It is not strange that the Syrian regime dealt with the coronavirus pandemic as it deals with its other crises, especially the Syrian revolution, which celebrated its ninth anniversary a few days ago. It swung between, on the one hand, denying an irrefutable reality, blaming the things it must admit on a foreign enemy that stalks it in order to break its determination and alter its alliance with the axis of resistance. One the other hand, it abrogates itself from any responsibility and refuses to admit society’s aggravating crises, using various methods of repression, killing and terror to keep things under control and people humiliated and obedient.
In other words, it is not strange for a tyrannical regime that trivialized the reasons for the Syrian revolution and denied the injustice, prejudice and deprivation that they suffered from... a regime that belittled a peaceful movement of millions of protesters and considered them to be a small insignificant minority, tools of foreign agendas… a regime that denied the existence of detainees and even the use of torture they were subjected to in its prisons, claiming that the leaked pictures of thousands of detainees by "Caesar" are fabricated photographs that are from the remnants of World War II.
A regime that never blinked. At first, it killed hundreds of young men and peaceful children with its troops’ bullets. Then it reeked violence, persecution and destruction, without a care for the suffering of the people, the shedding of blood, or the accumulating number of people it had victimized, disfigured, detained, handicapped, and displaced. It is not strange for such a regime to turn a blind eye to the increasing number of victims who are dying as a result of infection from the coronavirus, claiming that the country is completely free of this pandemic and devoting its tools of repression to shut mouths that expose the spread of the disease or even suggest its existence, as happened with the head of a hospital in Damascus, who was arrested, terrorized, and forced to change his statement confirming the presence of a coronavirus patient at the hospital, claiming that it had been a mere suspicion!
The same happens with everyone who reveals the names of Syrian victims who have died of the coronavirus on social media. The authorities track them and punish them under the pretext that they had fabricated lies to undermine the state.
The regime's efforts to hide the truth about the victims has led to their numbers increasing quickly and to a delay to the implementation of the measures needed to curtail its spread, like social distancing, and closing borders and stopping air travel.
Even these measures are mere tragic and ridiculous posturing so long as they are not accompanied by preventive measures and medical tests that would limit the spread between cities and regions, and as tens of thousands of Iranian, Pakistani, Lebanese and Afghani soldiers continue to arrive and move around freely throughout the country, for dozens of them are infected.
How then, will things progress given the limitations of the country’s medical capabilities after the regime itself destroyed the most important health institutions, keeping in mind the massive number of doctors and medical experts who have been killed or displaced? There is also the problem of the deterioration of people’s living conditions and their limited ability to meet the costs of their basic needs, not the least their medical needs.
We must point to the reasons for this regime’s hopelessness and inability to do anything useful to limit the spread of the coronavirus compared to other countries with better capabilities, and the latter are still struggling to contain the virus.
Making matters even more hopeless is the statement given by the health minister. He not only bragged that there were no cases of coronavirus in Syria, he also considered that the measures he had outlined were purely preventive, meant to protect the country from a global pandemic that “conspiring enemies are trying to bring to us”, copying his ally Iran’s accusations that the United States is responsible for spreading COVID-19. Even worse, he praises the “Syrian army” for decontaminating the country from the virus as it had decontaminated it from all kinds of germs!
The approach stems from the essence of this regime, employing its media and propaganda, with every crisis or calamity that befalls us, to associate what is happening with an organized conspiracy of hostile powers. Thus, conspiracies are behind backwardness we suffer from and the failure of development projects. The exhausting corruption, backwardness and poverty we suffer are also the result of foreign conspiracies. Those in power do not see anything wrong with using religious figures to help them evade their responsibilities further. They claim that everything happening because of the coronavirus is divine will that cannot be responded to, instead of seeking to curtail the causes of the disease and treat its symptoms.
Maybe it’s true to say that the implicit aspect of the Syrians’ revolution was to save their society from the pain that the regime's policies inflicted and continue to inflict, counting on the latter’s acceptance of the real reasons for the chronic problems and its work on limiting them, and avoiding the worst. However, the latter was determined, as usual, to continue to deny and to refuse to accept bitter truths or the primacy of fixing them, even if that meant burning the country and putting Syria and all Syrians in the furnace of a bloody civil war that spares none. The state crumbled and the nation's social fabric disintegrated and was tainted with sectarianism as a result. It allowed Syria’s fate to be tampered with by gangs of religious extremists and foreign interventions and, today, to all kinds of viruses and illnesses.
Indeed, a regime that refuses to admit its peoples’ crises and fails to solve them is a regime that disregards the responsibilities that are naturally assigned to it, protecting people’s lives, rights and needs. This is clearly illustrated with the tyrannical policies it has chosen to adopt in its confrontation of the coronavirus and what preceded it. We are faced with a regime that refuses to accept its failure and inability to govern the country and protect its people. Rather, it emphasizes its approach of exacerbating terror and suffering, deluded into thinking that its method for solving problems can allow it to stay in power forever and face any obstacle.
In times of disaster, a study of the reasons and motives is usually conducted in order to set a plan that would allow for its traversal. In Syria, however, despite the tragedy and bitterness of what it has suffered and continues to suffer after years of killing, abuse and destruction, the people in power remain insistent on confronting the pandemic with reckless disregard and resort to conspiracy theories that blame the other for everything. Even worse, it is counting on violent repression to solve a problem that it is impossible for repression and violence to deal with!
