These guys don't speak for me

The Jordanian "opposition" certainly is an orgy of strange bedfellows, spanning the political spectrum from leftists, pan-Arabists and Islamists. It is often a wonder where they ever find common ground. One place which seems to never fail is their admiration for Arab dictatorships. Last week, they outdid themselves, where they all traveled to Damascus to give support to Syria, based on the assumption that Syrians actually want to be ruled by a dictator. Many Iraqis still hate Jordanians, because similar stunts in the past gave the impression that Jordanians supported Saddam, and not the will of the Iraqi people.

Now, I will stay away from debate over the role of the Syrian regime in last year's wave of terror in Lebanon. There are many apologists who have no problem stating the Syrian regime was innocent in all of this, and even if they were involved, the people were murdered deserve this. While this logic is pathetic and sick, this is not the point I am trying to make.

The objective of any political party or grouping is to participate in the political process, with the ultimate goal of sharing power and setting agendas and policies. It is very worrisome when political parties striving for power find room in their discourse to defend a regime which outlaws and jails political opponents, stifles dissent and has goons beat up opposition figures, aside from being terribly corrupt. What does this say about how this opposition will behave if it comes to power?

The retort would be that Syria is now targeted, and that now is not the time to speak of the regime abuses in Syria and Lebanon, because the "imperialist agenda" has nothing to do with human rights and corruption, but with Syria's "steadfastness in defense of Arab causes". These are the same slogans that the same people gave to defend Saddam. Just to remind everybody, the Assad regime supported the Iranians against Iraq, and later joined George Bush senior's coalition against Saddam. I suppose this is what they mean by Syria's "steadfastness in defense of Arab causes".

Part of the strategy of the Assad regime is to look for enemies they can attack. Their enemies in Lebanon are known. Now, they are trying to make the Jordanian government an issue. Recently, they accused the Jordanian government of expelling Syrian workers, a charge that the Jordanian government denied. The subtext is that Jordan is helping plot against Syria. Of course, if this were the case, then Jordan would not have worked to cover up Syria's role in the plot to attack Amman with chemical weapons in 2004. Thanks for nothing, brothers.

So, if we were to buy all of this, the question still to be answered is this: Where were all of you guys before "Syria became targeted"? When did you criticize Bashar or Hafez for looting Lebanon and Syria, threatening, jailing and murdering opponents or mismanaging a potentially wealthy country into the ground?

This post is not about the Baa'th regime is Syria. It is about the opportunism of a few politicians who purport to speak for the Jordanian people.

The Jordanian people want the best for Syria and Lebanon. They want both countries to be free, prosperous and strong. In my opinion, the Baa'th regime in Syria is an obstacle to these wishes, and the delegation that went to Syria speaks only for themselves, and not for the Jordanian people.