Dictatorship is illegitimate by definition since it
represents taking power by force and it maintains it through oppression, fear
and brutality. That is one reason that most dictatorships, Arab ones in
particular have felt the need to pretend that they are legitimate by setting up
sham elections. As if anyone really believed that 99.9% support abuse and
cruelty.
The Arab Spring has not given the Arab world a single
dynamic democracy yet but it has given voice to the Arab masses who have
decided to stand up and demand their right to be heard. Governance in the Arab
world will never be the same again. Finally a movement has been born to tell
dictators that the long journey to democracy and personal freedom, the journey
to human dignity will not be stopped.
Bashar Assad of Syria exemplifies the tyranny of Arab
dictatorships. His father rose to power through a coup and ruled the country under
emergency law for 30 years. When Hafez Assad died his son Bashar, an ophthalmologist,
inherited a country and continued the exploitation and the one man rule of
governance.
Many Syrians were encouraged by the relative success of the
Arab masses in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya and Yemen and so initiated small roving
peaceful demonstrations. Dictators do not seek the approval of those that they govern;
instead they maintain control by the use of brutal secret service
supporters/gangs that inflict random violence. The response of the Bashar Assad
regime was initially subdued because he had feared that a sharp escalation
would bring about a response from the world community similar to that in
Libya. As time passed the Syrian forces
became more forceful but stopped shy of leveling civilian quarters in major
cities with tanks and artillery. The West had warned that such attacks will not
be tolerated but will be met with a stern response.
This is when Russia decided to step in and protect its only
client in the Arab world. Russia sent armaments and assured the Syrian regime
that Russia and China will veto any attempt by the Security Council to pass any
measures similar to what had happened in Libya. The regime then tested the will
of the international community by waging a strong military attack on a
neighbourhood in Hama. No meaningful Western response was forthcoming. Russia and China delivered on their promise
to keep the UN Security Council in check. This emboldened the Syrian regime to
try its strong military tactics again in Homs.
Again the West failed to act. Since then the Syrian government, shielded
by Russia and China and helped by Iran has been acting with impunity.
One Arab League initiative, which was passed through the UN Security
Council, appointed Kofi Annan to find a peaceful solution to the Syrian crisis.
This was not opposed by either Russia or China and so Mr. Annan is trying to
apply the same rules to the victims as well as the victimizers. It appears that
this effort will be abandoned since so far
the level of violence by the
Syrian forces has not diminished, actually it has led to the most grotesque
massacre in this conflict so far; Al Houla Massacre.
So where we and what are next in this conflict? The current
government is illegitimate, it is a dictatorship that has failed to evolve and
reform for over forty years, it has sought and obtained Iranian help in putting
down the insurrection, it has used Russian and Chinese political protection to
increase the frequency and ferocity of its military attacks against its own civilian
population. It has taken advantage of the well meaning efforts by Mr. Annan in
order to increase the level of violence and it has called on its Lebanese
minions to expand the Syrian conflict into Lebanon so as to make the Syrian
government’s warning that without Bashar regional instability will ensue a
reality.
This is a regime that has never had any legitimacy, a regime
that does not value personal freedom, a regime that survives by oppression and
brutality a regime that is best described as a regime of human depravity. This
regime must be held accountable for all its human right abuses over the past 14
months of this uprising as well as all its previous excesses against Hama,
Kurds and all its political opponents. To argue that this regime must be
negotiated with only because it has large guns is an insult to reason and
rationality. Furthermore the efforts to justify a continuation of this regime
on the ground that its level of brutality is not as grotesque as it is in some
other dictatorships are ludicrous and actually contemptuous. And last but not
least, as the world evolves and as cosmopolitanism spreads the circle of ethics
widens from the self to the family then the tribe the state and eventually the world.
That would then call for a universal right to protect against slavery,
exploitation and flagrant violation of the most basic principles of human
rights. The Syrian people are entitled to freedom of expression and self
determination in an open and free election without having to fear the ghosts of
the Assad secret services and their egregious acts.
