Hazem Saghiyeh

“All of Syria is free … street by street, house by house.”
This was one of the slogans chanted by Syrian protesters last Friday. It tells how much the Syrians yearn for liberty, that their dignity be maintained, like that of free humans in other countries.

For the Syrian to be ruled by one party since 1963 – for 48 years exactly – means that he is not free and that his dignity is diminished. How much more so given that since that time, he has been subjected to a tyrannical emergency law that dominates most aspects of his life?

That a president bequeaths power to his son means that the Syrian is not free and that his dignity is diminished. How much more so when the Syrian faces discrimination at work, is prevented from traveling, and cannot defend himself against an accusation that could befall him at any moment? If any Syrian citizen voices an opinion different from that of the authorities, he is a suspect or a traitor.

As for prison in Syria, anyone who reads the books of Faraj Birqdar and Mustafa Khalifah understands what it means. This is the most important institution in dictatorial and totalitarian regimes, under which the security agencies are immune to any accountability and are the first and foremost power. The judicial authority does not dream of challenging them, nor does the government or that caricature known as the “People’s Assembly,” or parliament.

It would not be easy to enumerate the many faces of the violence done to liberty and dignity in Syria. But it is easy, given this state of affairs, to understand Syrians’ yearning for liberty and dignity. It is this yearning that drives them to tear posters, smash statues and courageously defy “sacred” authoritarianism.

The fact is that “liberty” was the second of the three basic principles of the Baath Party: Unity, Liberty and Socialism. But this liberty, as Baath founder Michel Aflaq wrote early on, was the “liberty of the community,” not the liberty of individual citizens. This was the theoretical basis for what occurred later, when the Baath’s “liberty” became the modern-day slavery against which the Syrians are rebelling today (the Iraqis rebelled against it yesterday).

The Syrians today are courageously declaring their yearning for liberty and for effective interaction with the wider world rather than isolation. They deserve the support of free people everywhere, especially in Lebanon. There is hardly any need to say that the Lebanese, who boast of their role (especially that of their intellectuals) in exporting liberty to the Arab world, are today called to take the initiative in support and to use this great occasion as an exercise in shared work, solidarity and the exchange of experience. How much more so given that a free Syria and Syrians are an essential condition for a free Lebanon and Lebanese?

This does not necessarily mean that we are on the verge of salvation – neither in Syria nor Lebanon. Other, ugly possibilities lie in wait for the two peoples and countries. They may find that they are facing a bitter and extremely dangerous transitional phase. Yet the free person, here or there, cannot but open his heart to liberty. This comes first, and after this only time will tell.