Speaker Nabih Berri would say anything to maintain his interests and cronies in their positions.
After our minister of Economy announces on American T.V. that the Lebanese government is proceeding towards privatization (A measure required for reforming the public sector), Nabih Berri goes into attack mode: “Lebanon is not for sale!”.
How thoughtful, really. Thanks Abu-Mustapha; because of you, Lebanon will still belong to us. Do you take us for fools?
Let’s re-examine his statement: “We have heard about putting up for privatization basic sectors without consulting with anyone”. “without consulting with anyone”. This is the key sentence.
It seems Mr. Berri still doesn’t understand the meaning of privatization
His particular stress on MEA is revealing. We know that the MEA is stuffed with his cronies and Hezbollah’s. We know that they will be redundant once the company becomes private and aims to maximize its shareholders’ value to be able to eventually grow and pay the government more taxes. But why should Mr. Berri care?
Besides, since when should the executive branch of government “consult” with the legislative one in government policy?
Mr. Berri: Le model économique Anglo-Saxon est supérieur.
Hello, my name is Mustapha and I've been blogging about Lebanese society, business and politics since February 2005.
Berri thinks that Syuria is still controlling Lebanon! Wake up istiz Berri!
The role of government is to serve citizens. To accomplish this task, one must be pragmatic.
For example, I believe there is no need for the government to run slaughterhouses or farms. The people can take care of that for themselves. There is obvious demand for these services. The market can decide the rate of prices, which might actually be lower than the government fixed rate.
However, the government does need to step in to regulate business, build roads, zone land use… Our trees and pristine mountains would be destroyed if we allowed real estate developers, loggers, and quarries to go in there.
The problem with socialist style governments is that they remain based in money. How can the state tax individuals to recoup it’s expenditures if the state owns all means of production? The beast cannot feed itself.
Mustapha,
It is quite surprising that we are grabbing on the same issues at about the same time.
We seem to be online at about the same times, even though Lebanon and Ghana are in different time zones (we’re +3, are you +2? I don’t think you are far West enough to be GMT).
My God, and I was just thinking of writing something on the same subject. Berri is so not subtle. I mean c’mon, really, does he take us for fools when he says that MEA is doing great and should not be privatized? Well guess who’s heading this agency?…Let me guess here: Berri’s man, Hout. He in no way speaks for the legislative branch, nor for many of the people our parliament represents!
Doha,
Hout is Not berri’s Man.. He ois Hariri’s or Salame’s man.
He had biog fights with Berri as he removed allot of Berri’s clan fro mteh midle east airlines..
though Berri still have many still there…
I do not dispute that many Lebanese politician’s opposition to privatization is for their own crooked reasons. But the fact is that privatization can be negative in many ways. Many countries who have privatized their electricity and water sectors are regretting it. The rates for water and electricity will go sky high. In a country like Lebanon with massive fraud privatization may be preferably. As having the government run these institutions properly may not be possible in the near future.
Without the state assets to plunder, Berri is nothing. He’s a man of the past that is harming Lebanon and must not be allowed to spread nepotism and corruption.
The guy really thinks he owns the country!
Without nepotism and corruption, Berri will die (politcally speaking). Berri thinks that he’s more acceptable because he’s more moderate than Hezbollah. He thinks that no one will dare to ‘kill’ his movement because the only alternative to it is extremism. Saddam use to think the same way, and Bashar still thinks the same way. Big mistake.
I don’t know for other people, but I’d rather have Hezbollah monopolizing the Shia representation and get rid of Berri and what he stands for.
I am not saying that a planification model like the French is a complete failure (although it’s far from being as good as anglo-saxon practices). But the point is that Lebanese politicians will not be able, in a forseeable future, to manage state-run companies without succumbing to the temptation of corruption and nepotism. Until they metamorphose themselves into some kind of scandinavian politicians, let the private sector handle the economy. Would youlet Berri handle your own money?