{"id":5622,"date":"2011-03-31T02:25:00","date_gmt":"2011-03-30T22:25:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/?p=5622"},"modified":"2011-03-31T02:25:00","modified_gmt":"2011-03-30T22:25:00","slug":"syria-carrots-on-the-end-of-a-very-long-stick","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/middle-east-politics-analysis\/syria-carrots-on-the-end-of-a-very-long-stick\/","title":{"rendered":"Syria: Carrots on the End of a Very Long Stick"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/a>The regime in Damascus has responded to the unrest in the country by offering a large carrot and several medium-sized ones at the end of a very long stick.\u00a0 The large carrot is the declaration that emergency law, in place for almost half a century, will be lifted.\u00a0 The other carrots include granting more political and press freedoms.<\/p>\n

I find a problem with this; the idiom carrot and stick deals with donkeys which are much abused and misunderstood animals in the Middle East.\u00a0 But we are talking about human beings here.\u00a0 The Syrians are a proud people with an old and glorious history demanding basic human rights of which they have been deprived for far too long.\u00a0 What the Syrian government has announced is not a reward or concession to the people; it is an inherent right that has been withheld for decades by the Baathist regime through force, fear, repression and intimidation.<\/p>\n

The regime has not even set a timetable for any of these reforms and it seems to be desperately shopping for time while trying to figure out what to do.\u00a0 Time is exactly what US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton gifted Damascus on Sunday when she said that Syria is not Libya and the US is not contemplating intervention in Syria.\u00a0 The message clearly is we’re going to stay out of your way and give you a chance to sort this out<\/em>.\u00a0 What was left unsaid, in my opinion, is that there’s a hidden invoice attached to this American position.\u00a0 Significantly, the Gulf countries have expressed their support for the regime in Damascus and media, Arab and international, has dealt with events in Syria with a much lighter touch than the one used with Yemen, or Libya.\u00a0 Of course American, and world, inaction on Syria is contingent upon the end of the lethal violence used to suppress the protests leaving dozens of Syrians dead and wounded.<\/p>\n

I am not impressed with the demonstrations today held in several Syrian cities in support of the regime .\u00a0 I’m not denying the fact that the regime has supporters; rather, it is always very easy in the Arab world to organize large scale pro-government and -leadership demonstrations.\u00a0 Especially when you declare it a school holidayThese have been very well rehearsed and oft-repeated exercises in public adoration for leaders across the Arab world.\u00a0 I had an uncle working in Kuwait when Iraq invaded and occupied the country.\u00a0 One day the Iraqis decided to organize a demonstration in support of their annexation of Kuwait.\u00a0 My uncle happened to be walking down a street where the march was taking place when he was grabbed by the “organizers” and told to march along and chant.\u00a0 And sure enough, there he was later that evening making an appearance on Iraqi TV as part of the demonstration even though he despised what Saddam had done.<\/p>\n

It’s to come out in significant numbers voicing opposition that takes a lot of doing in this region.<\/p>\n

The Syrian regime has been quick to blame the upheaval on foreign elements, a plot, a conspiracy targeting the stability of Syria.\u00a0 It’s a repeat of the accusations leveled by the regimes of Ben Ali, Mubarak, Gaddafi and Ali Abdullah Saleh.\u00a0 Damascus has also raised the fearsome specter of sectarianism in the country.\u00a0 Syria is ruled by the minority Alawites who first came to power with the ascent in 1966 of Salah Jadid as the strongman of the regime.<\/p>\n

I find it heartening that there have been several marches and calls in the name of national unity, decrying all forms of sectarianism.\u00a0 It would be naive and erroneous to claim that one particular sect is united in its support for or opposition to the regime.<\/p>\n

While the Alawites do hold the reins of power in the country, they are backed by Sunnis.\u00a0 I believe the history of Syria in the 20th Century should be viewed in terms of pre- and post-Hafez al-Assad and pre- and post-Hama.<\/p>\n

The Hama massacre in 1982, which I referred to in previous posts, was an armed insurrection by the Muslim Brotherhood against the regime of Hafez al-Assad.\u00a0 It was preceded for several years by a campaign of terror<\/a> by the Brotherhood, including an assassination attempt on Assad himself, and met with equal brutality and suppression by the regime.\u00a0 In early February 1982 the Muslim Brotherhood declared open jihad against the Baathist regime and took control of Hama.\u00a0 What followed was a brutal fight to the death.\u00a0 It ended with the regime crushing the rebellion, in the process claiming the lives of several thousand people, with the generally accepted figure ranging between 10,000 and 25,000 killed, mostly civilians.<\/p>\n

