Oligarchy Is Democracy, Vigilantism Is Honorable

The Middle East is a tough neighbourhood. That is incontrovertible. But to use that as an excuse not to call things by their real name is a travesty. Lebanese society is a good example of the dangers that reside inside such dismissive attitudes. Rampant corruption, misguided policies, human rights violations, social injustice, economic inequities and ecological degradations are excused, brushed aside and even justified by always comparing them to the records of other neighbours and constantly concluding that since conditions in Lebanon are less illiberal then they are to be tolerated and even promoted.

Current Municipal elections are an excellent illustration of the above permissive attitude and the tendency not to hold any party or political leader accountable. Elections in a democracy are expected to be an automatic process that takes place according to a time table that is predetermined by the law of the land. Both potential candidates and registered voters know in advance of a date certain when these seminal acts are to occur. But not in Lebanon. Our political oligarchs feel the need to reinvent the wheel, at every turn, in an effort to demonstrate their magnanimity to the ruled. The whole Lebanese government, including the President spent months discussing whether the elections are to be held, when they are to be held and how are they to be held. I always thought that responsive democracies, we never tire of proclaiming Lebanon a leader in democratic affairs, hold elections whenever the calendar triggers the process. Well such behavior can be excused because our oligarchs have nothing else to do and so they feel compelled to create pretense of work in order to fill their time.

So what was the outcome of all this hullaballoo in the three largest Lebanese cities? Sham election in Beirut, no elections in Tripoli and potentially quasi elections in Sidon. In Beirut, March 14, pulled all the stops in order to avoid an election by popular vote and cobbled together a coalition that satisfied most of the traditional political leaders. A renegade group dared to insist on challenging the status quo and so nominated its own slate of candidates that offered less than token competition. The oligarchs rule was not to be challenged. Tripoli on the other hand promises to be even more of a shady process. Mr. Samir Al Jissr, a Mustaqbal MP, told Voice of Lebanon radio that”an agreement has been reached as to who is to head the Tripoli Municipality and there is no problem in specifying the other members on the list…” Who is it that forged this agreement and what was the input of the residents of Tripoli? Is that what we call elections; oligarchs choosing who is to do their bidding. In Sidon on the other hand, Al Mustaqbal worked hard to prevent an actual election from taking place and almost pulled it off except that at the last minute a relatively credible opposition decided that if Municipal elections are to be held then voters must have a choice. This was reluctantly accepted by MP Bahia Hariri and MP Fouad Saniora. They are bemoaning the fact that Sidon is to have a real election when it could have anointed oligarch representatives.

Another illustration of the tendency not to call things by their name are the almost daily statements by Sheikh Naim Qassem in which he declares that "It is our right as a resistance to own arms that we see appropriate to carry out our obligations … “What the Hezbollah deputy secretary-general neglects to say is that the militia/resistance in question is above the law, exists in spite of the law and is trained and financed by foreign interests in order to do their bidding. Now that is representative democracy isn’t it? What is the difference between the rationale of the Hezbollah militia and the egregious acts of many residents of Ketrmaya?

The current Lebanese oligarchs can teach George Orwell a thing or two about newspeak. Corruption is efficiency, social injustice is equitable, labour exploitation is progressive , environmental degradation is eco friendly, unbearable sovereign debt coupled with a real estate bubble is a sign of economic strength, daily electric power rationing is a sign of prosperity, private “public” beaches speaks of equality of access, poverty is a sign of economic growth, expensive private education implies equal opportunity , sectarianism and oligarchical structure is vibrant democracy and yes pigs do fly.

Municipal Elections, What Elections?

Many of my fellow Lebanese are proud of the fact that Lebanon is finally, after a 35 year hiatus holding its municipal elections for the third time, arguably the most important exercise in democratic rule. But should they? It is an incontrovertible fact that although democracy is not the same as free and fair elections that there can be no democracy without the universal right to suffrage. Yes we should be glad that we are holding elections at the most basic level of society so that different cities, towns and villages will get to determine who is to run their day to day affairs and how to help improve the quality of life for these constituents.

The paradoxical thing however, is that as soon as we determined to hold these elections the major political bosses started their efforts to short circuit the democratic system and attempted to arrange for deals behind smoke filled rooms that result in coalitions and candidates whose choice is designed to achieve one goal only: rob from the citizens their right to vote. If the vote is sacred, and it is, then why do these feudal political lords wish to take away from us the chance to have our say? The answer is very clear; they do not want to diminish their total control over the political system. If we are given the chance to form our own lists of candidates then we would realize that we do not need them to run our lives.

