By Lauren Williams

BEIRUT: With the Syrian revolution appearing to steam toward full-blown militarization, intensive efforts are under way to promote peaceful transition through civil resistance and state building campaigns.
 
With the regime’s forces gaining ground and the Free Syrian Army and military diplomacy grabbing headlines, hopes for a political solution to unseat Assad are dimming, say some civil society campaigners.
 
However, they say that while the opposition Syrian National Council is in disarray, it is not too late to take back the revolution.
 
Highly politicized maneuverings within the SNC saw the body finally call for Western and Arab military intervention Monday – after having announced on March 1 the formation of a military bureau.
 
Georges Sabra, who called for intervention in a televised news conference in Istanbul, said the SNC had decided to arm the Free Syrian Army, and that it was coordinating with some foreign governments also sending weapons.
 
“We demand military intervention by Arab and Western countries to protect civilians,” Sabra said, speaking a day before SNC representatives were due to meet U.N.-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan in Ankara.
 
Despite fierce infighting and questionable legitimacy on the ground, the SNC have still managed to emerge as the pre-eminent opposition body in competing blocs largely divided over the question of dialogue with the regime as a means to a political rather than a military intervention.
 
But initially formed as an all-encompassing coalition with representatives from the Islamic Muslim Brotherhood, Kurds, Christians, members of grassroots movements, Communists, Nationalists, Assyrians and Independents, divergences of opinion manifested in a spate of strategic defections this week, leaving it, according to some disgruntled members, dominated by Islamists and those advocating a military option to try to upend Assad.
 
On Tuesday, influential SNC members, including a former judge and human rights activist Haythem al-Maleh, along with two other prominent members, quit the council, prompting some to predict its collapse. Leading dissident Kamal Labwani was expected to follow.
 
“I have resigned from the SNC because there is a lot of chaos in the group and not a lot of clarity over what they can accomplish right now. We have not gotten very far in working to arm the rebels,” Maleh told Reuters.
 
Last month, a breakaway bloc – the Free Patriotic Movement – headed by high profile members like Labwani, Samir Nashar and Imad Rashid, emerged advocating armed intervention and calling for “reform of the council” – which has been largely interpreted to mean dislodging Paris-based secular chief Burhan Ghalioun from the leadership.

“The Muslim brothers ... have a toy name Ghalioun and they play inside as they wish,” said one businessman and financial backer close to the group.
 
“We will put them in corner to reform the SNC and if they reject this we have the tools to maximize the pressure in the street and with governments outside, “ he said.
 
Announcing his decision to suspend his membership in the council Monday, grassroots member Omar Idlibi told The Daily Star: “The decision to quit is a way to pressure the council to respond to calls for armed intervention.”
 
That kind of politicking has led others to quit in protest.
 
Describing her decision to quit this week, SNC member Rasha Yousef told The Daily Star she could no longer “be a partner in bloodshed.”
 
“Their policy is taking the country to a civil war ... They are calling for international intervention and calling for arming the opposition without any plan or organizing which is very dangerous.”
 
Yousef said that she had resigned in good conscience: “Why should I stay there and give more legitimacy to [that plan] ... We don’t want their [Arab states’] money.”
 
She will participate in a new summit of intellectuals and political personalities, The Syrian Democratic Forum, who are chipping away at a nonviolent civil society campaign.
 
The summit, which convened in February in Cairo is largely comprised of high-profile “inside opposition” figures from the National Coordination Committee for Democratic Change – heavily criticized for advocating dialogue with the Syrian regime – including Michel Kilo, Samir Aita and Fayez Sara.
 
The forum’s stated aim is to “enable the Syrian people to overthrow the current regime with all its symbols by all means of civil resistance,” according to a statement, inviting “all individuals, groups and forces involved in the Syrian Revolution ... to build a civil and democratic state based on citizenship.”
 
The forum is expected to meet again in Cairo in April to establish a general assembly and formally announce its political vision.
 
Far from a grassroots flowers-not-bullets movement, they say the civil resistance, through bolstering the political resources for those inside Syria, is a successful model for regime change – and has backing.
 
“It’s not late for political solution ... in politics we don’t say we have one solution, we say we have solutions,” she told The Daily Star via email.
 
“Toppling the regime ... is only one step to build a democratic state.”
 
The group say they will enact bridges of communication and mobilization on the ground, providing “field and political insights and suggestions to promote the revolution,” adding that they hope to dismantle the current regime “in a way that averts the reproduction of tyranny in another form.”
 
Elsewhere, members of the Syrian nonviolence movement, who promote and conduct nonviolent resistance campaigns on the ground say they are stepping up activities and awareness campaigns this week to mark the March 15 anniversary of the uprising.
 
Nawras, from the movement, told The Daily Star efforts were more important than ever, saying regime violence was being met with “natural” calls to take up arms.
 
“With this level of repression it is becoming extremely difficult to convince people to participate in peaceful activities,” he said via Skype. “We are trying to provide alternatives.
 
“Instead of mourning, let’s go to strikes. Instead of bearing arms, lets organize noncooperation campaigns.
 
“Despite those calls for militarization,” he said, “most of the uprising is still peaceful.”
 
With the United States firmly resisting calls for military intervention in Syria, U.S. State Department-backed peace and democracy promotion groups are currently working on a multimillion dollar “transition plan” for post-Assad Syria, including plans for bolstering public institutions.
 
A Syrian publisher and civil rights activist who worked to bolster civil society institutions in Syria prior to the uprising, Maan Abdul-Salam, says civil society state building efforts are crucial for a successful peaceful revolution.
 
“It’s never too late for civil resistance and peaceful change. In the end the militarization will not end the violence. Meeting them with arms ... will only push them to use survival instincts,” he said in Beirut.
 
“As it started as peaceful revolution, it should be won as a peaceful revolution. It’s not a fight for power.
 
“It is much harder to fight peaceful demonstrators than armed groups.”
 
He said peaceful movements are not just about limiting casualties.
 
“This is about building democracy,” he said, but was cautious about who should take the lead.
 
“Building civil society has to be achieved by groups and people who believe in the role of democracy and the rule of law, not by groups and people with a political agenda ... Democracy doesn’t need money. It needs confidence ... and accountability.”