Opinion: How to Bring Democracy to Syria (I) · 8:30pm Apr 16th, 2017
Continuing with the previous post I did last week, now I'm going to give my piece on how democracy should come to Syria and how important this actually is.
First off, I must answer the silent question: Why must Democracy come to Syria?
Syria, as any other nation suffering through a dictatorship of any kind (Communist, Socialist, Fascist, Laic, Muslim, Induist, etc) doesn't deserve to have an autocrat or tyrant deciding how his population should and/or would live. All the nations deserve to live in a country with a system of government made out of a Legislative Power that creates the laws, an Executive Power that execute the laws and a Judiciary Power that administer Justice. All of this powers separated from each other but working together to create a State of Right that can ensure the livelihood of its citizens.
A dictatorship cannot ensure any of this, any and all kind of dictatorships have all the branches bent towards the Dictator/Tyrant and his will to make the country however he sees fit and to persecute any and all kind of political opposition or social dissent. This can be seen in the Chinese Student Revolution of 1989, The Umbrella Revolution of 2014 (Hong Kong), The Dictatorships of Fidel Castro (Cuba), Kim-Jong Um (North Korea), Hitler (Germany), Stalin (Russia), Mussolini (Italy), Pinochet (Chile), Salvador Allende (Chile), Alberto Fujimori (Perú), Marcos Pérez Jiménez (Venezuela), Saddam Hussein (Iraq), The Terrorist group Hamas (Palestine), The Ayatolas in Iran and many, many more examples where Human Rights are violated and people is disappeared just because the regime doesn't like dissent of any kind. Syria has Bashar Al Assad and they shouldn't have a dictatorship again.
Now, how could Democracy come to Syria?
The answer is as simple as complicated, remove Assad from his throne.
Now, any radical (along the Syrian rebels) would think that Assad must be murdered to remove him from power when that's actually far from the truth. I can assure you, without a doubt, that if Assad is murdered then the crisis in Syria would become much worse, which is why Assad must leave willingly from his position and that's not impossible.
In January 23rd of 1958, Marcos Pérez Jiménez decided to leave Venezuela after a huge protest from the Society, Military and Political parties, leaving the general Wolfgang Larrazábal in charge for a year (avoiding coups and stopping any potential new military uprising from happening) while new elections were being made to bring democracy back to Venezuela.
In 1990, Pinochet was defeated on a referendum (pressed to do it by both internal and international pressure) that told him how fed up were the Chileans with his mandate (including military) and that he should drop down. He accepted and, fulfilling his part of the deal, step down from his position of power.
In Gambia, last year, the dictator was defeated through an election. He refused to accept the results, which lead to the governments in Africa to military enter into Gambia to make him accept the results. Not a single bullet was shot, the dictator fled from Gambia before anyone could catch him, leaving the country in hands of the opposition.
Nicaragua is a better example for Syria, the Right Wing dictator Somoza was defeated by the Sandinista Revolution (backed by Fidel Castro), the USA (led by Jimmy Carter at the time) decided to not help Somoza, and became a Communist Dictatorship. After years fighting the Contras (backed by Ronald Reagan despite the Congress refusal) and international support to bring back democracy to Nicaragua (what's not happening today in the case of Venezuela), in the 1990's, an election with International Vigilance was finally held to let Nicaragua choose if they wanted to keep the Sandinista Revolution or the Opposition. Sandino lost the election and democracy came back to Nicaragua after decades of dictatorship.
The possibility of a military intervention could make it worse? Depending on the type of military intervention. Iraq sucked but The USA did managed to get rid of Noriega in Panama, back in 1989, and Panama is fine now (and Noriega wasn't either Communist or Fascist). The process between the invasion of Panama and the transition of democracy was chaotic if only because Noriega destroyed the Panamanian Economy and had the Military completely loyal to him and fixing all that would take a long time.
But all of this cases have one thing in common: The Dictator was alive when he was removed and that's because the leader represents a political factor (because it's always related to politics somehow) and murdering a political leader has a political price that brings terrible consequences on the long run (like the murder of Carlos Delgado Chalbaud, which left Venezuela open for Marcos Pérez Jiménez to take over the country or Allende's suicide which made the Communist justify his human rights violations to say now that he just didn't had enough time to fix Chile, even though he was the one who created the mess on the first place).
And now, the second factor that mustn't be ignored: Dealing with the Syrian Rebels.
Now, I want to leave very clear that I am completely aware that there are multiple groups of rebels in Syria, but I'll still cal them the Syrian Rebels because that's what they are.
The second thing that must be dealt with (on a National Level) is making the Syrian Rebels to drop their guns and, either, help against ISIS or stop being a guerrilla group to become a full politician.
One of the many excuses the Syrian Rebels use to fight Assad is that they're fighting for Democracy/ get rid of Assad's oppression and if Assad leaves the Office willingly, they'll not only lose a huge political back up to stay around but, if they don't support the new democratic government or drop their guns, they could also lose any international back up they could be having because they would have no more legal reason to stay fighting. But, considering that some of this groups comes from Al-Qaeda, is quite clear that this won't be the case.
And, considering how effective was The Revolution lead by Fidel Castro and the Sandinista Revolutionary Forces in their respective countries regarding bringing democracy, is very obvious that no democracy could ever come from somebody who got to power through the use of force and the violation of the system designed to get to power.
So, how to get rid of them?
By treating them the same way the Communist Terrorist Groups were dealt with in Latin America.
This Terrorist groups were very similar to their muslim modern counterparts, they use an ideology to bring in people that feels unsatisfied or hates the current government and thinks that this group will bring an utopia never seen before. This groups doesn't care for their soldiers (just ask the FARCs in Colombia or Fidel Castro, who murdered anyone who was no longer useful to him) and they don't care where do they come from, if necessary, they'll kidnap children and indoctrinate them so they become loyal to the Revolution/Jihad.
And how were they dealt with?
With Military force, fighting them with no backing down until they become so weak they have no other choice but to negotiate for peace. That was how President Betancourt and Leoni dealt with the FALN (backed by Castro), they were so weaken out that they decided to accept Caldera's offer for peace (sending them to jail for a few years, making them release their weapons and, after completing their fine, reintegrating themselves on the public society and now they would enter politics through the diplomatic and constitutional means) and Colombia was following the same path with the FARC, both Presidents Pastrana and Uribe weak them out until they had no other choice but accept a peace deal (that, the now President, Juan Manuel Santos decided to use to practically give Colombia to the FARC on a silver platter by giving them 10 seats in the congress, among many more gifts) so this peace deal must also be done under the right terms.
That way, with Assad gone, the Syrian Rebels backing down and the creation of the institutions (a process that will be its own post), then democracy can come to Syria.
But that was how peace should come on a national level. We still need to talk on an International Level and that will be next week.
*As I was writing this, the results of the new Referendum in Turkey were given (after it was decided at the last moment to accept votes with no legal seal to validate them, if you know what that means) and now Erdogan will have power to rule Turkey until 2029. It sadden me to see Trukey taken the same political route that Venezuela took back in 1999.
Sounds solid.