Stopping the movement towards change.

Friday, Mar 27 2009

We are currently experiencing a quasi-comical situation in the Lebanese political arena, as seen in the policy of killing time from now until the upcoming parliamentary elections due to take place in June.

Firstly, it is clear that the lists of those up for election have already been formulated and that the names of the members of the next parliament are in the possession of a handful of politicians. It does not require a fortune-teller to know who will head control of the upcoming parliament. Everyone is all too aware that no change possible on the Lebanese political arena from now until June can account for the furor taking place across the channels at the end of each week and the political gesturing, both of which are simply devices being employed to distract the Lebanese people from the real issues at hand.

We at the National Dialogue Party feel that if the state institutions fulfill their constitutionally-defined roles, then this will save much work and money and will stop the Lebanese people from wading into renewed civil conflicts. If conciliation is necessary for the sake of rendering the administration effective, then the cancellation of political confessionalism which is enshrined in the Taef accord, is the appropriate fundamental step to achieve the selection of the state servants on the basis of achievement rather than membership of a particular party or any particular patronage.

In order to achieve the cancellation of political confessionalism (Article 95 of the constitution), it needs to be implemented seriously and knowledgeably, so as to allay the misgivings of the leaders of the spiritual sects, which will limit the stranglehold of some long-term leaders and their heirs on power for over two decades. If the cancellation of political confessionalism is implemented, will members of the judiciary fear for their positions which they occupy under the control of their particular sect’s leader and owe him their allegiance? Will the jockeying for positions by the Civil Services Council, which is authorized to select members of the administration, be in vain due to the tight factional calculations which control the abilities of the Lebanese people? Is this detestable factionalism not behind the system of protection for the corrupt in administration and the failures in government? Is this not the reason for the existence of a corrupt state which practices systematic plunder, rather than one which is accountable and subject to surveillance?

These issues are no doubt related to the fears which were voiced by his Eminence Patriarch Sfeir regarding the lowering of the voting age. These fears will prove to be founded if the political work continues in the current manner with sectarian and confessional demographics and all the associated sectarian divisions. However, these fears or dangers of demographic change, the shortcomings in the system of apportioning between Christians, Sunnis and Shiites and the factional and confessional loyalties of the citizens, will all be nullified if the Lebanese people achieve an electoral system dependent on proportional representation. This will lead to real representativeness for the Lebanese people on the basis of nationhood, politics, economics and society, which will all serve to establish a positive political atmosphere independent from the political confessionalism and sectarianism which is so dangerous to the very existence of Lebanon.

The lowering of the voting age and the involvement of the youth in the elections will provide, from a simple mathematical viewpoint, an increase in the number of voters and a widening of the cross-section of those who will choose the representatives of the Lebanese people in parliament. We can thus expect one section to exceed another or one sect to dominate over another in terms of simple numbers. This means that the elections will produce the same factional patronages. However, in the national calculations, we believe that the lowering of the voting age to be nothing more than a prelude to further change in the structure of the system and its moving away from factionalism to meaningful nationhood. Any effective involvement on the part of the Lebanese youth in the selection of parliament will not achieve its true importance without the Lebanese people choosing well their electoral law on the one hand and aspiring seriously to the cancellation of political confessionalism on the other.

If this does not happen, then the system of sectarian division will only serve to cancel out the votes of the youth as it does with the votes of most of the Lebanese electorate. The cancellation of political confessionalism from elected positions specifically before any upcoming elections will pave the way for healthy elections with an absence of pressures exerted by the sect leaders on the youth and on the voting population in general. This will remove some of the pressures exerted on the Lebanese people from various sects prior to any elections in the name of maintaining the rights of the sects, confessions, factions and groups which make up Lebanese society. This factional and confessional approach is enough to deter the citizen and make him follow the needs of the leaders.

In conclusion, the main problem faced by Lebanon lies in stopping the hands of time when it comes to change. Since Lebanon gained its independence in 1943, we have aspired to a democratic rather than factional system. However, we are still to this day dealing with a terrible reduction in the rights of the citizens at the hands of the sects, in addition to unilateral representatives for these sects in political life and in parliament. The country is abuzz with talk of change, but there is vacillation over cancelling political confessionalism as the private considerations of the sect leaders are undermining the serious work required to bring democracy to our country. This is not helped by the nation being exhausted by civil conflicts. And so, we must limit the tendency to turn the citizen into just a number in a particular sect or else the country will remain hostage to factionalism and its tensions, and its official institutions will be wracked by corruption and failure with any hopes of conciliation and positive political influences being marginalized.