“For a long time, we have been reviewing our concepts and ways of dealing with our homeland, its details, complexities, and the developments that have occurred in the region and the world after the collapse of the Soviet Union, which was a resounding fall. The greatest analysts did not actually expect it. We are facing new absolute equations. We were also immersed in a different international context with its multiple crises, where Syria played a pivotal role at least at the regional level.
This role was consolidated in the same previous international context. It was an opportunity for the regime to change its course according to the new realities, and this is fundamental in political work, especially for those who bear the fate of a country.
However, what happened was exactly the opposite, as the regime once again entrenched itself in narrow calculations, to the extent that it confined the interests of the entire nation within its family to inherit power. This was contrary to the prevailing trend in the world, the trend of democracy, human rights, the rule of law, and institutions.
Despite these narrow calculations aligning with the interests of some international parties, anyone who understands well the nature of what happened in the world cannot bet on the success of such a regime. Because it has a blocked horizon in a context it originally created. Nevertheless, some international and regional parties have unfortunately continued to bet that the hereditary regime would adjust its relations with the world and with the Syrian people.
But this did not happen and will not happen.
Since that date, this review accompanies us, seeking the good of this homeland.”
“We used to rely on revolutionary legitimacy that the previous international context allowed and covered all our issues and the diseases of our authorities under this resounding cover.
The regime’s narrow calculations began to remove anything that could set Syria on a new path, a path that international changes came to affirm its credibility, permanence, and the path of a state of institutions, law, and human rights. Here, our review focused on many concepts that we used to discuss in the context of our political practices. The first result we concluded is that a dictatorial authority can only be a corrupt authority on all political, economic, and social levels.
The hereditary authority started to stumble within its narrow security space, and in Syria, there remained only a handful of teenagers and family members to confront the world on one hand and the aspirations and dreams of the Syrian people on the other, wanting to be like other nations on earth. The consequences of this inheritance were evident. The first result of this inheritance was the assassination of the late Rafik Hariri, and behind the backs of the Syrian people, in a treacherous manner. Until the moment of Hariri’s assassination, the Syrian people considered him a friend of Syria, and the assassination was carried out without any preamble known to the Syrian people. The Syrian people were unaware of the threats received by the late Hariri from Bashar al-Assad and his officers. After this cowardly act, Syria entered a qualitative stage in facing the international community, followed by confusion that led to confrontation with the Arabs themselves, without whom Bashar al-Assad would not have remained in power.
All of this is known to anyone closely following what was happening within this authority. If there were a state of institutions and law, could any president make decisions such as assassinating Hariri or imprisoning Syrian activists, leaving the country’s economy plundered for him, his relatives, and his cronies?
In Syria now, a handful of corrupt individuals are making all the crucial and non-crucial decisions. Despite reaching a level of tyranny unparalleled, where no one shares in decision-making, which reflects on the Syrian people, we find them consuming each other, and soon we will see the results very clearly confirming what we are saying.
All of this, and more known to the citizens and what is unknown, makes us adhere to the constants of the state of law, institutions, and human rights. This is our alternative that we seek with all the Syrian people to achieve because it is the path that takes Syria out of this dark tunnel and puts it in the context of natural and non-deviant development taken by this authority. The project of a state of institutions is our definite and only choice.”