Adonis Diaries

Bashar Assad, President and dictator of Syria, is supposed to be delivering a public speech very soon, maybe today.  Many of his ministers said that Bashar is to speak on the current upheavals in Syria.  The Prime Minister of Turkey said that he encouraged Bashar to personally deliver the good news to the Syrians, hopefully something related to political reforms, but not necessarily any radical changes.

So far, what officials have released pertain to deleting a stupid clause in the “Constitution” saying that the “Baath party is the leading party in Syria”…

I tried to imagine what a young and educated dictator would say to his people, and how honest he would sound.  Here we go:

“Dear compatriots, Syrian citizens, women and men; peace be upon you…I was greatly pained that a few of our beloved citizens fell “martyrs” the last week in Daraa, Latakieh, Banias, Damascus…They are all martyrs, common citizens, internal security officers, and soldiers…I will personally care for all the injured citizens and I wish them well.

You might rightly think that my speech is going to be as lengthy as the ones I deliver during the Arab League conventions or the one that I had the honor of opening new parliamentary sessions.  Rest assured;  I am not here to teach you, educate you, or going into boring details: It is you, the Syrian people who are my teacher and mentor.  I have been hearing you, clearly and perfectly.

The last two weeks have been the most trying during my six years of power:  I am pained, taken aback, diminished, awed, and proud that the Syrian people are no longer afraid and scared of this never-ending Emergency Law regime that endured since 1963.

I here declare that the Emergency Law is nul and void. I here declare that news-people will no longer go to jail and interrogation first, but will enjoy the rights of defending their cases in civil courts.  As You all know, I am the one who opened up the era of social platforms in Syria and made fast communication a reality.

I know deep in my heart that your uprising is different from the uprising in Tunisia, Egypt, Yemen, and Bahrain.  Your uprising is of a qualitative type:  You want more than what we could deliver in good conscience.  You want far-reaching freedom of expressions and greater liberty to meet and organize.  It is your fundamental right:  You are a very educated people who have something to say to the world, especially the western world that made a mockery of democracy with their biased election laws that favor the rich and the elite classes.

I am hearing you:  We can do much better and I feel sorry that I failed to have confidence in your well-balanced mind and yearning for applying the vast mental potentials that you acquired during three decades of peace and stability.

As you know, my father Hafez had deleted the clause in the Constitution that said: “Islam is the religion of the Syrian Republic State”.  Obviously, in order to calm the vast majority of the Sunni religious people, he was forced to re-include this clause that didn’t sent the proper image of a civil political structure that my father intended to apply.

Aside from this clause that was never applied (the Assad family never relinquished power for the clause to be revisited) Syria society was governed and ruled in a secular fashion irrespective of religious affiliations.

I here declare that the clause on any religion being the religion of the State is nul and void.  This time around, we the Syrians, have gone a long way to instituting a civil society and we will not turn back to theocratic or sectarian systems in governing our versatile communities.  We are ready to fight any factions planning to get back to medieval dark ages.  Syria will be the leading society in the Arab World into modern time.

It is from Syria that all major changes were initiated and it is from the Syrian example in reforms that the new world order in the Awab World will take shape and flesh.

You all know that Syria is maybe the only society were women take part in the political system and the organizational apparatus.  Our women are the freest among the Arab and the Islamic States.  Our women enjoy the same opportunities to work as men…

We maybe the only State that extend quotas to the workers and women in the Parliament and government institutions…

Citizens. women and men, your demonstrations are different:  Damascus has always been the “palpitating heart of the Arab World” and the Syrians are the Arab conscience of their glorious past in culture, sciences, art, literature, dignity…

You have never bowed to occupiers, to the colonial power of France, to the US pressures in favor of our enemy the Zionist State of Israel.  You were the main support to the Palestinian rights to return to their home, and you fought several valiant wars to liberate your occupied lands.

You all follow the news.  The US is planning to redraw the maps in the Arab World according to ethnicity and religious minorities.  We declare that Syria will not be divided and Syria will not be intimidated by Hillary Clinton threats and Syria is not a bunch of tribes and clans…

I order the Parliament to meet in continuous sessions until a new modern Constitution is written and approved in a referendum.  I hope that the main three political positions of Presidency, Prime Minister, and head of Parliament be elected on a rotational basis among the Sunni, Alawi, and Christian sects… (to be continued)

Note:  Finally, Bashar has spoken.  Nothing.  I expected that, strong with the support of million in all Syrian cities, chicken Bashar will lay a few major reform ideas.  Nothing.  What a let down!  Is Bashar thinking that the Syrians supported his dictator and one-party regime? for his relative youth and handsome face? Unless Bashar realizes his mistake, the real people will be back on the streest demanding drastic changes.