Millions of e-mails, according to WikiLeaks, are on their way to tell the world how people’s revolution was handled from the presidential palace in Damascus. Previous leaked messages contained scandalous or embarrassing information, among others about the $ 20 million spent on landscaping the garden of the presidential palace.
A few days ago the media revealed the Syrian regime’s attempts to win over both American leaders and the public opinion. The documents said how the regime’s stand was defended with the help of public relations companies in the United States. President Assad’s public relations efforts enabled him to win the sympathy of many Western leaders during the first half of last year. As a result, a number of political commentators and analysts started expressing their doubts about the true identity of the Syrian opposition. However, the US urged Assad to make political reforms in his country. The campaign succeeded in depicting the regime as modern and eager to develop. The campaign also successfully dismissed the uprising in Deraa and Homs as the activities of extremist Islamist gangs similar to what is happening in the region including Iraq.
Assad succeeds in misleading those who do not know him. Earlier he won the support of Turkey and Qatar and also France after Nicolas Sarkozy came to power. It did not take them long to become his bitter critics when they learned that he was using them to achieve his goals and that all his promises were lies.
Assad failed to keep the friendship of those who were concerned about the region because of two reasons. Firstly, he continued to lose battles against the demonstrators he claimed were mere underground gangs and most of their allegations against him were hostile television propaganda.
Secondly, he did not make any serious attempts toward real reforms but only pretended to do so. Even the Turks, who initially believed he was ready for reforms, abandoned him. The Turks had even prepared translated booklets about the Turkish experience on how political cooperation with the opposition could be achieved. After months of efforts and promises he ignored them and shortly after that, the Turks turned against him. This shows how public relation campaigns become futile unless supported by facts.
In media campaigns, the president, first lady and their children appear and mingle with others exuding a warm family scenario. But such pictures cannot fool the people for long because at the same time we witness the massacres committed by his own forces for whose acts he is responsible.
The WikiLeaks documents also reveal the preoccupation of the president and the first lady with the purchase of more exquisite furniture, songs and films while the country is in the middle of a civil war.
The leaked documents proved that Assad focused on propaganda and his only concern was winning the Western public opinion. Moreover, it revealed his failure to realize what really was happening in his own country. The Syrian government keeps claiming that the uprising in the country is part of a Gulf and Western conspiracy. Instead of realizing that the Syrian people actually want the fall of the government, the regime continues its diplomatic and public relations campaigns to make the world accept the regime’s stand and not the people’s.
One wonders whether Assad really thinks that the people’s uprising is a foreign conspiracy against him? Does he still believe that majority of the Syrian people like him and want him as their ruler? I don’t know. But it seems that way. How can he be unaware of the fact that the majority of the Syrians do not want him? He failed to fulfill the promises he announced 10 years ago. He ensured the continuity of his regime through police and military repression. It is hard to believe he would ignore those facts.