Rescuing the revolution in Syria

Having started the grueling process of choosing a new head of their government in exile two months ago, Syrians are likely to decide on a new leader next week. The process began following a disagreement over Ghassan Hitto as the leader. Hitto was not considered a very popular personality among the rank and file of the Syrian opposition. During the period that followed his “election,” he was not able to form an acceptable government, forcing him to abandon further attempts. The most likely candidate for the post is Ahmad Tomah. He differs from Hitto in three ways as he is a well-known face, an Islamist and someone who is based in Syria. He is known to the opposition since 2005 when he was part of the “Damascus Declaration” alongside Fayez Sarah. The opposition then operated as a collective grouping and has been calling for peaceful and gradual change in Syria for last eight years. Tomah is different from Hitto as the latter came from the United States and is opposed by some because he spent most of his life outside the country. Tomah was born in Dir Al-Zour. He lived most of my life there except for the five years I spent in Bisha, Saudi Arabia, where my father was a teacher from 1974 till 1979. Tomah represented the president of the Independent Coalition Sheikh Moaz Al-Khateeb. He also worked as a calligrapher in a mosque and specialized in Islamic sciences. He is interested in “reconsidering our Muslim intellectual heritage and correcting a number of wrong understandings that resulted in our civilization backwardness.” He is a supporter of nonviolence and peaceful struggle and is against secret organization on the political level. Those who know Tomah say he is a middle-of-the-road person and represents the acceptable face of the post-Assad Syria, which believes in co-existence between religions, sects and thoughts. Tomah needs to visit the world capitals to convince people about the seriousness of the opposition and its unity and the fact that it represents all of the Syrian people. It is not the lack of weapons that is the problem or the intervention of regional powers in favor of the Assad regime. The real danger to the Syrian revolution is from the revolutionaries themselves, the leaders of the opposition and their internal bickering. It is the lack of a united leadership to convince the Syrian people first, and the world secondly, that the alternative to the Syrian regime exists, and is active, responsible and has a real popular base. The national resolve is dangerous, difficult and historic. The peace conference is a Russian-Iranian initiative with the objective to convince the world to accept Bashar Assad as president till next year, and even for life. Those behind “Geneva 2” say that the opposition is without a head and the revolutionaries do not have a united body, and they are not any better than the regime they want to overthrow. This image is being propagated by the Assad regime and spread by false videos, like the one showing one of the revolutionaries eating the heart of one of the soldiers after killing him. The video, according to the Bolivian ambassador, prompted him to oppose a UN General Assembly resolution against the Assad regime. This is why the opposition needs to choose a leader that represents unity and is above partisan politics. The views expressed by the author do not necessarily represent or reflect the editorial policy of Arabstoday.