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Kassioun Editorial 1256: The Opportunity Exists; Its Key is Internal!
Despite the great efforts to create a festive atmosphere around the current Syrian situation, it seems – according to the popular saying – like “sprinkling sugar on death”. The facts are clear and stark about the depth of the accumulated and worsening tragedy. Starting with the general political situation, in which Syria is still a set of regions governed by different authorities and in which multiple economic spaces prevail, and the catastrophic economic conditions and liberal measures and orientations hostile to the interests of more than 90% of Syrians and are consistent with the IMF and the World Bank formulas, and not ending with the security situation, which is becoming more dangerous day after day, due to destructive foreign interventions, especially “Israeli”, and due to the rise in the level of sectarian incitement and the absence of real political participation, and even the clear attempts to contain the political movement of the people once again.
Although the picture looks bleak and portends more disasters, the accumulated disasters themselves can open the door to great opportunities; opportunities that may not have been as available in the past as they are today, but which are, of course, conditional on seizing them and investing in them correctly.
These opportunities include the following:
First: Sectarian and nationalist tendencies have always existed within Syrian society as a result of economic backwardness, underdevelopment, the absence of genuine political participation, the dominance of widespread corruption, and the economic models that serve it, all of which have led to the distortion of national identity and prevented its completion. These tendencies remained hidden beneath the surface for decades, but starting in 2011 they began to emerge, especially through external and internal incitement that used the media, politics, and militarism. It can be said that we have reached the peak of the emergence of these tendencies today, and that when people saw the matter tangible before them, they quickly became convinced that this trend is destructive and incapable of protecting them or guaranteeing their future, but is only capable of guaranteeing more destruction, wars, and fighting. That is, the sectarian issue has been placed on the table for an actual solution objectively, in a way that is almost unparalleled except during the French colonial period, in which the early fathers were able to present an advanced model for solving it, and laid the foundation on which we can rely today to solve it once and for all, starting from the slogan “Religion is for God and the homeland is for all”.
Second: Syria’s geopolitical location has always been an absolute advantage that Syria possesses, but it has been exploited to strengthen the authorities rather than to strengthen the state. Thus, it has turned into a curse, especially with the tendency of the various authorities to gain legitimacy from abroad rather than from within.
Third: The absolute and relative advantages of the Syrian economy are numerous and varied, and it is possible to build upon them and achieve real growth and development. However, the entry point is the real redistribution of wealth and power for the benefit of the people, within a developed political system that guarantees their rights and ensures their ability to defend those rights through real political freedoms.
Fourth: Despite the enormous anxiety the whole world is experiencing from the perspective of changing power balances, we are living in an unprecedented era of American decline, and with it implicitly “Israeli” decline, which is completely contrary to what is being promoted in the media (because the economy, before anything else, is the first starting point that can be relied upon in assessing the situation of countries). This new international situation, which is accompanied by the rise of the trend towards new regional alliances that include countries and regimes that were until recently contradictory and hostile, as is the case with Saudi Arabia, Iran, Turkey, and Egypt, is a valuable opportunity for Syria, including through benefiting from the Belt and Road Initiative.
These gateways of opportunity are ready for us to open them wide, but their key is internal, not external. It begins with uniting Syrians through a comprehensive political solution based on the directions and basic objectives of UNSC Resolution 2254, and through a comprehensive national general conference with full powers, and which includes all Syrian political and social forces, and puts all outstanding issues on the table for discussion among Syrians, in order to reach common and consensual solutions.
