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Sofyan Aswad: Sofyan Aswad: "Otherwise you have no right to criticise or protest"

A positive attitude is what creates life, and a negative one is what hinders us when we fritter away our days without doing anything meaningful. It gives no returns, neither to us nor to our successors. That is what makes us try to find ways of influencing our surroundings.
To attain something that guarantees a viable environment for the next generation, to give them the means to attain what we in our turn did not manage.
Sofyan AswadSkicka e-post
Kristianstad • Publicerad 10 september 2022 • Uppdaterad 16 september 2022
Sofyan Aswad
Detta är en personligt skriven text i Mosaik Kristianstadsbladet. Åsikter som uttrycks är skribentens egna.
Men som journalist här i Sverige kan jag säga att lagen garanterar valfrihet och att röstproceduren sker öppet.
Men som journalist här i Sverige kan jag säga att lagen garanterar valfrihet och att röstproceduren sker öppet.Foto: Sofyan Aswad

Your vote is important. Don't throw it away, give it to the party that best deserves it. Without your vote, you are powerless. I know that from my own experience.

Now with the Swedish election fast approaching I remember the parliamentary election in Syria in 2012, how I prepared myself as a journalist to report on it. I wanted to go and vote as well, take part and have an influence. But it didn't take long before the result of the election was announced, who the winner was.

”My vote, and my family's, were worthless, for the government decides quite simply who wins and who loses”
Sofyan Aswad
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In Syria there are no free elections as there are here in Sweden. No-one in the Middle East can take elections seriously, simply because everyone knows in advance that the elections are rigged.

Now, after almost six years in Sweden, I can for the first time take part in an election. It is an indescribable feeling knowing that here everyone's vote is valuable, unlike in my native country. My vote, and my family's, were worthless, for the government decides quite simply who wins and who loses.

But as a journalist here in Sweden I can say that the law guarantees freedom of choice and the voting procedure is transparent. It is a very good thing that the state is anxious that all citizens who are entitled to vote take part in the election and support political freedom.

If you don't do your duty towards our new country, Sweden, and go and vote on 11th September you have no right to criticise or protest against the Swedish government. Even although it makes decisions that you disapprove of.

So use your vote, and put your cross against the names of politicians who can represent you, for politicians who meet up to your dreams of freedom, equality and social justice. Do it in the service of democracy and for a stronger Sweden.

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