Future TV In Bsharreh
The complex task of rebranding Samir Geagea.
“My Lebanese countrymen […] We have fought a civil war that may have had its logic at the time. But this logic does not fit nowadays.”
This is how Samir Geagea effectively declared, from the airport, that he’s a changed person. Out are the days where “The security of the Christian people is above all other considerations”, and in are those where “we should all look shoulder-to-shoulder for the shiny days ahead… to build the new Lebanon in Muslim-Christian national unity”.
It is easy for everyone to say that the past is behind us, but as Samir Geagea appears to know very well, the transformation from a sectarian to a national leadership is a tricky and complex game.
To effectively achieve the leap, a politician has to convince the other party that he indeed has their interest at heart, while at the same time maintain legitimacy with his core constituency. Two people are playing this game at this moment, Saad Hariri and Samir Geagea, and both have to keep eye on balance. So far, both are doing very well.
Let’s start with Hariri. His actions have shown lately a lot of rapprochement with the Christians, a big part of which he inherited from his father. But he has to also keep his eye on his core Moslem constituency, which might start to grumble if Hariri becomes “too Christian” and forgets his Moslem “mandate”. This is why Hariri is playing a double game: bombard the Moslems with Future T.V. positive coverage of Samir Geagea to change their hostile attitudes, while at the same time appease them by showing them that he is still a “strong Moslem leader” by picking up the occasional fight with president Lahhoud (and Michel Aoun), like the recent one over who should head the governments’ meetings.
The same is happening with Samir Geagea. His actions and talk have shown a lot of willingness to reach out and to think nationally and for the interest of all the Lebanese. Witness how, unlike Aoun, he blamed the national debt not on Rafik Hariri, whom he referred to as “people who were building Lebanon”, but on the Syrians who were “suffocating” him. But at the same time, Geagea still has to maintain his “Strong Christian Leader” image by appeasing some of his hard-core Christianists (like the people who are maintaining his website). This is why he was talking of “a lack of balance” that “needs to be fixed”.
People don’t just forget the past, and words must be buttressed by actions. This is why the Hariri-Geagea Tango is a good model for reconciliation in Lebanon.
The more the merrier.
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Hello, my name is Mustapha and I blog in The Beirut Spring about Lebanese society and politics. I started in February 2005 after the killing of P.M. Rafik Hariri.
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i don’t understand why people take offense over his “security” statement. the christians were being bombarded on several fronts, and placing security as a top priority is the logical thing to do. if the sunnis were being targetted, would rafik hariri have a higher priority then their security?
Rafik hariri would definitely place a high priority on preventing bombings, especially the one that killed him! I think you mean his son Saad
Mr Abdul certainly has a point
Eh censorship Mr Mustafa!
Thought you “sincerely believe[d] in free speech”…
You Saudi masters will surely be proud of you
“Samir Geagea effectively declared, from the airport, that he’s a changed person” says Mr. Mustafa, the Neocon censorship-enforcer-in chief on this side on the web
“Changed” yes indeedy my dear Afro-Tripolitan friend! …but for worse I’m afraid
The manic Maronite warlord turned pimp has sold out to Saudi-money, thus betraying his Christian constituents once again
In many was, the good doctor has come full circle, and was demoted by one notch in the process: he went from supporting Israel’s right-wing Likud per se to supporting Israel’s Saudi slaves and other kinds of proxies/proxénètes
Pity the pimps for they shall inherit Rafeeq H’s limousine
I am sure that you realize that deep inside: You are completely ignorant on the Samir Geagea issue, hence the relative but impressive decrease in the quality of your posts.
Please Mustapha, refrain from posting in such a case. You owe it to yourself, and to faithful readers like myself.
what’s the censorship story and why is everyone unleashing their critics on mustapha ?
The Beirut Spring’s censorship policy can be found Here.
The previous comment by Mr. Quahtan was censored because of abuse of language.
Fortunately, he has reposted the same ideas in softer language. He is most welcome.
Faris Soueid said yesterday at the airport something I believe is true: that Geagea entered prison as a sectarian leader and got out of it as a national persona. Soueid criticized on the contrary those who were national leaders and now have become sectarian leaders (and I believe he was alluding to Aoun.)
Quhatan or whatever his name is a moron and just another pathetic Lebanese conspiracy theorist.
Your inability to reason intelligently and present any real ideas on these blogs are now obvious. I am willing to bet you are a failure in you personal life as well, as all conspiracy theorists tend to be.
- Mustafa,
thanks for your clarification
- Anon., Doha & Co.
i shall restrain from replying- as in the ancient Arabian story of the passing caravan cum barking dogs on the loose
Conspiracy theory Lebanese are the worst Lebanese. And I heard from my aunt’s friend’s brother’s classmate that the Isreali’s have placed these “conspiracy theorizing Lebanese” among us to decrease our collective inteligence. And it’s working! :-)
Guys,
I don’t know about your idea of a “National Leader”.
To me, it is a person who appeals to the people as citizens and tries to change their sick secterian mentality.
Those who appeal to secterian constituencies might be leaders, but certainly not NATIONAL ones.
“The security of the Christian people is above all other considerations” (quoted)
I don’t think that this statement is ‘out’ for Geagea because he’s never going to approve a decision that jeopardizes his community’s security. But he (hopefully) won’t have to be faced with such a decsion. There’s no reason why the new government is going to threaten the security of christians. You can work with other communities and promoting reconciliation without undermining the security of your community.
Also, Geagea will not try to become a national leade. He never intented to be a national leader. In fact there is no ‘national leader’ in Lebanon. Some leaders such as Marwan Hamadé, Saad Hariri and Michel Aoun are positively considered outside their community but that’s all you can get in today’s Lebanon.
[...] • A few days ago, I wrote that I was skeptical of the new Future TV channel • In July of 2005, I spoke of the difficulty of rebranding Dr. Samir Geagea to Future TV’s core audience • In November of 2006, I followed up and covered Al-Arabiya’s documentary of Dr. Geagea, which I thought was a remarkable success. [...]