The road to a non-sectarian Lebanon, a nation of free and equal men and women
The late great President Fouad
Chehab tried with all his might to bring our country and its people
into the modern age. He tried to build the fabric of a modern State and
succeeded to a large degree. Unfortunately his term in office was limited. All
one man could do was done, in the end it was up to the people to pick up where
Chehab left off. Instead, we regressed back into the welcoming, secure, and
familiar womb of our sectarian groupings.
Back in 1970, Chehab gave his
reasons for not standing for election for a second non-consecutive presidential
term that year and the text of that declaration was an eye opener for me as I
am sure it will be for you too. Three years later he was dead; cause of death a
heart attack, although I suspect the real cause was heartache because the Lebanese
people broke his heart by rejecting everything he ever stood for.
During the years of civil war and
following that during the years of Syrian tutelage, people forgot Chehab, or at
least what he stood for. I am new to this topic myself I have only been a Lebanese
resident citizen since 2005, on and off. I was all packed and ready to pack it
in, throw in the towel and throw the dice, pick a spot on the globe and go
there when I came across a website www.fouadchehab.com and read the late former President's statement.
The situation today is not dissimilar
to the way it was in 1970, we are still a bunch of bickering sects led by selfish capricious men
whose only claim to fame is their last name and who want through an election
law tailored to their own specifications to secure their own privileges and
secure the largest number of seats in what should be a parliament that speaks
on our behalf and in our name, the people. Instead, they want to turn it into a
bazaar for deal making and apportioning pieces of the national pie to each
sect.
Yes, I am dismayed, I do not
recognize this country, its not the country I imagined it to be, and I certainly have no one to speak for me in
Parliament, not that I ever did. I never voted because I never thought it would
make a difference and I was right. But now we have a chance to make a
difference, to take back parliament from politicians who speak in the name of
their sects and not in the name of their people. I have said it before and will
say it again, to sit and watch and do nothing while great evil is being done is
to share in the guilt of the guilty, those who committed that evil. We all have a duty to do, some to
vote, others to be candidates for change.
We are lucky in that we live in a
country that still has laws that recognize our right to disagree and to argue
and to call for changing the political set. We still have the faint outlines of
a democratic process that has been much abused and bent and distorted to suit
the agendas of the few. Now is the time to submit our candidacy in the name of
the people, to stand and say ‘vote for me.’ But first be sure you do it for the
right reasons. Just because a great injustice was done to you once, does not
give you the right to do to others a similar injustice.
Yes, we are a complicated people
and yet we are easy to understand. We still live in a world where the
individual is valueless but for his/her last name. We carry no weight outside
our sects, whether we apply for a job in government or complain to officials that
the road in our village needs resurfacing. We are allocated only as much
attention as our system deems appropriate based on our affiliation to our sect and our status within our clan/tribe. We may not
marry freely, as two free individuals of sound mind and body signing a nuptial contract
before a judge or notary, as only our sects may give us permission to marry. We will not be free until we are all equal citizens of one national State, and not merely subjects of our sectarian leaders.
We have no real freedoms; we are
only extended certain privileges that are reserved for free men by men in power, men who speak for their sects. We are
only given a small amount of freedom, just enough to make us believe we are
free, but not enough to be able to make any real change. It’s a similar trick that the
architects of the global economy devised to keep us all in line, in debt, keep financial
independence out of reach for most of us, but keep us happily buying things. We
consume to feel in control and satisfied, yet the more we consume the less
fulfilled and happy we are, in fact, the more empty we feel, until we finally
open our eyes and notice the large hamster wheel beneath our feet.
Whatever world we long to see and
no matter the disagreements we will have along the way, we must move forward
and start the process of change. Today the cynics would argue that people here are
deeply sectarian and that they will argue over which sects gets what share just
as passionately as their sectarian leaders, that they do not look at the bigger
national picture. I still like to believe ordinary people are smarter than
that, that they can see for themselves the value of cooperation in building a nation,
that they see the need to give up some privileges to get a greater reward at
the end of the process. But if I am wrong, then all that is said is futile and nothing
will save this country. However, if I am right then there is a lot of work to do
still ahead of us. I don’t know about you but I feel like working hard to build something we can all be proud of.
Text below from www.fouadchehab.com:
“Chehab was expected to contest
the presidential election of 1970 which the constitution allowed him for, but
in a historical declaration he explained that his experience in office
convinced him that the people of his country were not ready to put aside feudal
traditional politics and support him in building a modern state. He chose
instead to endorse his protégé Elias Sarkis for the elections which Sarkis
eventually lost to the feudal leader Suleiman Frangiyeh by a single vote. This
marked the end of the Chehabist era and reforms.”
Text of the declaration:
The original in French:
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