No wise person in the Arab Spring countries wants destruction, chaos, strife and bloodshed to continue.
No one who has any human feelings can endure seeing refugees and displaced persons from Iraq, Syria, Yemen and Libya living away from their homes, suffering all kinds of torture. Efforts should be made to end the miseries of these people.
The enemies of revolutions, whether in these countries or abroad, worked hard to transform the spring into burning hell, taking revenge against those who had revolted for the sake of freedom.
Let us agree that there is a need to end the misery of the people in these countries. This must be done on the basis of a new social contract without wasting people’s sacrifices and sufferings, and the door must be shut in the face of dirty regimes whose return to power is opposed by people.
Those who cry over the situation in Syria, Libya, Yemen and Iraq are shedding crocodile tears. The political solutions they call for are lies coated with what appears to be truth.
If the solutions lead us to new social, economic and political systems, it is fine, but the suggested solutions on the table now are nothing more than dirty, well-known games that aim to make people subservient on the pretext that it is the way to end their miseries.
So what is the benefit of going back to square one?
I don’t mean extending people’s misery, but we should look at the experiences of past revolutions, which accepted false political solutions with catastrophic results.
That happened with the Algerian people in the 1990s, when the Algerians revolted for a decade. Hundreds of thousands offered many sacrifices, but at the end of the day the generals rallied against the revolution, killing, criminalising, starving, torturing and humiliating people.
As a result, the Algerians cursed the day they had revolted and accepted any solution offered to them, which in turn brought back the old days of tyranny.
The Algerians did not get anything from this revolution but suffering, displacement, poverty, starvation and loss of lives. They were forced to submit to the authority they had revolted against, suffering human and financial loss.
Unfortunately, some Arab people prove the famous saying of British thinker Aldous Huxley: “That men do not learn very much from the lessons of history is the most important of all the lessons of history.”
Someone else has said that one who gains half of a revolution’s benefits is like a person who digs his own grave with his hands.
This is what happened to the Algerians, and what is happening now to the Yemenis. The Yemenis were able to carry on their revolution until they achieved their demands, but they accepted a catastrophic political solution. The result was that the regime they had revolted against became free and allied with their rivals, the Houthis, to take revenge.
The Houthis returned Yemen to square one after they had destroyed the revolution’s gains. Don’t the Yemenis now feel that their revolution was stolen from them? Don’t they feel that their sacrifices were in vain, after they accepted false and incomplete solutions?
The same happened in Syria, as many voices were calling for a political solution. Welcome to the solution that met the Syrians’ demands. But will this solution heal the wounds of Syrians and make them feel that their sacrifices were worthwhile?
Didn’t the UN describe the situation in Syria as the biggest humanitarian crisis since the Second World War? So is it logical that after all that the Syrians have suffered at the hands of the cruellest fascist regime in modern history, we will accept a political solution that gives legitimacy to those who destroyed their homeland and displaced more than half the population?
Is it not a stain on humanity that the Syrians will return to obedience, claiming that they had suffered because of the revolution? What will be the benefit of the political solution if it is going to be a copy of the Algerian scenario that brought the generals back to power despite all that they did to the Algerians?
Have Bashar Al Assad and his regime learnt anything from the crisis they have brought upon their people? No!
Does he wish to take Syria to a new, peaceful stage or is vowing doom and destruction to Syrians if he rules them again?
Didn’t he say in his last interview to the BBC that he did not remember any mistake against the Syrians over the past four years? Didn’t he replace the curfew law with the new terrorism law, which is worse and made Syrians wish for the curfew again?
Is it logical, after all the sacrifices in Syria, that the Syrian intelligence agencies arrested people and tortured them to death in prisons because they had clicked the “like” button for a note by a Syrian opposition member on Facebook?
Is it acceptable that a Syrian should lose his job if he says one word against the fascist regime? Is it logical that the intelligence agencies confiscated Syrians’ provisions because of an article or a TV programme that talked negatively of the regime?
Over the past four years, have you heard Bashar Al Assad say any words of sympathy for the suffering of the 15 million refugees and displaced Syrians? Instead we see him on the screen laughing as if nothing has happened.
Have any of you heard him claim responsibility for what is happening? A true leader is one who acknowledges responsibility as he is in charge of leading the country and its people.
Isn’t it ironic that the Syrians could accept a political solution that would get them back under the feet of the military and fascist regime that has vowed all types of torture for them if they manage to control the country again?
Look at the situation of people who reconciled with their regimes. Won’t the latter blackmail and rape them to overpower them? It is important for Syrians to know that the regime that has used all kinds of internationally forbidden weapons against them will do more if it gets back its legitimacy through a political solution.
O rebellious people, have you seen in history a revolution that ended with a political solution agreed upon by the tyrant and the oppressed people? Or did it end by throwing the tyrant into the dustbin of history?
The author is a columnist and a presenter on Al Jazeera TV channel
