The Corrupt Elite Imports the West's Liberalism and Sanctions!

It must be remembered first that liberal policies aligned to the interests of a corrupt elite against the interests of all Syrians are precisely what paved the way for the crisis that the country has been experiencing for years. The socio-economic crisis that Syria entered through liberalism has produced a high social tension that turned into political tension and crisis, and the latter has been taken by the historical enemies of the Syrian people and worked on to be deepened further.

As the political crisis worsened, and the same liberal policies continued, the country again entered the same vortex (economic crisis; social tension; political tension and crisis) but too deeper. Today, the country is entering a third phase of this cycle, after it passed the first phase (namely: the economic crisis), and has entered into the second (namely: the deep social tension), and is now about to enter the political crisis deeper than ever before, in a way that can lead to achievement of what the second phase did not achieve (which began in March 2011 and extended for years later and whose main feature was military confrontations), that is to achieve the abolition of Syria as a functional role at the minimum and as a geography at the maximum.

The liberal policies of successive Syrian governments, which is drawn behind the scenes by a corrupt elite which is the same elite whatever changes that happened in governments, match the new sanctions in a single word: «The West and its dependent structure!». The source of the sanctions is the West. The source of the liberal policies is the West, too. In both cases, the stakeholders are a corrupt economic elite historically linked to the West. Despite all the conditions of open hostility that the country lives towards the West, this elite remains stable within the general structure of the country's political regime, and is still the main controller of the country's various policies.

All the torments of the Syrian people worth not even a small bit of concern by this corrupt elite, and have no meaning except insofar as they provide additional profits, because the doctrine of this elite is that more looting and money means more control over the fate of the country, and by doing so, this elite is making a dangerous and wrong bet at the same time!

The slogan of "Orienting Eastward" economically and politically, which was imposed by the objective reality, is still in words and has not become practice, because such a shift of this pattern means a deep change in the structure against the interests of the Western brokers who control the economy in Syria until now. Any reliance on a change of orientation in a way that serves the interests of the Syrians and fights corruption really and truly, and to prevents the re-production of the crisis in a more dangerous form than before, is nothing but an illusion and a chasing of a mirage.

The change of the deep structure of the political regime in Syria, and through the constitutional approach as entrance, based on UNSC Resolution 2254, which in essence means the right of Syrians to self-determination, is not only the single exit of the catastrophe; it is also the single entrance to prevent re-production of the catastrophe on deeper levels, the same re-producing which is now looming , not too far,  in sight, by means of the "natural and legitimate" mating between corrupt liberal policies and escalating Western sanctions!

Kassioun Editorial, Issue No 899, February 04, 2019