Phoney war
If party platforms are anything to go by, Lebanon's political class would have to vanish after the forthcoming parliamentarian elections due 7 June. Promises of social justice, political and judicial reform, poverty eradication and most importantly a sectarian-free society have been pledged by the very class of politicians who reproduced the same political system which has jeopardised the country's stability so many times during the past four decades. The Lebanese elections, however, are hardly about carefully written party platforms and neat policy documents. In Lebanese politics, platforms do not matter, primordial ties do.
With nine weeks to go, Lebanon's contesting political parties released their long awaited candidates' lists, party platforms and policy documents. To mark such an undertaking, some (Lebanese Forces and Al-Mustaqbal movement) chose a Hollywood-like staging of the event. But the state-of-the-art technology was covering up for empty promises of social justice, renouncing sectarianism and peaceful cohabitation. Most platforms were full of generalities and spoke in the past tense more than in the present reflecting both an ideological and political bankruptcy of their movements. While Future movement leaned heavily on the legacy of former prime minister Rafik Al-Hariri, the Lebanese Forces invoked its past sacrifices under "the Syrian mandate". These were platforms of the dead and the impossible.
On Tuesday and just hours before the deadline for submitting candidacy requests, Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Al-Siniora announced his candidacy in Saida. There has been a surge in candidate number for the June elections reaching approximately 600 candidates.
Lebanese politicians of all stripes were preoccupied with what one writer described as the "festival of concessions and compromises", selecting candidates and dumping others.
In his speech launching Al-Mustaqbal movement as a national political party on Sunday, Saad Al-Hariri, majority leader, called for coexistence and unity. He pledged economic development and more jobs for youth and criticised the sectarian- based system. "We do not want Lebanon to be a battlefield for sects or a field for foreign direct and indirect interference," he told an enthusiastic gathering. There was strong emphasis on the economic side of the policy document. It was promoted as an economic document.
While Al-Hariri steered clear from using an obvious sectarian tone to mobilise his audience, there was no explicit reference to Hizbullah's arms, the most contentious issue that was the core of the 14 March anti-opposition rhetoric since 2005. There was also hardly any reference to the 7 May events which Al-Hariri describes as Hizbullah supporters invading Beirut. This change of heart is, perhaps, related to the radical shift made by his strongest ally, Druze leader Walid Jumblatt, who said in a public rally on Sunday that the page of 7 May events "has been turned." Some observers, however, suggest that Al-Hariri's politically correct inauguration speech does not reflect what is being said and done on the ground. His supporters, just like those of other Lebanese politicians, can be mobilised only along sectarian lines. Although he allocated large parts of his speech to condemning sectarianism, urging his supporters "to be loyal to Lebanon and not to a sect", such a message will hardly resonate with an audience whose self perception is based on sectarian differences and animosities. His popular legitimacy is fed by a perceived image of him being za'im al-Sunna (the leader of Sunnis) par excellence.
Presented as a national political, social and economic programme for Lebanon, Al-Mustaqbal 's policy documents failed to address many of the chronic ills that have long beset Lebanon's sectarian-based political system. It also failed to seriously address the existing economic crisis gripping the country. Recent governmental figures report that 28.6 per cent of Lebanon's population live under the poverty line on less than $4 a day. Almost half of the Lebanese families struggle to make ends meet as their monthly pay barely covers their basic needs. Only 0.5 per cent of the population possesses 45 per cent of the banking savings. Also almost half of the population is not covered by any form of healthcare system.
As part of their electoral campaigning, 14 March and 8 March often make reference to the dire economic and social situation but neither actually addresses the issue seriously. The economic question, nonetheless, does feature highly in electoral campaigns. In several statements, Al-Hariri hinted that an opposition victory will bring an economic disaster to Lebanon as investors will cease to pour their money into the country. By using such scare tactics, he hopes to put the brake on the opposition's chance of winning. To such an argument Nabih Berri, parliament speaker, responded in an electoral rally in the southern city of Tbnine: "Looking back on the past years, the Lebanese citizen would realise that it was the policies of the past decades which helped sustain the deprivation of many Lebanese areas."
But it was precisely a destructive alliance between businessmen and statesmen, as described by prominent Lebanese economist and historian George Qorm, which is responsible for the disastrous economic policies. Such policies resulted in a public debt of $48 billion. "Sixteen years of Harir[ism] domination over the political and economic decision-making with the support of many of today's political class components as well as private sector mafias are responsible for the disastrous situation," wrote Mohamed Zbib, economic editor of Al-Akhbar.
The Lebanese Forces' policy document also reiterated the all too familiar discourse of 14 March which puts emphasis on Lebanon's sovereignty, honouring international resolutions, the tribunal, the Palestinian weapons, the naturalisation of Palestinian refugees, and diplomatic ties with Syria. Apart from implicit reference to Hizbullah's arms ("no state beside the state and no state within the state"), no change of discourse was reported. The most revealing statement came from Samir Geagea who, after declaring his electoral platform, said he could not make any promises to deliver those goals.
"If one listens to the electoral platforms of Lebanese leaders, Laila Al-Khazen, a teacher, wrote in Al-Akhbar on Tuesday, you would say those "geniuses and wise men can solve all of Lebanon's chronic ills by one speech. I am amazed by the great solutions they offered us. They eliminated sectarianism, settled the public debt and eradicated poverty. One would think had they been living in the States, the financial crisis might not have happened."
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