Whether or not “unity” is what Lebanon needs today, the word is quickly becoming General Suleiman’s trademark.
Every politician who wants to make an impact on history wishes to be associated with a guiding principle, a word that can summarize his objectives and style of stewardship. Nassrallah likes “Resistance”, Hariri broadcasted “Development”, George Bush boasted “Compassionate conservatism” and Nicolas Sarkozy showcased “La Rupture”
According to General Michel Suleiman, what Lebanon needs more than anything else today is “unity”.
In all his recent speeches and communiqés, he made sure to advocate unity and warn of division. When Mr. Seniora called him to congratulate him for his Naher El Bared victory, the General replied: “Unity empowers the Army and consolidates its victory, while division is a danger for all of us”. In his victory directive (English), he started with the sentence: “In the name of national unity, you overthrew terrorism through your victory,“, he also praised what he called “the unity that dazzled the entire world”.
In Mr. Suleiman’s world view, unity is at the root of both “victories”, the one against Israel and the one against the terrorists. It was also the rallying cry that kept the Lebanese Army effective in the face of local upheavals since the Cedar Revolution first started.
Mr. Suleiman takes the concept even further, and in true professional PR fashion, showers everyone with praise. He exonerated the Syrians and thanked the Americans simultaneously. He then thanked the Lebanese, the Palestinians and the resistance for the bared victory. He also consistently avoids all kinds of criticism.
In Arabic we have a saying: “The friend of everyone has no true friends”. But Mr. Suleiman’s presidential campaign should not be dismissed as a simple attempt to fawn his way to the top.
Mr. Suleiman, in fact, could be up to something.
In a heavily polarized country like Lebanon, one shouldn’t underestimate the appeal of a unifying figure, especially one who seems to be politically savvy and shrewd: As politicians attempted pettily to capitalize on yesterday’s victory and score political points, Mr. Suleiman, bathed in the limelights, elevated himself and dedicated it all to our martyred soldiers… More brownie points for him.
One thing is for sure: Don’t expect riots if he became President.
Hello, my name is Mustapha and I've been blogging about Lebanese society, business and politics since February 2005.
I respect and admire Michel Sleiman and as 14 March supporter I wouldn’t mind to see him our new President. Sleiman holds the values of the Cedar’s Revolution while being smooth with Syrians and Pro-Iran intelligence apparatus. The questions are :
1) Will he be able to impose security and stop assassination while protecting Justice and Hariri International Tribunal?
2) Could he stop Iran and Syria from using Lebanon as a war zone to negotiate and bargain with the West?
These are the challenges that the new President should work on.
we’re getting another army general for president aren’t we?
…
shit!
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It seems so z.
Hmmm I need to look into the history books and find a good successful army general who was a president in the arab world.
Ow and please don’t tell me Jamal abdul nassir.
Bas you never know, it is true it never worked in past 30 cases, But it might be good this time. Anyone likes poker?
wo yallah 3ala il batata
Truth in Lebanon is only revealed by the fools. Fanjieh clearly stated to marcel ghanem that mr sleiman is well respected by bashar el-assad as well as fares boueiz and both enjoy the highest esteem in the syrian regime `entourage`. In other words, Sleiman and Boueiz both are consensus presidential candidates. The Syrians will push for one of them, no boubt about that. Wether the lebanese in general like or dislike those two candidates is irrelevant! What is crucial here is that the lebanese army benefited from a `coup de main` from the syrian secret agents and intelligence who assisted the army in its fight against the terrorists. Why, were there assistance from syria? in my most humble opinion it is to facilitate sleiman`s non ending struggle and present him as the only savior who eliminated an islamist plot and not only that but you have to take into perspective the struggle with islamism in the middle east, Iraq and the region and that no country has declared victory over such phenomenon. Hey, Maybe the last visit of the commander of US army for mideast region is to acquire and learn some techniques until now foreign to the US warfare in Iraq against terrorism!!!!. Syria is saying its word wether to Lebanese or to the US. I am the key to the solution to all issues from Iraq to Palestine to Lebanon ending in the prospects of a peace agreement with Israel. This is well understood by the US official as well as by the french freshly elected Sarkosy. After all the Patriarch seemed to have goten the message, Either Sleiman or Chaos!!! `Mabrook`and you are still asking who will be the next persident??
The key sentence in your post Mus is “he exonerated the Syrians”. That is a no no in my book. Any leader that wants to exonerate the Syrians is failing to acknowledge the reality that the Syrians are guilty guilty guilty.
He can play middle ground as long as he can. But a time will come when he will have to choose sides.
You are either for a country, a border, and only the weapons for the army (in other words what the West defines as the minimum requirement for a country) Or you are for a middle that gets you somewhere into eccepting accepting Syrian medling and the continuation of Hezballah’s state within a state.
I think he is bluffing one of the sides. And I think that side is non-other than the incompetent March 14.
Remember how excited many in the country were when Lahoud came to power? And Lahoud was saying all the right things.. Dont look now but I think the Lebanese people are going to get duped again..
“You can fool some people some time but you cant fool all the people all the time”
Bob Marley
Unfortunately I dont think Bob lived in Lebanon..
For those Lebanese who may assess the current crop of candidates by the question, “Who can smooth the Syrians and Iranians enough to stay alive yet betray them at the critical moment?” I’d like to point out that nobody has a bigger record of betrayal than the Syrian regime. They sacrificed a whole bunch of terrorists last year in a failed attempt to curry favor with the U.S., so who says they didn’t pull the strings to create the Tripoli crisis and so as to elevate Suleiman to the point he can reach for the Presidency?
No, I don’t really believe this is the case. But given the Asad regime’s record, I think it is a possibility. So I have held back on the cheering until the situation becomes less obscure.
He is an undercover, in the closet Pro Syrian for God sakes.
This is a remake of Lahoud’s presidency guys, I can’t believe you’re not ALL seeing this.
I think a bit of unity with Israel would be more worth while than unity with Syria. There is no reason other than those farms (which could easily be negotiated over) for a constant state of hostility between Israel and Lebanon.
Have Egypt or Jordan come to any harm from being at peace with Israel? I think not.
Since he’s so keen on unity, you think he’ll UNIFY all the weapons in Lebanon under the banner of the Army? Or will he continue to support DIVISION of Army vs. “Resistance” ??? Heh
Didn’t I warn you guys about this a few weeks ago? Look at how easily everyone is suddenly falling for it! All of a sudden, it’s “He’s no so bad.” and “I wouldn’t mind seeing him as President.”
Bleh. How quickly some of you forget.
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