The Daily Star

The tragic unrest in Syria Friday should serve as a clear signal to Bashar Assad that the protesters have not been satisfied by the major measures decreed by the regime, and that the rulers of Syria need to adopt an entirely different, more engaged and open approach to the demonstrations.

The violence Friday, which left nearly 70 people dead, has in essence returned the protest movement to square one. The deaths of demonstrators will only provoke more protests, and a vicious circle appears to be taking shape.
The regime, on the contrary, should be responding to the swelling tumult with an effort aimed at dialogue, confronting protesters with words instead of weapons. Assad can still find some small measure of comfort in the fact that the broad middle class of Damascus has not yet taken part en masse in the demonstrations. This constituency, however, does have its grievances with the regime, and the ruling elite should reach out to this group, because keeping them on the sidelines could do much to keep the confrontation from spiraling out of control.
Of course, Assad must also address the grievances of the downtrodden masses who are driving the protests. Not only should the president and his clique acknowledge that their measures do not fully satisfy the demands of the protesters, but they must overhaul their entire modus operandi for dealing with the uprising.

For example, the channels of communication within the regime need a thorough cleaning. Lower-level bureaucrats have failed to function as intermediaries between the political elite and local populations, for a variety of reasons. The elite were clearly unprepared for popular unrest to erupt in this magnitude; the demonstrators, meanwhile, have also shown that they do not trust the state to carry through substantial reform.

The ruling class should have been more aware of the discontents of the Syrian people; once the citizens of Tunisia and Egypt poured into their own streets and gave full throat to their frustrations, the Syrian elite should have realized that circumstances in their country were in many ways identical.
With a different approach, Syria could have blunted much of the latent force that is now manifesting itself throughout the nation.

Assad should still devote himself to learning from the clumsy responses of Hosni Mubarak and Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali to their peoples’ protests; the Syrian president could observe that grievances genuinely felt should not be dismissed; a slow-footed and piecemeal approach to reform will not mollify demonstrators and a crackdown will only fuel the unrest.

Assad should change course and address the demands of the protesters in a way that will defuse the growing fierceness of the street. The Syrian regime should engage in an open dialogue with its opponents, in order to spare the streets of the nation any more unnecessary bloodshed.