21/07/2008
As Lebanon
embarks on its first Government of National Unity since the end of
its “civil war”, the pressure is now on to prove how a country can
be run in a clean, honest and transparent manner. Not much is
expected from the same faces we have seen since 1990, as these
successive governments were the stewards of institutionalised
corruption and a staggering public debt of at least $40 billion USD.
The new faces
we see in the cabinet are the ones who will face the most scrutiny
as they will have many fronts to fight battles on; the first of
which is the ministry they have inherited that is rife with
corruption brought about from the breakdown of the state from 1975
to 1990 and that corruption was later institutionalised during the
past 18 years.
The second
challenge is the ruling class that were responsible for these
corrupt practices at the expense of the Lebanese people and do not
wish to see the new ministers succeed as this would cause an
unsurmountable amount of problems for them. Most important of which
is that they will be exposed for their past performance and also be
forced to start practicing higher standards themselves and this will
limit their personal gains and their practices of patronage.
The final and
most important challenge is the court of public opinion in the eyes
of the Lebanese people. In 1988 when the masses flocked to Baabda,
Lebanon’s Presidential Palace to show support for General Aoun’s
Government; this signalled a turning point in the hearts and minds
of the Lebanese people to reject the unjust practices of the ruling
class. Twenty years on and the people are smarter, wiser and more
knowledgeable in the affairs of state and the expectation to perform
is much higher.
Lebanon did
not ask for the wars and problems inflicted upon it in its modern
history, but the Lebanese people did not hesitate resisting the
regional plans that threatened their existence. A true measure of a
people is how they rise to confront these challenges when they occur
as they did at the outset of the war in 1975, the war of Liberation
in 1989 and the resistance at home and abroad since 1990.
Lebanon and
its people have shown that they are capable of living in peace and
prosperity; they have shown that during President Elect Bashir
Gemayal’s two week term how the government institutions were cleaned
up and during General Aoun’s government how clean and honest the
conduct was.
We need not
praise honest people for doing their job correctly, but rather we
must scrutinise those in power to keep them honest for the elegance
of honesty needs no adornment.
Labib Chemali
The United
Australian Lebanese Movement