That’s why it is important the coexistence proponents be given a platform by the media.\u00a0 The struggle in Syria has never been sectarian; it’s always been a power struggle.\u00a0 We should not forget that when Hafez al-Assad mounted his coup d’etat, aka Corrective Movement,\u00a0 in 1970, he imprisoned regime strongman and Alawite compatriot Salah Jadid as well as the Sunni figurehead president Nureddin al-Atassi.\u00a0 Jadid languished in jail for 23 years until he died there in 1993.\u00a0 Atassi was released due to ill health in 1992 and died of cancer less than 2 months later.\u00a0 The Alawites in Syria must not <\/strong>as a sect be held responsible for the sins of the regime or what happened in Hama.\u00a0 They as a group have their own dissidents and critics of the regime, for example Aref Dalila.\u00a0 They have contributed to the enrichment of Arab culture and literature with the creativity of people like the poet Adonis and the playwright Saadallah Wannous.<\/p>\n

I hope that what is happening in Syria is an opportunity for the country to move forward and open up to the world.\u00a0 Even if the protests do die down for the time being the regime should be under no illusion\u00a0 that the storm has passed.\u00a0 The desire for freedom is overwhelming and irrepressible.<\/p>\n

President Bashar is faced with some very tough choices now.\u00a0 The resignation of the government, in my opinion, is not a deal clincher.\u00a0 The issue is changing the nature of the regime.\u00a0 Can it change?<\/p>\n

This is a matter for the Syrian people to decide.\u00a0 We observers and commentators can write and offer our opinions.\u00a0 But what I really wish for, is that Syria and the other Arab countries can offer their people a dignified existence with all the accompanying freedoms.\u00a0 The dignity of standing alone, being the symbol of resistance to foreign plots and enemies, that only get you so far.\u00a0 It does not put food on the table, build a progressive educational system, erect proper infrastructure, encourage first-class healthcare…<\/p>\n

In 1983 an 18-year-old student by the name of Kefah Mokbel <\/a>achieved a 100% score on the Syrian Baccalaureate exam, a first in the history of Syria.\u00a0 He was personally congratulated by President Hafez al-Assad.\u00a0 Today he is one of the world’s top breast cancer surgeons.\u00a0 Unfortunately he is based in London, not Damascus.\u00a0 When Foreign Minister (now Vice-President) Farouk al-Sharaa underwent open heart surgery it was performed in Beirut, not Syria.<\/p>\n

Egypt can claim Farouk Baz and Ahmed Zuweil as eminent Egyptians who emigrated and never returned.\u00a0 Every Arab country has similar success stories of citizens who rose to prominence and were truly valued abroad.\u00a0 The reason is about more than academics.\u00a0 It is about an atmosphere that holds freedoms sacred, encourages creativity and rewards pioneers in various fields.\u00a0 Secularism is not tantamount to heresy and does not aim to eradicate faith, women’s rights do not lead to loose morals, personal liberties are not an affront to unity, individualism does not negate social cohesion, opposition does not imply treason and realism does not equate defeatism.<\/p>\n

It is up to the Arab world to decide if the revolt taking shape within its borders has a place for such convictions.\u00a0 Syria is not the first country nor will it be the last in this chain of tumultuous events.\u00a0 The late President Hafez al-Assad coined the phrase, “Peace of the Brave”.\u00a0 I hope the Arab leaders are\u00a0 brave enough to make peace with their societies; shooting at them does not take much courage.\u00a0 The loyalty and devotion of the people out of conviction will make for a much stronger and more united home front than the one that has suffered defeat after defeat for decades, even centuries.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

OMAR AL-ISSAWI: It’s a ‘plot’, ‘foreign elements’ are at work, the word ‘conspiracy’ is never far from the lips of Syria’s official spokespeople. We’ve heard it all before – from Ben Ali, Mubarak, Gaddafi and Ali Abdullah Saleh. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":86,"featured_media":5634,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[154,83,60],"tags":[3473,5733,114,324,703,18300,18278,5440,1629,2273,18321,18315,18332,630,191,126,389,1959,1808,2269,18330,5693,18302,18313],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5622"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/86"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5622"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5622\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5634"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5622"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5622"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5622"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}