Enab Baladi Issue # 91– Sun, Nov. 17, 2013

Enab Baladi – Kholoud Helmi

Recently Syria has witnessed a level of despair that penetrate to the rebels’ hearts especially that the goals of the revolution have become far away from being freedom, justice and dignity. The liberated areas are captive by greedy people who climbed on the shoulders of the revolution to steal the bounties of the country. These areas are also captive by agendas that manipulate fighters as dice. Sometimes they throw them to the right and other times to the left. Justice is achieved based on an anger of someone or a doubt that leads to execution, kidnapping or arresting. Dignity has been slaughtered on the altar hunger, cold and homelessness in the wilds of the country between sleep on the dirt or take forest as a refuge and a home and begging to get a piece of bread, if any.

The image that has been drawn in the mind for a peaceful organized and civil nation that has a bright face and far from robbery, assassinations, revenge, and the application of laws and provisions that are compatible with whom think of themselves as (Authoritarian commanders) by virtue of money and weapons’ power, seems to be far from what  they were at the beginning of the revolution.

The absence of organization and teamwork has led to the loss of control over the liberated areas and cut them into few segments, each segment has earned a hostage from the revolution; whereas. Only few people are struggling to keep the pulse of the revolution and they are experiencing the bitter things just to achieve the revolution’s goals. These people are alien because they hold the hot coals under proliferation of alternatives to the regime in a new style from one side, and on the other side, groups who are trying to  amputate the revolution from its roots .

On the other hand, in Damascus specifically, the regime has a bright face since it started to work recently with associations that are working on the establishment in all parts of the capital and countryside. These associations concerned women’s care, child care, displaced people, and other institutions to cry upon the destroyed country because of the ‘terrorists’. Here is Damascus, the bright face, where civil institutions are accepting people who used to be part of the revolution. The voluntarily work is paid to attract more volunteers, and their work is going on in full swing. There is no security forces to suppress such institutions or even military checkpoints to stop them, these institutions are founded with a green card from “His Excellency , Mr. President , or his wife”.

The sad thing is that because of the massive destruction caused by the Assad’s war machine, and the displacement of most of the Syrian people, many civilians are switched to be like ‘monsters’. The only aim of their life is to stay alive since they have tasted the bitterness of their life and the survival for the stronger . In the absence of security and shelter, most civilians are recalling the good old days and they wish to return to the stable life with the presence of Assad or not. The most important thing is that life becomes a real life as it was earlier. This is actually the regime’s plan in which he was applying it through media, politics, and through the military option. The worst disaster is that the signs of the success of Assad’s regime has started to appear while there is an increasing fragmentation of the Syrians’ opposition row.

People blame the opposition abroad because they are not united and because they overturned over each other. Meanwhile, the revolutionaries inside Syria are unable to unite their military and civil efforts. Even the liberated areas are almost devoid from any civil organization, and relief efforts failed to plan and coordinate amongst themselves to fill the shortfall in certain areas to others. Relief efforts also failed to provide vaccines and food aid because of lack of organization and planning. The remained ‘liberated’ areas are suffering from a brutal bombardment, security blockade, and assailment by all the different forces even the revolutionary ones, intentionally or not.

Liberating weapons depots contain alarming amounts of weapons are a worry because these weapons are still far away from the besieged areas. So, these weapons are not going to liberate these areas and till now it is not known the fate of this liberation. Oil fields flowing black gold that filled the pockets of a few of the beneficiaries who have done their best to increase the blockade on the besieged cities, and the ongoing process of accumulation of funds is still on. Few people who are fighting for the nation and uphold the word of truth, these people have been a target of hunger and the siege that kill them while money has filled warlords’ stomachs and their pockets.

It does not seem that there is a solution in sight, unless a rise happens that can agitate chilly vim and hearts that have been blocked by greediness. Even for the old revolutionaries, the logic of ‘myself and after me the deluge’ brought nothing to Syria but destruction from the beginning of the revolution. The rescue boat represents the spirit of teamwork, it also requires that people need to understand that the success of an individual does not benefit anyone and that the loss of an individual does not hurt. The most important thing is team’s success, and everyone should work collaboratively to make this boat go on its way and without any breach. People should also learn that when an individual breaches a boat, s/he will not save them because a drowned compound means sinking with all the people who are on it. There are no survivors of a compound that is steeped in Sea choppy waves.

Translated by: Ruba Al Jarf