Why did Syrian Opposition Fail to Unite its Ranks? - It's Over 9000!

Why did Syrian Opposition Fail to Unite its Ranks?

Hussam Muhammed , Baladi News, Damascus

After five years of the revolution in Syria, Syrians are still suffering from the absence of an organizational and political structure that represents them, where the revolutionary powers, whether military or political, failed to create any entity that can unite the rebellious factions against the Syrian regime.

Many people went further by criticizing the political opposition for not uniting with one accord and not standing together in a political delegation to negotiate for the revolution, whereas the "battles" among the oppositions' representatives in an any delegation negotiating "on behalf of the revolution" are not less ferocious than the battles fought in the battlefields and on the fronts.

It's quite normal to criticize the state of fragmentation among the rebels and political blocs as it's good and necessary for solving the problems that face the formation of a unified military and political entity. Five decades of Assad's family in office along with excessive dictatorship and the absence of any political entities in pre-revolution Syria prevented the concept of political opposition from developing into an organized one which depends on partisan or ideological structure.

Some believe that the six years of the revolution have created a mature political vision that can contribute to the formation of national political entities able to participate in the political game and materialize on the ground the democracy and transition of power they call for.

The reality in Syria presents two types of political formations resembling the emerging political systems in many Arab countries after the Arab spring; the first one is an opposition that fits the western standards and meets the western, Russian, and Iranian needs (Al-Maliki government in Iraq as an example). The second is opposition formations which are national, but not really organized or capable of standing together for different reasons and both of them are continuously fighting in battles that do not differ from the real fights raging in real battlefields.

The Syrian political scene is severely fragmented, preventing any political entity to be a consensus negotiator on behalf of Syrians who are still suffering from a state of oppression and international war against them, especially after the Russian-American agreement along with the helplessness of Arab leaders in changing anything in the Syrian scene. Their failure to have a "free will" away from the American hegemony is due to the absence of a political structure able to get a political recognition that entitles it to demand Syrians rights and solve their problems , mainly: Assad and his regime.

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