Obama One Year On. A Lebanese Perspective

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La Stampa, one of Italy’s most influential newspapers decided to run a feature called “Obama, One Year On”. Both in print and online, It published opinions from bloggers and commentators from around the world relating to the first anniversary of that historic election. I was one of those fortunate enough to be asked for a contribution. Below is my piece as it was published.

Obama. One Year on, the shame remains

One year later, I still resent how the election of president Obama made me feel about my country, Lebanon.

In a swift, blistering move , America’s first black president laid bare the primitive way in which we chose our leaders. Our President had to be a Maronite Christian, our constitution says. The Prime Minister has to be a Sunni Muslim, the Speaker a Shiia Muslim and the deputy speaker an orthodox Christian.

In that fateful day, president Obama exposed my country as a fraud. A fake melting pot…

Having many religions used to make me proud. But November 2008 made me see a different place. I saw a country where tribes coexisted in an eternal power struggle, where leaders of the various sects negotiate their power relationships. It dawned on me: Lebanon could never produce a minority president. Lebanon could never have a president Obama.

I wrote back then: “How can you not be embarrassed, watching the Obama spectacle, if you live in a country where your destiny is dictated by the God you worship and the clan you belong to? President Obama puts to shame our obsolete system that assigns a different set of laws to [Muslims and Christians]”

One year later, as I watch our elected leaders spending endless months trying to form a government, I still feel the same…

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Discussion

Comments are disallowed for this post.

I agree. Lebanon will never be a stable democratic country under the current system. The current system reinforces the idea that the lebanese are to be defined by their religion/sects and thus will never feel like one.

For a democratic nation to succeed, its citizens need to feel like one regardless of religion, race, or creed. Lebanon is not and will not be a democracy until the Lebanese put aside their religion and act like one nation.

Posted by MN | November 3, 2009, 7:28 am
I always love your political insight and your interesting perspective of things!

Posted by Darine Sabbagh | November 3, 2009, 10:05 am
You know abu stef,

Lebanon’s independence is like what… 60 something years old? The USA has been there, done that, already. We still need to kill each other a couple of 100 years more, that’s all.

Posted by MK | November 3, 2009, 5:53 pm
Reiterating your own year-old-statement is OK, but putting it between quotation marks… I’m pretty sure you could have paraphrased yourself without fear of repercussion.

Posted by Anonymous | November 3, 2009, 8:27 pm
Now in some day’s obama complate his one year as a presedent of America.Now in this day’s h is doing good job for america and doing lots of effort to takeup america from the crises

Posted by r4 | November 5, 2009, 12:23 pm
I wish more Lebanese thought like you. The mentality is so frustrating. I always get into fiery debates when there, even with my father! Lebanon is stuck in the dark ages of feudalism! I’m afraid it will be a long time before our society wakes up! However, I think this blog is really a great platform and you really tackle all the issues in a strong and logical manner. I hope to see it’s continued growth and become bigger in influence.

Posted by Bethany Kehdy | November 7, 2009, 11:03 am
Mustapha,
Sectarianism is the bane of our society.It would be impossible to move forward when shackled with such destructive, hurtful and undemocratic ideas.

Posted by Ghassan Karam | November 7, 2009, 11:15 pm
Is it still the case that Lebanese citizens whose parents (or grandparents) were Palestinians do not get a vote?

Posted by Don Cox | November 8, 2009, 12:37 pm

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.