Blessed Scrutiny
The Lebanese system is not that bad, and even people like Michel Aoun have great uses.
The system works, we just need to shout less. So was the opinion of P.M. Seniora on a “national unity” Iftar dinner last Friday.
The Premier insisted he is not underestimating the importance of the right of political divergence in a democratic country where public freedoms and in particular political freedoms are observed,
“But I don’t see the need for the sharpness in expression where voices are sounded out, causing tension for citizens”
One commentator on a previous post agrees:
“Geagea is a traitor, Hariri kid is a kid, Nasrallah is a war monger and a terrorist, Jumblatt is a flip flopper,” etc… why can’t we discuss ideas, political plans, economic strategies, Israel and Syria’s hidden agendas? Does it always have to be on the personal level of the leaders? Why can’t we admit that each one has people that he represents and pay little bit of respect to those people? the more you insult this leader, the more you insult their followers”
Words of wisdom. You see, when we target leaders, our judgment of actions becomes clouded. Consider for instance a situation where Michel Aoun, A bête noire to the March 14 movement did a great service to the displaced in Mount-Lebanon:
We all know that Walid Jumblatt, the Druze leader, is less than transparent (to put it mildly) when it comes to spending the government’s money allocated for the civil war’s displaced. So when Michel Aoun, a political foe, sets up a large event to “expose the theft and lies” in that dossier, Jumblatt immediately felt the heat of scrutiny and staged a counter-event to prove him wrong. The question is: who is benefiting?
It was a classic situation where political competition benefits the consumers (citizens). This is why, for our own benefits, we should learn how to look at political actions, not politicians. We need to reduce our “brand loyalty” and constantly shop for superior product offerings. Let’s establish the political equivalent of a consumer protection agency (some say that would be the free press but I say it’s more an attitudinal shift)
Imagine for example having a Aoun-like competitor to Nabih Berri challenging him to account for the money allocated for majlis inma2 al Janoub (The Council for Development of Southern Lebanon). wouldn’t that be great?
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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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You are right about describing the reconciliation as being a counter event but wrong about prescribing the right cause of the event.
I think the event was staged to counter the Christian refugees’ return to the south through the HA-FPM pact. They are now returning Christian refugees to Mt.Lebanon through the PSP-LF alliance. Aoun’s show was merely to undermine this move for selfish political reasons.
And you are bloody right about everything else! Nature works in a mysterious way. So does Lebanese democracy!
Right on Mustapha,
For the first time, we see a healthy opposition that generated benefits to the “people”. In a country like Lebanon, where you have decent amount of educated people, I think the “opposition” has numerous cases to go after the the ruling group. It is a fact that we have so much corruption that the opposition can score easily against the government. I know for a fact that Aoun is surrounded by people who have such intentions: Showing by numbers the extent of corruptions. The problem with Aoun’s speech is that sometimes he jumps to personal attacks. Again, he has been warned against this weakness and he is trying but we all know his character. Anyways, back to opposition/governement game. What would you think the reaction of the government would be? of course not refuting by numbers but by attacking the integrity of the source. Abou Jamra was attacked by some future movement lawyer that he had money confiscated from him when he left Lebanon. Now the masses would forget about the corruption highlighted by the opposition (the real problem) and go after Abu Jamra for what ever he has done (the distraction), and the case for a better society would be lost,…. Beleive it or not, this has been happening in the US for the last 5 years. Bush always attack the democrats for what they did, and never defend or explain his screw-ups. Unfortunately it is working in the US and will definitely work in a more fragmented country guided by religious sentiments like Lebanon….
PS: Abdulkarim, you are somehow right, of course the oppositon (in this case Aoun) will highlight such things for political motivations, it is not selfishness, it is why they are in politics in teh first place: gain the public opinion so as to take power one day.
I cannot but totally agree with the last anon………
don’t underestimate “brand loyalty.” marketing 101.
WHAT????
Quote:
“the more you insult this leader, the more you insult their followers” “Words of wisdom.”
Pure nonsense. If you insult a leader, that is exactly what you’re doing, just insulting the leader. This is a graaaaaaaaave problem in Lebanon, insult a leader = insult the whole tribe of worshippers! We have a moral obligation to criticizing the leaders when they’re wrong (especially when they’re criminals), and a right to badmouth them whenever we want. We should differentiate between the leader and the INDIVIDUAL. There should be no problem for me to tell an X or Y sympathizer that I don’t respect his idol withouth him taking it personally. Ofcourse, in extension this should apply to religion also, but let’s not push it too far, too quickly. People think that insulting a person is the same as insulting his whole family. So insulting a leader is the same as insulting his followers. Worse, insulting a leader means that you want him assasinated!!!