Dr Mahboob A Khawaja
SYRIA becomes a new nation free of bloody authoritarian dictatorship lasting over 54 years. The Arab-Muslim World lacks the capacity to imagine this unthinkable change spearheaded by a people’s movement to challenge the atrocities of the sadistic Assad family denying basic human rights, freedom and justice to the masses. While socio-political changes are taking shape on the ground, Israel is set on a course of incursion and unwarranted and unjustifiable attacks and bombardment of several Syrian towns to undo the emerging peaceful developments for the people of Syria.
The new Prime Minister Mohammed al-Bashir clarified his vision and quest for an inclusive and people-oriented democratic Syria. The Joe Biden administration in the US is just a spectator and so are the West European allies of Israel to watch and do nothing to stop the aggressive Israeli attacks on Syria. Across the globe, voices of reason are loud and clear that on peacemaking and the issues of post-Bashar al-Assad New Syria, America and Israel both have lost the opportunities for a peaceful accord with the new rulers of Syria and to balance the disequilibrium in which the State of Israel currently exists – the year-long war on Gaza and the forcible expulsion of people from their homeland in the West Bank and other parts of Palestine. It is becoming more obvious that by challenging the voices of reason and denial of the rights of the Palestinian people for statehood, both America and Israel could enjoin a terrible sense of helplessness and isolation and nothing could save them from the consequences of their triviality, ignorance and indifference toward the standing of the global community for peace, security and stability in the Middle East region.
Discard cynicism and wickedness but be conscious that some contemporary politicians and monsters of history are often the two sides of the same picture enriched with perversion and treacherous escape from the facts of the 21st century knowledge-based global affairs. At this week’s hurriedly arranged Aqaba Conference in Jordan to discuss the issues of New Syria, America and its regional Arab allies appear on different pages and conflicting time zones. Is it meant to acquire USAID or a co-existence with Israel?
The outgoing US administration has a vested interest in keeping occupation of some eastern parts of Syria and free oil flow and its 900 stationed army personnel to make its illegal presence in the region. It will collaborate with Israel in strategic interests and some groups of Kurds as paid fighters to disrupt the peaceful change of Syria as a united nation free of discord.
Apparently, American political intransigence has lost the strategic direction and rational sense of justice and humanity in honouring its peacemaking commitments to the people of Palestine. Ironically, Antony Blinken held his separate press conference while claiming to be a supporter of the rights to freedom, security and democracy of the people of Syria. There is no concrete or formal plan except intentions and broad-based overtures to help New Syria move towards peaceful transformation and be able to reconstruct its public institution, systems of democratic governance and acquire a stable and honourable position in the global arena of states.
President Biden apparently defies his own declared stance of supporting a peace process and a two-state solution between the Israelis and Palestinians. America has not changed its stance and policies to support the aggressive behaviour of Israel in occupying the buffer zone in Golan Heights and the continuous bombing of Damascus and other towns in Syria. The irrational statement on Syria and the bombardment of its cities has engulfed the world with a new face of hostility and distortion in the shape of President Biden and his administration – an insidious crisis in the making to divert attention away from the core problem of peacemaking between Israel and Palestine. There is no place for individualistic complacency and political expediency regarding human rights, peace and justice for all. If the Biden administration was rational and honest, it could have warned Israel not to occupy the buffer zone in Golan Heights and launch attacks on Syria. Do some American leaders practice favorite perversion to proclaim political aims simply to satisfy egoism?
In Search of a People-Oriented Syria
Do the Arab leaders have any sense of rational thinking and accountability to cope with the issue of Syria and its peaceful transformation into a systematic democratic norm without any external threat to its people and security? The future of Syria is of an immense importance to the Muslim World and the global community. What if the Arab World had legitimate, educated, intelligent and proactive leaders equipped with persuasive communication, moral and intellectual capacity to visit various global centers of politics and contribute logical viewpoints on Syria, and freedom of Palestine and peacemaking between Israel and Palestine?
The contemporary global affairs warrant intelligent and competent leadership, not crown princes, kings, or military dictators. Leaders manage the crisis when facts of life warrant change and adaptability to future making. Often crises unite people of reason but not the Arab rulers. Notwithstanding the requisites of reason and honesty, many Arab rulers are collaborating with the US warmongering across the Middle East and keeping silent on blatant massacres in Gaza. There are no Arab public institutions of thinking, no armies and no leaders to lead. Is the Arab World coming to its end because of the authoritarian rulers? Syria and its masses are a case in point for rethinking all the obsolete thoughts and practices of the Arab political leadership.
While Islam professed and emphasised “shura” – public consultation and consensus on major public discourse and national interests, the Arab leaders flouted moral and intellectual advice from learned scholars and educated people. Most Arab leaders are afraid of a people-oriented system of political governance, and it is uncertain if they would really come out to support their words into actions for the good of the people of Syria.
If there were any Arab moral, spiritual and intellectual powerhouses as were the traditional “Deewan” – community centers for interactive societal communication, listening to voices of reason and honesty and problem-solving, they should have taken initiatives to find peaceful ways and means to have peace between Israel and Palestine. The history speaks loud and clear that a few powerful rulers with individualistic absolutism have always driven mankind to large-scale slaughters, victimisation, deprivation and long-term scars of why and how it happened, it never goes away from the human memory and written pages of human history. Paul Buchheit in “War or Revolution Every 75 Years. It’s Time Again” (Common Dreams) wrote: “In our civilised world people aren’t being run down by noblemen or forced to eat grass. The aristocracy has learned a lot about suppressing crowds in 225 years. But they need to fear the growing revolution. They need to fear, as Dickens put it, “the remorseless sea of turbulently swaying shapes, voices of vengeance, and faces hardened in the furnaces of suffering until the touch of pity could make no mark on them.”
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Dr Mahboob A. Khawaja specialises in international affairs — global security, peace and conflict resolution and has spent several academic years across the Russian-Ukrainian and Central Asian regions knowing the people, diverse cultures of thinking and political governance and a keen interest in Islamic-Western comparative cultures and civilisations.
