How Lebanon’s sectarian lens was broken
As a second week of protests continues in Lebanon, nothing seems to calm the popular wrath; on the contrary, every time an official makes a public speech, the public grows more offended at what they see as government hypocrisy and blatant mockery of their suffering. There is total discontent with the current system and political class, and an urgent need to move to something new.
Prime Minister Saad Hariri presented a program of economic reforms last week, but it was aimed more as fodder for media consumption than as a genuine plan to drive the radical and drastic reforms the country needs. For example, one of Hariri’s proposals was a 50 percent reduction in the salaries of ministers and members of parliament. However, the waste of public money that is bringing Lebanon to its knees is not due to the salaries of officials, but to the corruption associated with major government projects. Many officials receive kickbacks on such projects, or make illegal profits by bypassing the competitive bidding process while awarding contracts.
Three days after Hariri’s speech, President Michel Aoun also addressed the people and promised to fight corruption. He told the protesters he was willing to meet their representatives, but insisted that the streets were not a proper forum for bringing about reforms, which should be conducted through government institutions. However, his speech only fanned the flames and drove more people to the street. One protester said: “What reforms? We have seen nothing from his three-year presidency except a sectarian election law.” The Lebanese people do not trust government institutions that are controlled by corrupt politicians. The protesters were not even deterred by the speech of Hassan Nasrallah, secretary general of Hezbollah, who warned that the protests could lead to a new civil war. The demonstrators just kept coming.
The irony is that many of the politicians complaining about corruption and sectarianism are themselves a symptom of these two ailments. That is why one of the slogans shouted by protesters in the streets is: “All means all” — in other words, the whole government must go. This has led some politicians to grow nervous, and to start a blame game to save their own skins. A recording emerged of the sister of Gebran Bassil — the foreign minister and president’s son-in-law, who has been widely accused of corruption — in which she defended her brother and accused parliamentary Speaker Nabih Berri of corruption. Sooner or later, the politicians who have driven the country into the ground will all blame each other.
The significance of the protest movement lies in the fact that the Lebanese people have begun to look beyond their religious denominations and their party affiliations. The sectarian lens has been broken. People now realise it is the current system that has driven them to the situation they are in. They want change — but how?
They like to call the protests a “revolution,” but it is more of a spontaneous movement. The protesters have even composed their own anthem, an adaptation of the Ode to Joy, the 18th-century German poem set to the grandiose music of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, but the movement still has no proper structure, no head and no leadership. Every now and then the media gets different cues from people in the streets. Some say they want the parliament to resign, and they demand early elections. However, that would not solve the problems of Lebanon. The election law has resulted in gerrymandering the different voting districts in a way that promotes the sectarian political structure. The chances are, if an early election took place, Lebanon would end up with the same political figures, even if the law were changed. The system has not allowed for alternative political figures to flourish. This is why the country badly needs a proper political transition in which it moves from the democracy of the denominations to the democracy of the citizen
It is important to properly manage this movement and to steer it in the right direction; to capitalize on the momentum to carry out the necessary structural changes and reach a true democracy, a democracy in which the individual is treated as a citizen and not as a member of one denomination or another. Such a system in return would make each citizen feel first and foremost Lebanese, before they feel Christian, Sunni, Shiite or Druze.
The irony is that many of the politicians complaining about corruption and sectarianism are themselves a symptom of these two ailments.
Dr. Dania Koleilat Khatib
I have written before that the Lebanese people need the support of the army, but that does not mean that Lebanon needs military rule. Rather, Lebanon needs the military to be the guardian of the political transition. The transition should drive government departments to be reformed and made efficient and cost effective. At this point there is a need for international institutions such as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund to set the standards and processes to conduct such reforms. Most importantly, the transition should involve criminal trials of corrupt politicians and the reacquisition of embezzled funds. Once these criminals have been exposed and put on trial, the Lebanese people will totally break with the traditional corrupt political elite and move on to a new era, an era of genuine democracy.
- Dr. Dania Koleilat Khatib is a specialist in US-Arab relations with a focus on lobbying. She holds a PhD in politics from the University of Exeter and is an affiliated scholar with the Issam Fares Institute for Public Policy and International Affairs at the American University of Beirut.
