The Syrian Future Movement and Citizenship
The concept of citizenship has undergone a long historical journey, evolving into what it is recognized as today: a comprehensive notion with multiple dimensions. These dimensions include legal and material aspects, cultural and intellectual perspectives, and as either a means or an end achieved gradually. Hence, the nature of citizenship in any given country is influenced by various specific factors, including national law, political maturity, civilizational context, religious doctrines, and cultural values. This leads to different interpretations of the concept of citizenship in both ancient and contemporary political thought, allowing us to present our unique vision within the Syrian Future Movement, rooted in the specificities of the Syrian society we live in, drawing on past and present human experiences.
The Syrian Future Movement perceives “citizenship” as a true expression of the comprehensive and genuine relationship between the state and the citizen.
The Syrian Future Movement believes that every individual has the right to belong to what they perceive as acceptable and satisfactory, whether ideologically or intellectually, as long as they uphold their obligatory duties towards the state’s system within its social contract.
The Syrian Future Movement sees a fusion and blending in crafting a universal vision of citizenship that encompasses both national and religious aspects, within a broad human framework titled global citizenship. In this framework, Syrian citizenship occupies a part of the overall picture while maintaining its unique privileges and color.
The Syrian Future Movement considers the success of the citizenship principle in Syria to be contingent upon fulfilling the required duties in parallel with enjoying the protected rights, freely and with absolute conviction, involving both parties of citizenship (the state and its citizens).
The Syrian Future Movement believes that successful citizenship relies on the principle of enhancing individual freedom to an almost absolute degree, except as limited by elected law.
The Syrian Future Movement believes that enhancing citizenship requires a complete democratic system, through which citizens exercise their natural right to participate in political life, oversee it, correct it, support or criticize it without restrictions.
The Syrian Future Movement sees that proper and correct citizenship leads to complete equality among citizens, without categorizing them into ranks or distributing them into classes.
The Syrian Future Movement views the core issue in Syria today as the inevitable result of the absence of healthy citizenship principles across Syrian territory during the era of Assad father and son, and the major tragedy lies in the Syrian opposition’s failure to present an effective alternative that realizes and protects the true principle of citizenship.
The Syrian Future Movement views divisive calls, whether national, religious, regional, tribal, or otherwise, as the fiercest enemy to both parties of citizenship, with overcoming them only possible through historical understanding, fortifying the present, and envisioning the future.
The Syrian Future Movement sees citizenship as practical actions, not theoretical principles, through the application and enforcement of elected laws by citizens, without necessarily believing in or agreeing with them. Moreover, citizenship grants the right to peacefully oppose laws and change them through legal and regulated means.
The Syrian Future Movement believes that successful citizenship means absolute transparency in state institutions and their employees, without secrecy or deception, ensuring citizens’ full right to be informed about the state institutions’ trajectory, granting media complete freedom to track, highlight their performance, and respect otherwise agreed-upon through specific legislations issued by a genuinely free, elected people’s parliament.
The Syrian Future Movement believes that it is the state’s duty to instill a culture of citizenship among citizens, through drafting laws that regulate the relationship between both parties of citizenship and outline a parallel course for each.
The Syrian Future Movement believes that a fair judiciary is tasked with correcting the negatives arising from citizens’ breaches of the citizenship principle, whether social, legal, or political.
The Syrian Future Movement believes that the success of citizenship primarily depends on expanding the role of civil society and making it the true mediator between the state and citizens.
The Syrian Future Movement bets on the maturity of the Syrian people’s consciousness after the Syrian revolution in establishing a culture of citizenship as a fundamental part of their social awareness. The people who initiated their revolution out of a deep sense of need for their stolen or diminished citizenship are the same ones capable of protecting it from tampering, correcting its course despite conspiracies, and then fortifying and embedding it, geographically within the entirety of Syria, and globally wherever a Syrian citizen is found, to enjoy full citizenship.
