Oh Lion of the Golan!

According to fellow blogger "Nine Months in Syria":

"The billboards changed overnight from campaign to congratulations. This one reads: "Congratulations; Congratulations; Oh, our country; To you, our Asad." Or, "To you, our lion." In Arabic, asad means lion."


What I care about is what our lion has done, is doing, will do, to liberate the Golan from 40 years Israeli occupation.

His father, as defence minister, lost the Golan in the 1967 war through his stupidity and arrogance. He then spent 33 years talking about liberating it to justify his dictatorship and military spending. Where has all the money gone?

Now the lion cub has spent seven years playing with fire everywhere except in the Golan. What is he going to do in the next seven years to liberate the Golan and free our prisoners of war. How will he justify his dictatorship in the next 7 years? What does he and his gang have to offer the country? It is truly amazing how a country can "re-elect" a president who has made no public commitments to doing anything!

The neglect of the Golan issue exposes the hypocracy of the Syrian regime to the core. Not only is it incapable of defending the honour of our country, it has actively weakened the state and regular army through its corruption, incompetence and divisiveness. No wonder that Israeli strategists prefer this regime as a "reliable-do-nothing" to any other "unpredictable" nationalist and democratic alternatives.

Tossing a coin on Sunday's referendum

Heads, I win ... Tails, you lose

Syrian Presidential Referendum, Sunday 27 May 2007
The farce continues for 7 more years

“I don't have any formula for ousting a dictator or building democracy. All I can suggest is to forget about yourself and just think of your people. It's always the people who make things happen.”

Corazon Aquino (Political leader and president (1986-92) of the Philippines, b.1933)

Update:

"Damascus,(SANA)-
Interior Minister, Gen. Bassam Abdul-Majeed on Tuesday announced the results of the referendum on a new constitutional term for President Bashar al-Assad, which was conducted on May 27th,2007.

He indicated that the percentage of citizens who said Yes reached 97.62 percent while the percentage of participating citizens in the referendum reached 95.86 percent. The minister said in a press conference he held this morning that the number of citizens who voted Yes on the nomination of President Bashar al-Assad reached 11,199,445 citizens , while the number of citizens who voted Nay reached 19,653 i.e. a percentage of 1.71 per thousand.

He added that the number of invalid papers reached 253,059 papers i.e. 2.21 percent.
He indicated that the percentage of the participating eligible voters reached 95.86 percent i.e. 11,472,157 citizens out of the overall number of citizens eligible for voting which is 11,967,611 citizens whose names were announced in the referendum records."

The Arabic version goes on to say that the minister made the absurd claim that the referendum "was a popular expression of democratic principles and political pluralism"...?!


Comment:

History is littered with examples of dictators "gaining" more than 95% of the votes in a plebiscite. Hitler and Mussolini used the plebiscite to disguise oppressive policies in a veneer of populism. This populism is then used to undermine parliament, which in Syria's case is already a rubber-stamping body, totally unrepresentative of the nation.

Did more than 11 million Syrians (95% of eligible voters) leave their homes to vote yes through their own free will? Did they have the option of not voting at all or a choice of presidential candidates? All students and civil servants, and most villagers, were forced to vote and everyone's identity card and ballot paper could be seen by an intelligence officer as no curtains were available in voting booths. Many voted, and voted yes, through coersion and fear of reprisals.

The numbers are clearly too fantastic to believe, especially when the turnout for the parliamentary elections in April was under 10%. But even if the true percentage of the yes votes is only 30% or 40% it clearly demonstrates the regime's stranglehold on the population. No doubt there are many Syrians who genuinely believe that dictatorship is the lesser of all political evils and there are some who simply like the young Assad and trust his reforming instincts. But the sad truth is that this dictatorship has, for 36 years, savagely wiped out any attempts by honest citizens to form groups, parties or movements and publicise their opinions in order to provide real political alternatives.

The fight for political choice, democracy and social justice goes on regardless.

Students’ exams postponed to encourage Assad worship

The Ministry of Education in Syria has decided to postpone student exams which would have coincided with the presidential referendum on 27 May.

The Ministry, guided by the Baath Party, has declared that students, teachers and school administrators “will wish” to take part in the nationwide rallies planned in support of the president on that day. Assad, the sole candidate, is seeking a second 7 year-term in office in a yes or no vote.

Thanks to fellow Syrian blogger Yazan for highlighting this highly-educated and intelligent decision (Arabic text).