The Role of Public Support
The reception of the revolutionary fighters by the public in Syrian cities represented an ideal model of what suitable popular support should be. They welcomed the liberators, who came to free them from the oppressive tyrant. Therefore, maintaining and preserving this public support, especially during the reconstruction process, is of utmost importance. It needs building, support, continuity, and growth. It is also crucial to focus on the roadmap of questions and the essential ones among them. Correct questions are half the answer, with the other half being directing the question to the right person. Additionally, the initiative and energy of the youth mandate that their opinions be sought, as they were the primary participants in the revolution and desire its success. They are the hands that will build and develop.
Let us be honest once and empower the youth as one of the most important strategies for upcoming change.
Understanding Society
It is essential to understand the reality and elements of society. Society, in its core transformations and changes, is not a blank page. The mistake of all Arab revolutions was assuming they were entering a book with blank pages. This is entirely incorrect; the pages are darkened, with some torn out, and various actors have previously contributed to darkening and defacing the pages, particularly the narrative of tyranny and its networks of oppression and corruption.
Diverse Society
A diverse society needs a multifaceted discourse. The new page has its share of the book of revolution or the book of liberation. Therefore, we must ask ourselves the right questions. This Syrian society comprises many elements and maps that we need to understand. We need to build its regional, sectarian, political, social network, effectiveness, change tools, challenges, and response maps, and develop strategies and policies.
Strategic Thinking
This contributes to building a strategic mind for the Syrian revolution, thinking through different aspects of the phenomenon, identifying strategic levels, and providing the revolutionaries with necessary ideas for change. It builds and implements required strategies, such as the university and societal cohesion strategy, people's livelihood strategy, and a diverse yet inclusive discourse that includes everyone, not excluding anyone. This is based on the laws of social organization, plurality, diversity, coexistence, and agreements built on balance, consensus, and societal contexts for a new social contract focused on inclusion, not exclusion.
Political and Social Transition
This comprehensive vision must encompass political transition along with other transitions, foremost being societal transition, which forms the foundation of rebuilding the social and community relationships disrupted by oppressive policies. It is the craft of tyranny to weaken society against power.
Balanced State-Society Relationship
Securing a balanced relationship between the state and society is the key solution. Therefore, two strategies must be established: the first is empowering society and fortifying it against past and future attempts of oppression through community monitoring and institutional accountability mechanisms. The second is dismantling the mechanisms of oppressive power, removing all those oppressive spots, and simultaneously engaging in a constructive process to build mechanisms for forming and empowering decision-makers with monitoring, accountability, and review capabilities. This is within the framework of the law of social order: "We will not replace one tyrant with another, nor occupation with occupation."
Transitional Stages
Therefore, the primary and essential task is to avoid focusing on grand or final matters during this stage. Transitional stages are crucial and a real testing ground, from the head of state to the smallest place or individual, within the law of social order: "What works for managing the exception does not work for managing stability and vice versa." Thus, we should not discuss a permanent constitution but rely on a transitional constitution (15-20 articles) covering rights, freedoms, and personal status because polarized stages are unsuitable for drafting permanent constitutions.
Temporary Governing Council
What applies to the constitution also applies to elections. Hence, it is necessary to rely on a temporary presidential council based on the law of contract and its formulations. Shura (consultation) is a fundamental value that must be translated into reality. The Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) consulted individuals, pairs, trios, and groups. Shura is a dynamic action: "Their affairs are determined by consultation among them" (Ash-Shura: 38). Every society produces its decision-makers, another law of social order to consider: "Every society produces its decision-makers and leaders, and every authority is relative."
Importance of Presidential Council
The idea of a presidential council and its importance in managing exceptions can be realized through a diverse presidential council based on a minimal contractual agreement, which cannot be compromised within a new social contract. The presidential council manages these diversities, closes the doors to tyranny in the early stages of the revolution, achieves collective and consultative ijtihad (independent reasoning) in the construction process, and sets priority systems to answer two questions: What to do? Where to start?
Dynamic and Inclusive Strategy
This approach allows for the investment in differences, distribution of roles, institutional circulation, and combined leadership. The council should adopt a dynamic and evolving strategy as the contractual circle expands, extending the scope of agreement, based on diversified content and discourse to manage the "promise of revolution" or revolution of expectations.
Meeting People's Needs
This needs to be handled with care and caution, focusing on people's demands, compiling these requests, and building a strategic plan to execute them by prioritizing tasks and moving from positive to constructive actions. This involves transparency, clarity, and specification, guided by two laws of social order: every revolution must have a promise, and diversity is a divine law. The crucial aspect is managing differences and diversity, common interests, and coexistence.
Effective Management of the Transitional Phase
All the above contributes to effectively managing the transitional phase and guiding the revolution to safety. However, the success of this phase depends on adopting the Quranic strategy: "Who has fed them, [saving them] from hunger and made them safe from fear" (Quraysh: 4). This requires a close and honest alliance between the nation's institutions and the state and authority institutions, as the nation's institutions guarantee the foundational infrastructure for the liberation, change, and reconstruction movement.
Holistic Approach
Combining societal networks and their relationships under the theory of health and validity in building systems and institutions, as indicated by Malik Bennabi's "health and validity" laws, is vital. Importing or recalling correct ideas is not enough; they must also be valid in context and time. The transitional phase has its unique nature, often surrounded by polarization, conflict, power fragmentation, and chaos, hindering construction and confiscating efforts in development. Hence, within the comprehensive law of social order: mismanagement of transitional phases weakens revolutions, and polarization is the graveyard of revolutions.
Continuous Effort
The discourse on the transitional phase in the Syrian revolutionary context and similar events still requires more diligence and work, conscious awareness, and determined effort.
