As protests are sweeping around Syria, the Syrian TV, instead of listening to the call of its people, is keeping broadcasting the same absurd propaganda that we all watched in the media of Arab tyrannies. It didn't work in Egypt or Tunisia, and it did only managed to worsen the situation in Yemen, Jordan, and Bahrain. And it did fuel sectarian and ethnic tensions, and jeopardize the co-existence of the society other than saving the regime. Yet the Syrian state TV didn't learn the lesson.
Syria is not Libya, Yemen, Bahrain, Egypt or Tunisia. It is True. Despite sharing some characteristics of all Arab tyrannies, like brutal repression of any dissent, unprecedented corruption, and so on. but it obtains some popularity, among Syrians and Arabs, for its secular policies, almost zero foreign debts, and its foreign policy. Let alone, the popularity of president Bashar Al Assad (45 year-old) who ascended to power in 2000 with a promise of drastic reforms (which never came). He also gained solidarity, home and in the Arab world, for standing firm in the face of the international political pressure in regard of his policies in Lebanon and Palestine.
Oneself will expect that state media will learn from the faults of its counterparts. But watching the Syrian State TV, this expectation went in vain. Same mixture of lunacy in fact. Stories of "gangs" causing the unrest, infiltrators, and foreign conspiracy. News programs aim at fueling sectarian divide for the purpose of warning Syrians of the collapse of national unity. It is again the same folly used by Mubarak's TV, Ben Ali's TV, and the rest, IT IS EITHER ME, OR CHAOS. It didn't work anywhere, as it won't work for the Syrian regime. On the contrary, it will anger the people more, and perhaps radicalize their demands. And if Syrian TV continues this absurd propaganda, the result will be catastrophic for Syria as a nation, not just the regime.
Courtesy to Mr Beiar Abi Sa'ab of the Lebanese Al Akhbar newspaper.
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