DAMASCUS Young President Bashar al-Assad faces the chimera of reforming Syria without endangering the 30-year legacy bequeathed to him by his father Hafez al-Assad who died in June.
Emerging last July as the youngest ruler in the Arab world, Bashar's ascension seemed the equivalent of a royal coronation.
Whatever opposition existed was quietly steamrolled, AFP reported.
Nonetheless, Assad, 35, whose name means "bright future" in Arabic, has raised Syrians' expectations that he will set the struggling nation on the road to prosperity.
"There is a glimmer of hope that President Bashar will make a place for others. He believes the nation cannot grow without the force of all its children," said Michel Kilo, a writer and dissident whom the Syrian government imprisoned for two and a half years in the early 1980s.
Bashar's own background -- studying medicine in England and his passion for computers -- has fueled people's hopes.
The walks which Bashar occasionally takes without bodyguards in Aleppo, present a picture to Syrians of a leader who listens to his subjects, not a uniformed soldier who rules with an iron fist.
But whatever the kinder and gentler image of Hafez al-Assad's son, the tasks facing Bashar are daunting: how to reform a one-party, authoritarian regime, revamp a sclerotic, nationalized banking sector and free foreign investment from the twin hurdles of excessive bureaucracy and corruption.
Official government figures are a testament to the country's stagnation: for 20 years, the Syrian pound has stayed at a fixed exchange rate of five Syrian pounds to the dollar; and the country counts only 5,000 Internet subscribers among a population of 17.5 million.
Even more troubling is the growing gap between Syria's rich and poor. Corruption has fattened the pockets of Baath Party and government officials while, at the same time, most Syrians earn only an average salary of $125 per month.
Whether Bashar is committed to rooting out corruption remains to be seen. His own publicized campaign to root out corruption before coming to power, observers say, served mainly to root out Baath officials opposed to his succession.
The tension between rich and poor plays itself out almost daily in Damascus where one witnesses a parade of Baath rank-and-file riding in luxury cars while the majority of citizens drive around in old battered vehicles of all kinds.
Given all the difficulties facing Bashar, bright spots do exist.
Syria still remains the world's sixth largest cotton producer and pumps 650,000 barrels of oil per day, of which 320,000 are exported. Its archaeological sites count among the region's most important.
But to take advantage of Syria's resources, Bashar must attract foreign investment. And the clock is ticking.
Syria's oil reserves are expected to run dry within 20 years.
Furthermore, in an economy already wrestling with unemployment, the country's population appears to be another time bomb.
It is expected to double by 2020.
However, Bashar's government has made an aggressive play for foreign investment with the December announcement that it would establish private banks and a stock exchange.
Alongside his economic initiatives, Bashar also seems eager to promote greater social freedom.
As a conciliatory gesture to those imprisoned under his father, Bashar released 600 political prisoners in November. The authorities also announced the closure of the Mazze prison in Damascus, the very name of which made Syrians tremble.
But the measures carry only a symbolic weight since other prisons for political prisoners continue to operate.
Bashar has also sanctioned other cosmetic changes, such as the refusal to poster every city wall and billboard with portraits of himself and his father.
He has permitted greater freedom of expression among his opponents.
An open letter printed in a Syrian newspaper by 99 intellectuals demanding a "return to the rule of law" passed without incident.
According to two of the signees, no one has yet been arrested.
In the Baath-dominated Parliament, MP Riad Seif delivered a speech in November, denouncing "political and economic monopolies," the corruption of the judicial system, censorship and cronyism.
But observers are withholding final judgment and are skeptical about whether the recent changes are anything but temporary.
"The regime has allowed a margin of freedom only to those who are not well organized, because Bashar does not wish to see the emergence of a force able to change the balance of power," Kilo said.