Opponents of the Antalya Conference, and supporters of the Brussels meeting, critics of the Semiramis gathering, and critics of the critics… welcome to the maze of democracy. None of these meetings took place without opposition, and reservations. No meeting took place without one of the invitees pulling out. The draft discussions were put forward and met with objections and criticisms. The objections and reservations were centered on the impossibility of holding dialogue with the authorities in Syria before the halting of the military-security campaign that the regime has chosen as a response to the peaceful uprising. The opposition fears that any conference inside the country will be a lifeline to President Bashar Assad and those who surround him, who are growing more isolated and frantic. Activists inside the country also warn about any links between the opposition outside the country and foreign parties that have expressed an intention to intervene militarily in Syria. The reservations and fears are understandable, and all wise. After 48 years of a harshly-imposed state of emergency, suspicion and doubt have become the most prominent elements in the process of creating the "content" of how political interaction should take place in Syria. The “state of emergency” and its ramifications destroyed political and public life in the country and rendered everyone working in the public and political arenas suspect in their patriotism, according to the authorities, and turned them into wanted people. Moreover, the authoritarian system destroyed the cultural and political elite and dried out political practice, preventing the possibility of enhancing it. If one were to create a list of the names of all of the Syrian political activists, from supporters of these events, and those afraid of them, and those who belong to the wide spectrum of opposition, we would easily notice the following: they all have a history of suffering, arrest, prison and torture at the hands of the regime's security and judicial authorities. The point is that what was suffered by ordinary Syrians, and those involved in public affairs, is frightening enough to sow every type of suspicion and obsession in them when it comes to any type of initiative. The reservations about the Antalya conference are diametrically opposed to those about the Semiramis gathering, in terms of the fear of external exploitation of the opposition versus the fear of falling into the traps of the regime. This is the path the Syrian opposition is treading today. Let us acknowledge that the frameworks for organizing political, popular and civil forces in Syria have been methodologically suppressed for nearly fifty years, which is no easy matter to dismiss. The confusion, mistakes, suspiciousness, and exaggerations are part of the path of recovery for the illness of dictatorship. If this dictatorship has not thrown down its weapons yet, and has not surrendered, it is waiting for the opportunity to turn against the uprising and crush it. However, more important is the fact that the Syrian opposition, in its various forms and in the millions of people involved in daily activity in the street, in cities from Qamishli in the northeast to Daraa in the south, and the refugee camps in Turkey and the neighborhoods of Rukn al-Din in Damascus, and despite some of the sharp accusations of betraying the blood of the martyrs and the sacrifices of prisoners, has been able to think aloud about its anxiety about the benefits achieved by the revolution on the path of building a democratic Syria, which will inevitably arrive one day. It urgently needs to be said that the doubts and contradictory proposals, and the excessive activity, or lethargy by some, are symptoms of what can be called "young democracy" syndrome. However, Syrians, and those who are waiting with them for the objectives of their uprising to be achieved, should not be frightened of this disease. In the worst of cases, it accompanies the growth and spread of democracy from under the rubble of dictatorship. Yes, being cautious is a duty at these sensitive moments. But at the same time, this is a time of establishing democratic practice, and it must necessarily take some rocky paths. The important thing is for things to move forward, and progress.
