The heavy price of civility
April 26, 2007
“Amnesty International considers Anwar al-Bunni to be a prisoner of conscience who has been tried on a charge that is politically-motivated and was brought against him because of his activities to defend human rights in Syria.”
That goes without saying. Amnesty has summarized it perfectly, and yet, nobody can pretend to have been surprised by this harsh sentence; it was, sadly, expected (not that this lessens the shock of hearing the verdict, as Yazan mentioned in the comments section), although I was told by some sources that he would be jailed for three years, not five.
It is an unmerited and unjustifiable sentence after an unconvincing sham of a trial and a crude campaign of psychological and physical abuse. In this day and age, such behavior that employs detainment, mistreatment and torture for an opinion, not an action, is simply uncivilized. In contrast, when we refer to our brave civil society activists, we should salute the civil even before the activist; so far, they have shown nothing but civility in opposition.
Nobody really expects the Syrian regime to act according to democratic, moralistic or enlightened standards; spare us the refrain that Syria is not Spain, Sweden or Switzerland – we know. Nor does anyone really believe the timing of this punishment for no crime is coincidental; we know that the regime can be obsessively timely when it wants to be.
It is no accident that this sentence should come so soon after the conclusion of the farce which the regime calls “elections” (wrongly “analyzed” by some as an attempt to consolidate power, because the regime’s full sovereignty on all things Syrian hardly needs consolidation), and which the Ministry of Information even more pathetically named “a democratic and patriotic wedding” (the latter, in my opinion, is infinitely more damaging to Syria than anything Anwar Bunni could have ever said). When even your closest ally’s media refers to it so disparagingly, any other ministry in any other country would have been shamed into dropping this ridiculous pomposity and sticking with real events.
But the regime has reached such a comfort level that it can scream ludicrous analogies over the rooftops, and, more importantly, add insult to injury to its citizens at numerous opportunities. How typical to announce draconian sentences just as an assembly convenes, squeezing puppets, profiteers and fools into 250 seats where rubber stamps, lists of slogans and instructions await, and from where new governments, decrees and decisions will be obediently applauded and embarrassingly praised.
Indeed, it is a mistake to conclude that the regime acts more harshly when it is under pressure; on the contrary, it is never so severe as when it has the time to "take care" of its citizens.
During the so-called Damascus Spring and the ensuing Damascus Winter, pre-9/11, before Afghanistan, before Iraq, when today’s March 14 leaders were singing the praises of Syria’s entire ruling class and bowing to representatives big and small, when the nouveau régime was thought to be full of promise and Tony Blair, Jacques Chirac and other EU leaders couldn’t wait to take Bashar Assad under their wing, when George W. Bush was mostly concentrating on his own turf, this was the period when Syrian civil society activists were harrassed and arrested, including two prominent MPs who had their parliamentary immunity revoked. Syria was not under pressure then, but this did not save Riad Seif, Mamoun Homsi and Aref Dalila.
Western “observers” who attended their “trials” didn’t really bother themselves with the fate of these brave men. Apart from the obligatory mild statements, the life of a few Syrians really mattered as much as “a zero to the left” when compared to all the possibilities of doing business with the regime.
Five years later, when Michel Kilo, Anwar Bunni and Mahmoud Issa were thrown into jail, the regime was also not under pressure. On the contrary, it was coming out of a bind, feeling stronger than before, having survived the most amazing developments at its doorsteps, from every direction, and realizing that there was going to be no regime change, come hell or high water. By the time Anwar Bunni was “tried” and sentenced, the regime had enjoyed an unexpected proxy victory over Israel, watched the Iraq Study Group demand its engagement, approved several technical reports by the Hariri inquiry, kissed and made up with the Saudi regime, and welcomed numerous senior EU officials and American politicians including Speaker Nancy Pelosi. It was even waiting for Ban Ki Moon to arrive.
The regime is under no pressure, internally or externally, and these are the times when its sting is most painful. Whether they come as payback or as warnings, the regime’s selected punishments serve their purpose and intimidate most others into a frustrated silence, reminding them that having an opinion can be very expensive, and very damaging.
Anwar Bunni has just found out he will linger in jail for a total of five years. Soon, Michel Kilo will hear the same accusation, and in all likelihood the same sentence. This is no time for regime apologists to resort to moot rationalizations (“they knew what they were doing since this is not Sweden”), mindless repetitions (“long term pressure on Syria’s Arabist stance has not ended”) or, even worse, defamation of the opposition (“they are disorganized and offer no real plan or alternative”) - the latter, in particular, being the most ridiculous and the most insultingly immature reaction of them all. Many people have heavy hearts when such news emerge, and many will have no patience for this kind of false naïveté which gives the regime great satisfaction.
Unfortunately, such apologists are forgetting that “divide and rule” is not purely a concept used by foreign imperialists. If only to protect and defend our Syria, let alone respect human rights and uphold civil liberties, the absolute minimum civility we can all show is not idiotically waving flags and slogans, but showing solidarity with our compatriots.
