Lebanese affairs

Dina Ezzat was a full-time reader of the Lebanese press this week, and for good reason

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Readers of the Arab press on the Web usually visit the nicely designed sites of Lebanese papers to enjoy the eloquent pieces of Lebanese commentators and the spicy news stories of their journalists on Arab and international affairs.

This week, however, it was the home pages of the Lebanese papers that must have received the most attention from their visitors.

There was the debate over the sudden Syrian- Lebanese decision to re-word the Lebanese constitution in order to allow for a limited three-year extension of the presidency of President Emile Lahoud.

Another Lebanese-related debate swirled in the UN Security Council over an American motion to issue a resolution that calls on Syria to keep its hands off Lebanon.

Not only have Lebanon's publications been offering a good reading into a complex home front but they also provided the reader with what could be described as unusually liberal debate over the future of the presidency in the Arab world. The news in Lebanon coincided with stories from other Arab countries that reported the inevitable extension of long-ruling presidencies and specifically a constitutional amendment in Algeria by President Abdelaziz Bouteflika to annul a constitutional constraint that prohibits any president from having more than two terms in office.

Here are some of the headlines that appeared in the Lebanese press this week: "The [Lebanese] Lawyers Union rejects the personally-motivated constitutional amendment"; "[MP Naila] Mouawwad describes the extension [for Lahoud] as a setback for Lebanese democracy"; "[Influential Maronite] Patriarch Nasrallah Sfeir expresses regret over the extension and warns of tension"; "'Loyalty for Resistance' [a pro-Hizbullah parliamentarian group] supports the extension"; "[pro- Syrian political leader] Jumblatt calls on Lahoud to resign"; and "Lahoud calls for national unity in the face of disturbing regional developments".

Other headlines offered insightful reading into the Syrian decision to impose the extension for Lahoud despite unmistakable Lebanese opposition, even from some of the pro-Syrian political quarters in Lebanon, and certainly despite the angry protests of one of Damascus's closest allies in Beirut, Prime Minister Rafiq Al-Hariri.

The debate over the disappointing, albeit not surprising, Syrian-imposed extension of the service of the Lebanese head of state was widely reflected in the opinion pages of the Lebanese press. And even among supporters of Syrian high-and-low profile intervention in Lebanese affairs, it was not easy to find real vocal support for the extension. Lebanese commentators warned about the negative impact of what they described as an unpopular extension on the image and role of President Lahoud, the influence of the pro-Syrian quarter in Lebanon, fragile Lebanese national unity, the "special relationship" between Syria and Lebanon and even the international and regional perception of the regime in Damascus.

The Al-Hariri-owned Al- Moustaqbal, the liberally- inclined An-Nahar and the leftist-nationalist As-Safir all were at one: the extension does not necessarily serve the interests of Lebanon, nor for that matter Syria, but in all cases it should not be met with unwise resistance.

"The impasse" was the headline of Joseph Samaha's article in the daily As-Safir on Tuesday. Coming in the wake of news of a hurried political process in Lebanon to finalise the formalities of the extension for Lahoud, Samaha's article warned that even those who will not oppose the extension will have to admit that this political move is taking Lebanon and the Lebanese head of state into a phase of too much ambiguity. "Now we are getting into a really fuzzy phase. What shape will the new government take? How will its prime minister react and how will he perform?" These and other questions in relation to the balance of power between the ruling Lebanese troika -- [president, prime minister and speaker of the parliament] -- were all asked by Samaha. Answers, he argued, were lacking.

The bottom line, Samaha said, is that "this extension has been eroded by the immunity of the [political system in Lebanon] and increased the foreign pressure" that Lebanon has been coming under to downgrade its alliance with Syria.

The extension for Lahoud, argued Samaha, has taken Lebanon, and for that matter Syria, "into an impasse and it will be a disaster if this fact was ignored".

On the same day, George Aalam, also in As-Safir, supported Samaha. Acknowledging the negative political consequences of a possible UN Security Council resolution that would demand Syria to refrain from associating itself with any political or military form in Lebanon, Aalam hoped Syria would reconsider. "Had Syria allowed the Lebanese people to freely express themselves in the [presidential elections] it would have spared itself many unwanted regional and international developments." According to Aalam, indirect warnings and the Syrian insistence to keep Lahoud in office for another three years may cost Damascus more than an unfavourable -- to say the least -- UN Security Council resolution. Damascus, Aalam argued, is now running the risk of reducing the influence of its supporters in Lebanon.

Meanwhile, criticism gradually increased in several Lebanese papers against Hizbullah's unconditional support for the extension.

"Where did Hizbullah go wrong in its support of the extension?" was the headline of an article by Mounir Al-Assad in Al-Moustaqbal. In his article, Al-Assad argued that as a celebrated resistance group, Hizbullah should have refrained from taking sides in such a political game. And, he added, as a close ally of Syria, Hizbullah would have done itself, Damascus and Beirut a favour if it had cautioned the Syrian capital against pursuing such a highly unpopular extension.

"Hizb-the-extension" is basically what Al-Asaad criticised Hizbullah for. This, he warned, could take the popular resistance party away from an otherwise general Lebanese opposition to the extension.

National unity was what renowned Lebanese writer Ghassan Tuini stressed in his column in An-Nahar on Monday. "Let democracy be born from a womb of oppression" was the headline of an article received with much praise in Lebanon. Tuini's article was a recipe for a remedy from the current political Lebanese ailment.

"Let us be realistic. And to be realistic is to avoid calling on His Excellency President Lahoud to turn down the extension or to suggest to him that by doing so he will go down in history in its good books," Tuini wrote. The way ahead, he said, is to focus on a way to spare Lebanese democracy from being lost. To do so, the prominent Lebanese commentator argued, the Lebanese had to first avoid falling in the trap of disagreement over how to resist the extension because this could open the door before another ugly phase of Lebanese discord and perhaps violence.

What the varying political factions in Lebanon should do, according to Tuini, is to get together immediately and agree on a plan of action "that does not get too engrossed into details" and does not fall into the trap of cheap emotional blackmail through radio and TV programmes. Today, Tuini wrote, Lebanon needs "no wordy speeches or superstar performances but rather a down to earth" political performance like that of past national political figures who "despite their differences" pursued independence through systematic and realistic political action.

"Screaming and shouting will not get us anywhere," insisted Tuini. Championing the constitution should be the way ahead, he insisted. But this mission, he added, cannot be accomplished by resorting to unconstitutional measures on the part of the opposition.

On Monday, a statement by Syrian Foreign Minister Farouq Al-Sharaa -- "We respect the Syrian constitution but this respect does not mean that this constitution is untouchable" -- was widely quoted in the Syrian papers that are for the most part controlled by the Syrian government and its Baath Party. This said, the Syrian press seemed to try to play it subtle by not over-emphasising the issue of extension for the Lebanese president.

By Tuesday, with news of the American motion to draft a UN Security Council resolution against Syria, Syrian papers turned their attention to what they unanimously described as "Lebanese solidarity with Syria".

Kuwaiti papers used the extension story as a launching pad for another wave of attacks on Syria -- a systematic sport of some Kuwaiti papers that are still keen on avenging Syrian opposition to American aggression on Iraq and its alleged support for the resistance movement there.

"Black Saturday in Lebanon" was the lead headline of the Kuwaiti daily Al-Seyassah on Sunday. And in a back page column, Abdel-Amir Al-Turki described the extension for Lahoud as "a deal made at gunpoint".