its occupation of our homeland’.

As we concluded the interview, Dr. Fayad stayed on for a small chat, though he had another meeting waiting in a different room. I took the chance to remark about all his public appearances. Dr. Fayad’s schedule is packed with them; inaugurating a school here, visiting a village isolated by the wall there. Are they meant to boost your popularity, I asked. ‘Absolutely not’, he exclaimed; ‘I just think this is how things should be done. People have a right to see politicians and talk to them; that’s why I go to all these places’.

In a political culture where factional affiliation is almost tribal, the one change this Palestinian Prime Minister can perhaps take credit for is pushing the envelope. He is the first politician to rebel against this clan-like political culture, which almost one third of the Palestinian public now says they are fed up with.