Top 10 Lessons To Learn After One Year Of The Syrian Revolution

By: Razan Hamad
I can’t believe it has been a year so far since we started our revolution against oppression and injustice. A year full of sorrow and pain!! We found out what it means to be heard for the first time as Syrian citizens not as “Assad Followers”. We called for freedom, justice and democracy and over 10,000 people were killed because of that.
In order for us to be positively involved in our new Syria, we must learn to FREELY express ourselves no matter what! The top 10 lessons that will follow can impact all of us either positively or negatively, depending how you want to see it.
10- Revolution opportunists: Having political ambition is fine, but to make this your ultimate goal before overthrowing the regime is unethical. We have seen people not only take advantage of our revolution but also betray the blood of our heroes and the sufferings of our refugees.

9- Making our OWN statistics: We hear a lot of us saying: all people in Homs are asking for “No Fly Zone” And all people in Idlib are asking for military intervention. I am not saying they are not but when we are talking about sensitive issue as this, we must rely on good sources of information. Polls were never done in Syria to know what the citizens are asking for. And we always underestimate the numbers of people still supporting Al-Assad or the” silent sector” and we act as they don’t even exist.
8- Working as a team: Group work is really hard for us and I think it is because we never felt like a part of our country, we always thought that this is Al-Assad Syria and not ours. When we had the chance to scream we did and the whole world heard us. But still we don’t function very well as a team. Working as a team is a learning curve we can easily adapt to.
7- Listening skills: This issue relates to the previous paragraph. It has to do with our coordination as well. There are people who do not care to listen to you because they already judged you and they think you will not add more to the whole equation. And there are people who don’t want to listen to you because they only hear themselves and we have a great example as our “great” dysfunctional opposition.
6- Distrust and Exclusion: One of the major and most dangerous problems we have. Many issues have surfaced lately among many parties. Peace advocates and people calling to arm the FSA are one the major conflicts we have. Just because we don’t see things in the same prospective doesn’t mean we are enemies!  I saw people dedicating YouTube videos of a massacre done by the regime to the peace activists!! They overlooked the killer and blamed the victim. At the same time I saw peace advocates attacking the FSA for many reasons and calling them killers and rebels. All the above mentioned is fine with me as long as we don’t exclude and distrust each other. Remember what we want is to be a unit; a unit that has the same goal which is overthrowing Bashar Al-Assad and establishing a democratic country.
5- Free Speech: Free speech is a right guaranteed by all constitutions. In order for us to rebuild our new Syria we must learn how to communicate freely without being afraid of each other. Disagreeing is fine but never take away someone’s right to express themselves freely.
4- Criticizing the revolution is not a crime: Or even criticizing the revolution icons and leaders. These are people just like us and they make mistakes, why can’t we point out these mistakes and try to correct them! Never let your emotions for the leader blind you from seeing his mistakes. The leader must be held accountable for mistakes he/she commits, even if those mistakes were reflected on people you do not like.
3- We are all Syrians: A lot of people consider Syrian living abroad to not be “Syrian enough”. Syrian expats have done a tremendous job in making the Syrian revolution an international cause. They are the ones who delivered our voices and tears to the whole world to see.
2- Sectarianism: Judging people and predicting their political stance according to their religion is really shameful. Recently we heard of a lot of calls to punish certain sector of the Syrian people because they are believed to be pro Assad, these calls are only the beginning of a civil war that only the regime can benefit from. We are all one no matter what.
1- Opposition conflict: One of the most watched series in our revolution. With episodes carrying the following headlines: Defected members, Agents to Israel, Dialogue with the Killer (Bashar), SNC represents me, and so on. I believe we have five or six opposition parties so far. And each one of them is working to overthrow the regime. But what are the steps they are taking and are they enough? And what are the standards that qualify someone to be in these councils? Unifying the opposition is not as important as their belief in cooperation for one goal despite the difference in means and political parties.
The goal is FREE SYRIA.
Source: The Syrian Sun