Qunfuz

In Syria, the pro-government media celebrity Jamil Hassan is releasing videos arguing against political parties. He fears that they will be based on sect, ethnicity or region, and will therefore generate division and stop progress (as happened in Iraq). He wants instead ‘unity’. But ‘unity’ doesn’t exist, and can’t be wished into existence. There are differences of opinion among Syrians as there are among the people of any nation, and there always will be. This is because different Syrians have different economic positions, different educations, different life experiences, and different personalities, even before we arrive at sect or ethnicity. The question is, how do Syrians work together in a unified political space even though they disagree? What mechanism can be built to allow for debate, for peaceful transitions of power, and for popular participation? The answer is democracy.

Democracy is not only a question of national parliaments and political parties. Local democracy and workplace democracy are important too. But parliament and parties are essential. Syria still awaits the long-promised Parties Law to allow political parties to operate officially, to open bank accounts, and so on.

Certainly political parties need to be regulated so that they don’t simply replicate sectarian, ethnic and regional divisions. Syria needs national parties based on ideas – for instance, an Islamist party (or several), a leftist party, a liberal party, a nationalist party. These would be vehicles allowing Syrians from different regions/ sects to work together. Otherwise, sects, ethnicities, regions and tribes will be the only organising factors in society – and that will lead to an Iraq-style conclusion. Democracy is not a panacea, but without a democratic mechanism, a new dictatorship will inevitably solidify, and future generations will find themselves unable (again) to change it except by war.

The next three paragraphs are taken from the third chapter of my new book, The Blood Between Us.

“Even if the people had been able to choose their representatives directly, there were no parties to vote for. According to article 14 of the Constitutional Declaration, ‘the State shall protect the right to political participation and the formation of parties on national foundations according to a new law’. By late November, this new law has not yet been drafted. Nothing is stopping Syrians from holding meetings and discussing political programmes, but until such time as a party law is operative, there can be no legal recognition for any party, no bank account opened on a party’s behalf, and so on.

The president’s attitude to parties is perhaps reflected in the words of his media advisor Ahmed Mouaffaq Zaidan, a former Al Jazeera journalist once linked to the Muslim Brotherhood. In an article titled ‘When will the Muslim Brotherhood in Syria dissolve itself ?’ Zaidan urges the Brotherhood’s Syrian branch to do just that, to support the work of the transitional government.

Some might say the Muslim Brotherhood has already in effect dissolved, or maybe that it has expanded so far that it is no longer a party. Mazen Gharibah puts it like this: ‘It could be argued that the Brotherhood hasn’t existed for a long time. It is like McDonalds now – a franchise which covers lots of different movements.’ Nevertheless, the call to disband is frightening. In this stage, parties should be being created, not dissolved. And the precedent given by Zaidan is perhaps even worse than the call itself. He points out that the Syrian Muslim Brotherhood dissolved itself between 1958 and 1961, during the union with Egypt. But the dissolution of political parties by the United Arab Republic was a disaster from which the Arabs have never recovered. Nasser’s single-party corporate state became the model for the totalitarian dictatorships in Syria, Iraq and Libya. In all of those countries, dissent was eliminated and political activity was only permitted taht saqaf al-dowleh, under the ceiling of the state. All of those countries eventually collapsed into civil war.”