Even in the places that are “allowed” to hold electoral contests the mistrust in the ability of the average citizen to behave responsibly during the elections is actually demeaning. A country of only 4.5 million people cannot hold municipal elections without the need to spread the process over a month and without the need to bring most aspects of civilian life to a standstill during the time set for elections. What is so dangerous about having restaurants and bars doing their regular business when some citizens are casting their votes in favour of one candidate or another? Why shouldn’t I be able to cast my vote either on my way to work or on my way back from my job? The whole exercise should not take more than 10-15 minutes.

I am at a loss why is it that we cannot hold these elections all across the country on the same day without having the army and the ISF forces deploy all their armoured vehicles and most of their cache of weapons. Who are these security forces protecting, or are they just their in order to intimidate and make us think that we cannot be trusted to cast a vote without the protection of big brother. Maybe someone should remind the authorities that the UK, a country of 61 million citizens declared on April 6, 2010 that a general election is to be held in exactly one month, May 6, 2010 without the need for any disruption of any kind to civilian life and without emptying the barracks of all soldiers in order to set up check points around polling places.

I am afraid that these municipal elections, like all other elections in Lebanon are a farce. They are an exercise in futility that was designed by the feudal lords, who wrote the rules of engagement, proceeded to prevent the average citizen from having the right to choose through their deals in smoke filled rooms and when no agreement was possible decided to treat us as if we were irresponsible immature children who cannot be trusted to cast a democratic vote for local officials. The message is that we should be grateful that sham elections are being held.

Democracy cannot thrive if the citizens do not take their awesome responsibility seriously. Elections are a crucial part of what democratic rule is all about. But democracy cannot work unless we ; the citizens; have the courage to act responsibly and to cast our votes for our genuine representatives and not for those that act as subservients of political bosses, the feudal lords determined to keep us from having a say in how to govern ourselves.

Sectarianism, Municipal Elections And The Voting Age

It is paradoxical when the response to an effort to eliminate sectarianism is voiced in sectarian terms. That would be similar to countering an argument for integration in purely bigoted segregationist terms. Unfortunately that is the level or should I say the low level to which the standards of deconfessionalism discourse has fallen in Lebanon.

The major fault line on which the shaky Lebanese system is built, as we have discussed many times before, is the discriminatory sectarian structure. Speaker Beri has finally decided that it is time to appoint a commission , as called for by the Taef agreement, to study the process that is needed in order to eliminate sectarianism from the state. It should be obvious that it would be difficult to find fault with such a democratic call. Such a call has created oppositions from all across the political spectrum, as is to be expected, because if implemented then it will shake the current system of political leadership to its core; as it should. The opposition was to be expected and the bankruptcy of their arguments was to be expected as well. It has been very entertaining watching one leader after another walk down the plank by adopting nonsensical positions in an attempt to critique the Speaker’s plan. Ms. Mouawad even had the audacity to state with a straight face that eliminating sectarianism is similar to eliminating democracy. Does she really expect anyone whose IQ is above 60 to take such a position seriously? Apparently she did and it looks like she had the blessings of Patriarch Sfeir since she made her declarations after a meeting with him in Bkirki. That should serve as a strong argument , if there ever was a need for any, why people of the cloth should confine their utterings to that which they know best, myths of creation and intelligent design.



It appears that many of the same politicians who have opposed the Beri plan were not content with the level of derision that their counter plans have produced and so they proceeded to look for newer areas to show their ignorance and farcical powers of analysis. Low and behold they did find a new area to add to their ludicrous arguments in another Beri initiative which calls upon the legislature to put the finishing touches on the plan to lower the voting age in Lebanon from 21 to 18. And what do you think is the reason for their opposition? You guessed it, a purely sectarian mindset. The estimates by the Ministry of the interior is that if the voting age is to be lowered to 18 then the potential number of voters will increase by about 280,000; three quarters of whom are Moslems and the other one quarter are Christians. So one more time what do these Christian geniuses come up with to counter this other very democratic proposal? Why they come up with their own conditions to approve the lowering of the voting age. They will agree to vote for the new law provided that Lebanon adopts simultaneously a plan that grants everyone who is of a Lebanese descent the Lebanese citizenship and the right to vote.

Do they really want to offer the 12-15 million Lebanese scattered around the world the right to vote in both national and municipal elections? Do they really want individuals who have never been to the country , who cannot speak its language and who do not understand any of its problems to have the final say in what policies to adopt and what to reject? Of course not. This is another purely selfish and cynical stand calculated to disenfranchise 280,000 Lebanese the majority of whom belong to a different sect. Someone should remind these politicians to be careful what they wish for, their wishes might come true and the votes from their diabolical plan might come back to haunt them.