Syria Today | Anatomy of an Opposition

Nine months of protests against the regime in Syria have allowed the opposition to organise itself, but much work remains on the horizon.

By Muhammad Atef Fares
Photo Adel Samara

At a press conference on November 21, Foreign and Expatriates Minister Walid al-Mu'allem reiterated the government's efforts to hold a national dialogue conference with all the opposition, and said he guarantees participants' safety.

"There are several oppositions and opinions; some want dialogue and others do not accept it," Mu'allem said. "Yet I see an important need for dialogue to plan the future of Syria in a participatory manner." He also stressed that besides the regime and the opposition, there is a third party which is the Syrian people, and that it must be represented.

The Syrian authorities have called for such dialogue on several occasions. However, a two-day consultative meeting to launch a comprehensive national dialogue held in Damascus on July 10 was boycotted by the majority of the opposition.

Explaining why he refused such dialogue, Louay Hussein, president and co-founder of a new opposition group Building the Syrian State, told Lebanese daily Al-Akhbar on December 10 that "the Syrian authorities…have not been accurate with their words and deeds for the past 11 years."

Road to revival
Nevertheless, after decades of absence or elimination, a contemporary opposition in Syria was born during the crisis which cost at least 5,000 lives, mostly civilians, according to the UN, and some 1,100 soldiers and police according to Syrian officials. But the many opposition groups formed during protests have yet to unite under a single leadership, leading some critics to argue that the opposition as a whole is still weak and disharmonised.

Ghassan Youssef, a Syrian journalist and political commentator told Syria Today that it is impossible for the opposition to unite because many of them are "running after personal interests" while others are "patriotic" but "lack organisation and programmes". Others say that it is too early to judge, especially after decades of its having suffered arrests, detentions and intimidation. Haitham al-Maleh, a prominent opposition figure, told Lebanese daily Al-Akhbar on October 14 that the reason behind the "leadership vacuum" inside the opposition is that for the last 50 years, all its leaders suffered under regime oppression.

Still others say that the opposition's various ideologies and backgrounds are one of its strong points. Rime Allaf, a political analyst at Chatham House think-tank in London, told Syria Today that "their debates and disagreements prove that what they are doing is not 'cooked'. The more voices there are, the more effective they can be."

Furthermore, she said, the majority in this revolution is best represented by "a protestor who does not belong to any political faction, except [the fact that they belong] to the Syrian people, who lived under the same system for years. The uprising speaks to the essential human need for freedom."

The Forces in the Field
As protesters are driving events on the ground, each group is seeking to position itself as the rightful opposition representative. Currently, there are two major bodies: the National Coordination Committee for Democratic Change (NCC), which works inside Syria, and the Syrian National Council (SNC), consisting mostly of exiled figures.

The protesters themselves are organised to some degree through the Local Coordination Committees (LCC), an umbrella group which advocates toppling the regime through non-violent protests. Most of these committees support the SNC, though some of its components, such as the Syrian Revolution General Commission, back the NCC.

Another more nebulous group is the Free Syrian Army (FSA), made of alleged army defectors, which was founded in July by Colonel Riyadh al-Asa'ad. No accurate figures exist as to the number of defectors, and some sources claim that some "defectors" are actually civilians. Colonel Asa'ad told Al-Jazeera on November 19 that his army numbers over 15,000 defectors, and has repeatedly called on Syrian officers to join the defectors.

Like the SNC, the FSA calls for a no fly-zone to protect citizens and is popular among protesters. The Friday protests on November 25 were named "The Free Army Protects Me". On November 29, the SNC announced it would form a joint committee with the FSA to coordinate "field mobilisation, relief, media and political relations", Lebanese daily Al-Hayat reported.

However, under the rubric of "protection", the armed group conducts violent attacks. Asa'ad argues that since Syrian security forces are harming civilians, they are a legitimate target for his army. Many press sources said the FSA claimed to have shelled the Ba'ath Party headquarters in Damascus with rocket propelled grenades on November 20. The attack, however, has not been confirmed by any official source. The group also claimed responsibility for the ambush of a bus on November 24 which it said killed seven military pilots. However, the Syrian military stated that ten people were killed: "six elite pilots and four others", according to state news agency SANA.

Eiad Wannous, a political analyst, told Syria Today that politically speaking, the FSA cannot be classified as an opposition, but is rather a media ploy. "Through heavy media coverage, the SNC is trying to establish a military wing with deserters [which is] similar to the terrorist Muslim Brotherhood military wing in the 1980s," he commented.

