http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/31/opinion/31iht-edperthes31.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=volker%20perthes&st=cse
I have replaced only three words from the original article with those in bold, and one word in the title and it sounds perfect:
This is mainly because Fayyad, in contrast to the image of him that some Western leaders have developed, is not a reformer. He can better be described as a modernizer. When he inherited power from Arafat in 2005 he set out to modernize the system — the economic and technological foundation as well as the political, security and bureaucratic elite on which he bases his power. He allowed archaic economic and trade regulations to be shelved, private banks to operate, foreign investments to come in, mobile-phone companies to operate. And, starting with regional party leaders and governors, then ministers, and finally the top echelons of the security apparatus, he managed within only a couple of years to remove Arafat's old guard and replace it with people loyal to himself. In doing so, he gave Ramallah a more modern face and made some things work more efficiently, but he also made sure that the basic system — which relies on the heavy hand of the security services, on personal ties, and on a form of tolerated corruption that allows loyalists to enrich themselves — remained intact.
