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The Anticipated Political Life in the New Syria
The Assad regime has transformed the state from a public space for all citizens into a private space for those loyal to the security authority. This highlights the importance of presenting an alternative political vision for a new Syria, centered around key political questions: affirming the neutrality of the state as a state for all components of Syrian society, addressing issues of state, citizenship, and public and individual freedoms, and a foreign policy that serves the reconstruction project.
What institutions are capable of producing a new political life for all components of the Syrian people, qualified to reproduce a modern state, transforming the current state of chaos into a building process based not on conflict but on a unified Syrian national contract? What needs to be changed? How can the political system be reproduced to establish change at all levels?
Undoubtedly, this requires restructuring the political system, allowing the freedom to form parties and civil society organizations, restructuring security agencies, and building a modern national army that includes all components of Syrian society, not just the military factions that gathered at the "Victory Conference." Additionally, there must be guarantees for fair elections, transitional justice, and national reconciliation.
Democratic transformation requires continuous cumulative efforts, leading us to refrain from the illusion of rapid political change. After the change, it is essential to reestablish the political system, starting with reorganizing administration and political life in a way that facilitates the generation of an effective civil society and influential political parties that earn a sufficient degree of public trust.
In this context, if the forces of change do not recognize the challenges associated with the transitional phase and develop approaches to effectively address these challenges by seeking to build national consensus, achieving stability seems almost impossible. Here lies the importance of civil society organizations that promote positive values among Syrian citizens through launching national dialogue on issues concerning the public interest.
To ensure a genuine political life, we can benefit from the experiences of change movements in countries that transitioned from authoritarian regimes, and there are several lessons to be learned. Most notably, democratic transformation requires continuous cumulative efforts, leading us to refrain from the illusion of rapid political change.
Since democracy is a cumulative process that relies on the presence of intellectual and political elites with a modern political culture, there is no guarantee that change will lead directly to the achievement of democracy.
The success of the transformation process depends on the availability of intensive political awareness for wide sectors of youth and women, forming a broad historical bloc of political forces working for the success of this option, benefiting from international support that serves the transition process, and cutting off paths for counter-revolutionary forces.
The state plays an important role in this process by not arbitrarily separating politics from economics and abandoning the illusion of achieving economic development in the absence of political modernization.
In this context, various efforts have been made to define the roles of the state and good governance, which range between the state's effectiveness in securing citizens' basic needs: education, health, housing, and employment, and the rule of law and fighting corruption, leading to citizens' ability to exercise freedom of expression.
It seems that the future Syria is most in need of starting from the United Nations definition of the right to development: "a comprehensive process with economic, social, cultural, and political dimensions aimed at achieving continuous improvement in the well-being of all residents and individuals, through which human rights and fundamental freedoms can be realized."
For the state plays an important role in this process by not arbitrarily separating politics from economics and abandoning the illusion of achieving economic development in the absence of political modernization.
Herein lies the importance of a participatory developmental approach, which enables citizens to contribute to finding suitable solutions to their problems concerning securing their basic needs.
Abdullah Turkmani