Outsiders and insiders
The exiled SNC, led by Burhan Ghalioun, was announced in Istanbul on August 23, and the Friday protest following its establishment was dubbed "The Syrian National Council Represents Me". The council aims to overthrow the regime, and on November 21 issued a plan for a transitional period lasting up to 18 months if this were to happen, under which it would lead an interim government with the help of the military.

The SNC stresses that 60 percent of its members should be from inside Syria, half of them revolutionary youth. Critics say the organisation has an Islamic majority and links to the Syrian Muslim Brotherhood; in response, the council calls on all oppositionists to join it. It has been recognised by France and Libya, and welcomed by the US, UK, and EU. The Syrian regime regards the SNC as illegal, and pro-regime analysts say it is a Western tool to interfere in Syria's internal affairs.

It is also criticised by some internal opposition figures. Haytham Manna'a, a prominent NCC member, told BBC Arabic on October 5 that the council is "a Washington Club" and said he considers anyone calling for foreign intervention a "traitor".

By contrast, the National Coordination Committee for Democratic Change, formed in June and led by Hassan Abdul-Azim, does not refuse dialogue with the regime as much as the council. Nor does it call for the regime's immediate fall, but rather for a gradual, scheduled transfer of power.

Both groups are vying for leverage. On October 11, NCC leader Abdul-Azim claimed that some SNC members wish to marginalise the NCC in order to remain the sole representative of protestors, privately owned Cham Press news website reported.

On November 10, angry expatriate protesters in Cairo threw eggs at a delegation of Syrian opposition figures, including writer and independent opposition figure Michel Kilo, and Manna'a, who came for a meeting with the Arab League Secretary-General. The protestors also tried to block them from entering the Arab League headquarters, the AFP reported. Pro-SNC critics labelled the delegation as "traitors who were bought by the regime."

The attack followed a report from the Syrian Human Rights Network (SHRN) which named opposition figures, mostly external, who were "funded by some foreign bodies", and "who work on destroying the homeland instead of building it", SANA reported on October 30.

However, some internal opposition figures, such as NCC member Hussein al-Odat were also listed in the report. Odat denied and condemned its allegations saying they are "irresponsible, false and dirty".

Complicating the picture
Louay Hussein argues that reducing the opposition to those two bodies and ignoring the active role of other groups and independent opposition figures on the ground is "a media game".

"Since the beginning of the uprising, different media outlets have created this picture at the behest of those who run or fund these outlets," Hussein said. "There are thousands of opposition figures in the Syrian uprising who are not members of any political party or movement or any public gathering."

While some independent opposition figures such as Kilo or economist Aref Dalila recently left the country, others stayed to continue the work from inside, although their groups and currents attract less media focus.

Such groups include the new group Building the Syrian State, the Popular Front for Change and Liberation (PFCL), the National Democratic Initiative, headed by former information minister Muhammad Salman, and the National Initiative for Syria, led by MP Muhammad Habash. This last group claims to represent Syria's silent majority and to mediate between the opposition and the regime.

Qadri Jamil, member of the PFCL and leader of the Syrian Communist Party, told Lebanese Al-Jadeed TV station on October 23 that there are two kinds of Syrian opposition. The first one, which is patriotic and rejects foreign intervention, has its weight on the street, and opposes the government's security crackdown. The second, such as the SNC, is "non- patriotic…has no roots inside Syria and is dependent on foreign powers to change the leadership and to come to Syria later aboard US tanks."

A way out
The idea of the dialogue between the regime and its opponents is supported by the Arab League, which included it as a requirement in its proposal for Syria on November 2. While the Syrian government initially accepted the plan, it subsequently rejected parts of its protocol, and announced on November 20 that it would hold a second dialogue conference in the coming months.

Jamil insisted: "The slogan 'the overthrow of the regime' is unpractical, unrealistic and useless." However, he argued that the regime should not use the dialogue "as a decorative and cosmetic tool but rather as a tool for radical change," and that it should "help the moderate opposition preserve Syria."

Allaf was more critical of such a dialogue's chances of success, arguing that the regime tries to "manufacture" an opposition in order to represent itself as "open". However, she insisted, "the power of the so-called street will have the last word. So long as anyone is not addressing the core of their problems, he cannot bring them back home."