Election Strategy, Syria Harry Styles Photo: Flickr/ PanARMENIAN_Photo Photo: Flickr/ PanARMENIAN_Photo A report out of Syria indicates that Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad sees no obstacle to holding – let alone winning – a presidential election scheduled for next year. “No obstacles” is a fascinating choice of words. There are, of course, no obstacles; because Mr. Assad is a ruthless autocrat who kills his opposition. And a lot of his own people. We’ve said a number of times that it takes more than an election to have a democracy. Syria is another example (strange that this part of the world – except for tiny, democratic Israel – has so many examples of this phenomenon). The first step to democracy is, of course, a free, fair, open election. Syria, Iran, and others in the region fail on those accounts. Next, you need societal institutions that can sustain democracy: free and independent judiciary, a free and vibrant press, freedom of speech, an educated populace, and others. None of these institutions are present anywhere in the Middle East – not even in Turkey which used to have most of them – except Israel. Assad, who was educated at Oxford and is married to a Western woman, knows full-well that what goes on in his country cannot reasonably be called an election. And he also knows that we know it. The sad fact, though, is that many of his supporters have no idea what real democracy looks like and wouldn’t know what to do with it if they had it. While we believe that the human spirit longs for liberty, the unfortunate truth is that some people aren’t prepared for the responsibilities that come along with it – not because they’re biologically incapable, but because they’ve been conditioned otherwise. Unless and until that conditioning changes, Bashar al-Assad and those like him will keep winning “elections” in landslides. Author: Stand For Israel | October 22, 2013
Posted on: Fri, 25 Oct 2013 01:29:32 +0000
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