The Daily Star Editorial

As the now-daily stream of available information racks up the Syrian uprising’s body count, it is easy to forget it started with a simple, peaceful demand.
The Syrian people began demonstrating asking for greater freedom. Any overt antipathy to President Bashar Assad was generally vague, and rarely personal. It was not until government authorities launched their heavy-handed crackdown that the calls for greater rights morphed into demands that Assad be toppled.
With this in mind, it is inconceivable that the same administration brutally repressing peaceful protest does not recognize the futility of such a response.

Faced with the carrot or the stick, Assad opted to wield a club. This is unsurprising, at least in a regional context, given Arab leaders’ unfortunate predilection for violence over voices when it comes to quelling unrest. An error yes, but an understandable one given all regional administrations were on edge after the toppling of presidents Zine al-Abedine Ben Ali and Hosni Mubarak.
But to keep doing the same thing and expecting different outcomes clearly shows that Assad continues to underestimate his people.

Parallel with the crackdown have been anemic pledges of reform. These sounded like bluster at the time and it would be difficult to pinpoint any development since to suggest otherwise.
On the contrary, as the vague promises for change petered out, the violence escalated. A leader cannot expect to be taken seriously by vowing democratic progress on the one hand while residing over brutal repression on the other.

Assad must know this. He also must know that time is running out. His politics of procrastination are wearing thin. The barrier of fear has been lifted, and Syrians’ view of their world will never again be obscured by subjugation.
They have surprised everyone with their resilience and determination to achieve what they set out for, no matter the overall cost in blood.

The administration in Damascus has not been short of advice. Most countries, even those sympathetic to the authorities’ prerogatives, have offered guidance over what the next step should constitute. It scarcely needs repeating that the only avenue available to Assad is to listen to the masses, to implement immediate and tangible reform that improves their lives and addresses their grievances.

No one is claiming this will be easy. But every journey, no matter how long or arduous, begins with the first step. The road is difficult, but killing innocent civilians has never been an effective way of smoothing the surface.

If by now, after all the blood and strife, authorities do not realize the task at hand then they are plainly undeserving of the name.
Assad knows what he needs to do. The Syrian people, Arab nations and the world at large holds their collective breaths in the hope that he acts upon it.