Agents of change - not agents!
June 24, 2005
I recently mentioned the accusations liberally thrown by a Baathist dinosaur on Al Jazeera, claiming Syrian civil society activists were worse than Americans and Israelis. Well, this must now be the official communication strategy (not that it's really new), because Al Thawra newspaper this week had pretty much the same to say.
Rather shaken by prominent Syrian human rights activist Anwar Bunni's request that the EU not sign a billion-dollar trade deal with Damascus until it improves its human rights records, Al Thawra wrote that by doing this, Bunni and other activists "are adopting the same stand of the forces of external pressure on Syria, that are represented by Zionism and the United States."
How tiring this is getting. The minute we open our mouth, we are accused of being agents and collaborators – something which would make Americans laugh out loud. (And like the US really cares about human rights issues in Syria.) The Syrian regime, and the Americans, for that matter, only hear what they want to hear. Criticize the Syrians and they brand you an agent. In fact, prominent Syrian actor and intellectual Bassam Koussa recently said even more: calling someone an intellectual seems to be an insult these days. At the other extreme, criticize the Americans and they call you a Baathist! It's not even funny.
Al Thawra writes that "Syria asserts the need for everybody to adhere to the interests of the homeland" and funnily adds that there is a need "to draw a distinction between national political opposition and opposition to the homeland for political reasons." Analyze this!
As Anwar Bunni replied, however, the interests of the nation lie in respect for civil society's rights, an independent judiciary, the release of political detainees and the battle against corruption, adding that "the association agreement contains a key clause on human rights that everyone has the right to discuss."
This is all as we await the "trial" before the Supreme State Security Court of human rights activist Aktham Naisse in a few days, under the charges of "opposing the objectives of the revolution and disseminating false information aiming at weakening the state," risking a sentence of 15 years. How depressing.
