This is a letter which Cllr Oli Rahman sent to the two Tower Hamlets MPs on behalf of Tower Hamlets Independent Group of Councillors just before the parliamentary vote on whether to bomb Syria.
Dear Ms Ali and Mr Fitzpatrick
In our capacity as local residents and elected representatives, we are writing to you as the Members of Parliament (Labour) for the local area covering Tower Hamlets, to voice our serious concerns and opposition to the flawed strategy of bombing the people of Syria, as put forward by David Cameron and supported by many Labour MPs, while opposed by some Conservative MPs.
Critically, this is opposed by the Leader of Labour Party – Jeremy Corbyn – something that we as the Independent Group in Tower Hamlets, and thousands of our residents (your constituents) and 75% of your Labour Party membership agree with.
However, we are not simply writing to object and oppose. We also have some suggestions about an alternative strategy to deal with this important issue.
The solution has to be to work collaboratively to cut the finances of Daesh rather than an indiscriminate bombing of the Syrian people – including women and children. Many other countries have been carrying such air strikes by dropping bombs for a while without a real success.
We must take responsibility and come up with a plan collectively that brings our principles, logic, pragmatism and wisdom from the past together. We must work with the United Nations to develop a robust and rapid response, such as a safe passage and conflict-free area for families and children affected by the war, bombing and the proxies at play in the civil war of Syria. We need a comprehensive strategy for tackling the finances, supporters and the narrative of terrorists and not repeated the mistakes of the past.
We believe that the Prime Minister has failed to put forward a convincing case or a coherent strategy. In particular, his inability to explain a range of important points, for example, the credibility of 700,000 troops some of whom were/are associated with Al-Qaeda, how will the bombing make the streets of the United Kingdom safer (they are already being bombed by many countries, (the US, France, Turkey, Australia, Russia, Jordan, KSA, Qatar, forces loyal to President Asad and others) and the fact that David Cameron could not actually respond to the questions posed to him by the Foreign Affairs Select Committee or indeed his failure to explain the contribution of additional UK bombing to an eventual negotiated political settlement of the Syrian civil war, or its likely impact on the threat of terrorist attacks in the UK. Bomb first and prepare for political settlement later is the wrong approach and will not make us safer.
We must not simply think in bombs but we should also engage our brains. A hard-headed approach that sees militarisation and bombing as the only and first solution will be used by the death cult of Daesh for propagation of more xtremism, recruitment and a vehicle for further radicalisation.
For these reasons, as the local MPs, you must not do the terrorists’ work for them by voting yes to bomb Syria. We urge and request you to “vote no” to bomb hundreds of thousands of innocent Syrian people in Al-Raqqah and elsewhere in Syria.
Yours sincerely, Cllr Oli Rahman Leader of the Opposition (Tower Hamlets Independent Group – THIG) On behalf of the THIG
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