I

t is just a matter of time before Syrian President Bashar al-Assad accepts the fact that he has to follow the tragic fate of the three Arab leaders who were forced to step down by their own people in the wake of the Arab Spring in late 2010. The most pressing question that remains is, how many more millions of people have to flee their homes and how many more thousands of Syrian lives have to be sacrificed for the sake of the al-Assads and their cronies?

The international community, especially the European Union members and the United States, are still hesitant to get directly involved with helping the fragmented opposition groups topple al-Assad as they also have to endure the bitter results of the '€œArab Spring revolution'€ '€” the rising of '€œhard-line Islamists'€ after the leaders were brought down.

We Indonesians, who suffered violent political turmoil before the fall of Soeharto in May 1998, know very well that the road to full democratization is very painful and costly. We were apparently among the first predominantly Muslim nations that succeeded in proving to the world that Islam is compatible with democracy, human rights, peace and equality between men and women. Of course, we are still struggling to transform our nation into a full-fledged democracy.

Indonesia has chosen to be a '€œsafety player'€ in regards to Syria, as it has demonstrated during the adoption of the Arab-backed United Nations General Assembly'€™s Resolution on Syria in mid-May this year. Along with more than 50 other countries, Indonesia abstained from the resolution.

We are empathetic to the people of Tunisia, Egypt and Libya, whose respective nations are still in the early stages of achieving their goals. Libya'€™s Muammar Qaddafi, Tunisia'€™s Ben Ali and Egypt'€™s Hosni Mubarak are gone, but these aforementioned nations inherited massive political and economic chaos. Their new leaders are under strong pressure to provide '€œmagical'€ progress to impatient people.

Still, we are shocked that the Syrian regime reportedly used all available technologies and tools, including dangerous chemical weapons, to oppress the people who are fighting for freedom.

For 42 consecutive years since 1971, the late Hafez al-Assad and his son, President Bashar al-Assad, treated Syria as if it was their private property. We, Indonesians, are obliged by our Constitution to help the Syrians get rid of the oppressive Syrian regime.