Although the way out for Syria was quite clear and very easy at the beginning, the Syrian leadership chose to take a difficult exit route. The crisis began not even as an uprising, but as a grievance against stupid government officials. Instead of calling the guardians of a group of children to warn them against writing anti-regime slogans on school walls, the security services, together with the governor, summoned the children’s parents to tell them to forget about their children who have been imprisoned for life. Adding insult to injury, the officer-in-charge of the political security apparatus, Atif Najeeb, the son of the president’s aunt, told a group of very conservative notables of the city of Daraa: “If you can’t produce new kids, get us your wives and we will make them pregnant for you”, which effectively ignited the Syrian revolution.
However, the upper leadership in Damascus could have still easily corrected the horrible mistake committed by Najeeb and the notorious governor, Faisal Kalthoum. It could have simply hanged both of them in a public place in the city for everyone to see. Doing so wouldn’t have only pleased the people of Daraa, but would have also granted the president a new lease of life. He would have looked in the eyes of his people and the world at large, not only as an honourable leader, but also as a firm and powerful one. He would have started reforming his ailing regime in a very dramatic and strong manner. Syria’s Spring would have been very different and less costly.
However, the leadership’s short-sightedness and dogged stubbornness added fuel to the fire. The regime refused even to question the two officials.
Funnily enough, the president even complained to a group of citizens visiting him, to discuss the situation in the country, that his aunt, Najeeb’s mother, phoned him to tell him off for not being nice to her son. The president even went to the extent of threatening to fight those who opposed his regime, in his first disastrous speech in the so-called Peoples’ Council. He spared no time. A couple of days later, he sent in his army to Daraa to put down the little demonstartaions that began to get onto the streets.
Meanwhile, the Syrian leadership began to manoeuvre. It tried to fight the demonstrators on one hand and issued reform decrees on the other, in order to appease the public. There was a series of decrees designed to superficially reform political life. A new media law was enacted, together with another one for setting up political parties. There was even a new law for demonstrations, the first of its kind in the history of Syria. We should not forget also the abolishing of the notorious Emergency Law and writing a new constitution for the country. On the face of it, the above laws seemed to be a great reform leap, but in essence, they were nonsense.
The media, which was supposed to be freed from state control, became, according to the new law, more centralised. Although the Syrian revolution has been going on for more than 16 months, we have never seen a single anti-regime demonstration on the Syrian television. As far as the party law is concerned, the authorities allowed pro-regime cronies to set up a couple of funny parties, which were seen by the people as more of a joke than real political parties. With regard to the demonstrations law, it turned out to be extremely harsh. Some cynics described it as anti-demonstration law, as it made demonstrations next to impossible. The Syrian people, in fact, called upon the regime to bring back the horrible Emergency Law, which, compared with the new “reformative” laws, seemed to be fairer!
The new constitution, which was termed as the best in the world by the regime mouthpieces, turned out to be tailored especially to suit the president and nobody else, as it gave him imperial powers. According to the new constitution, all powers are amassed in the hands of the president. He has the right to appoint the government and the right to fire it. He is the secretary-general of almost everything in the country, even the carpenters’ trade union.
In a word, there was no real intention of real reform, which made the people more adamant that the revolution should go on. And to add fuel to the fire, Al Assad’s supporters wrote slogans on walls threatening that “either Al Assad rules the country, or we will destroy it”. Obviously, they are sticking to their words. They country is on fire.
Dr Faisal Al Qasim is a Syrian journalist based in Doha.
