"....TADA!....See, I Pulled a Rabbit Out of the Hat!"
In Syria and most other Arab countries demonstrations are legal – but there is always a clause that prevents serious subversion
Brian Whitaker
guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 20 April 2011
"The news that Bahrain's government has withdrawn its financial support from students who attended a peaceful anti-regime demonstration in Britain highlights differing attitudes towards protest between western countries and most of those in the Middle East.
Though the Bahraini regime's action has enraged the British government, few Arabs would find it surprising: reprisals against those who step out of line are almost par for the course.
One important reason why repressive regimes have survived for so long is that vast numbers of people depend on them economically – sometimes as students with scholarships, but more often as employees in a vast and under-worked government bureaucracy.
In Syria, for example, it has been estimated that as many as half the country's citizens depend to some extent on government pay cheques which could be in jeopardy if their loyalty to the regime was called into question.....
In Syria, where the regime is preparing to lift the state of emergency and replace it with a law "which regulates the process of demonstrating", the authorities keep emphasising that one of the law's main purposes will be to "protect demonstrators".
This seems to hinge on what in many countries would be regarded as a strange notion: that anyone who demonstrates against the government is liable to be set upon immediately by outraged citizens. The Egyptian regime of Hosni Mubarak went to some lengths to prove the truth of this, by employing plainclothes thugs – the baltagiyya – to beat up demonstrators, and several other regimes use similar tactics.
While the Syrian regime now seems willing to allow demonstrations calling for reform, it draws the line at "sabotage". "There are clear differences between the demands for reform and the intentions of creating chaos and sabotage," President Bashar al-Assad said at the weekend.
Maybe Assad thinks the differences are clear, but until he spells them out we cannot be sure. What one person regards as legitimate protest another may regard as dangerous subversion."
Brian Whitaker
guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 20 April 2011
"The news that Bahrain's government has withdrawn its financial support from students who attended a peaceful anti-regime demonstration in Britain highlights differing attitudes towards protest between western countries and most of those in the Middle East.
Though the Bahraini regime's action has enraged the British government, few Arabs would find it surprising: reprisals against those who step out of line are almost par for the course.
One important reason why repressive regimes have survived for so long is that vast numbers of people depend on them economically – sometimes as students with scholarships, but more often as employees in a vast and under-worked government bureaucracy.
In Syria, for example, it has been estimated that as many as half the country's citizens depend to some extent on government pay cheques which could be in jeopardy if their loyalty to the regime was called into question.....
In Syria, where the regime is preparing to lift the state of emergency and replace it with a law "which regulates the process of demonstrating", the authorities keep emphasising that one of the law's main purposes will be to "protect demonstrators".
This seems to hinge on what in many countries would be regarded as a strange notion: that anyone who demonstrates against the government is liable to be set upon immediately by outraged citizens. The Egyptian regime of Hosni Mubarak went to some lengths to prove the truth of this, by employing plainclothes thugs – the baltagiyya – to beat up demonstrators, and several other regimes use similar tactics.
While the Syrian regime now seems willing to allow demonstrations calling for reform, it draws the line at "sabotage". "There are clear differences between the demands for reform and the intentions of creating chaos and sabotage," President Bashar al-Assad said at the weekend.
Maybe Assad thinks the differences are clear, but until he spells them out we cannot be sure. What one person regards as legitimate protest another may regard as dangerous subversion."
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