 | By Joe Millis
February 1, 2011 | Share |
After Tunisia, Egypt, Yemen and Jordan, it seems that the Syrians are planning a "day of rage" against the one-party Baathist rule at the weekend.
According to the Wall Street Journal
Like Egypt and Tunisia, Syria suffers from corruption, poverty and unemployment. All three nations have seen subsidy cuts on staples like bread and oil. Syria's authoritarian president has resisted calls for political freedoms and jailed critics of his regime.
The main Syrian protest page on Facebook is urging people to protest in Damascus on Feb. 4 and 5 for "a day of rage." It says the goal is to "end the state of emergency in Syria and end corruption."
The number of people who have joined Facebook and Twitter pages calling for protests on Friday and Saturday is still relatively small, and some are believed to live outside the country.
Social networking sites were integral to rallying protesters in Tunisia and Egypt.
Facebook is banned in Syria, which makes organizing more difficult — even though many Syrians manage to access the social networking site anyway. More than 2,500 people have joined the page calling for protests on Feb. 4-5, with another 850 joining a page in favor of President Bashar Assad.
Although he has lifted some economic restrictions, seeing Syria's economy grow since the days of his father, Bashar still controls a Soviet-style regime where political freedoms are banned. Any past signs of dissent have been crushed (in Hama, in 1981, tens of thousands were killed when Hafez al-Assad sent in the tanks to put down food riots led by Islamists).
mattpryor
1 February, 2011 - 16:16
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Funnily enough I was wondering about Syria earlier today. But there's a big difference between joining a Facebook page and going out on the streets (although the former makes it easier for the authorities to track you down in a country where internet use is closely monitored, as the Mullahs proved).