A Taste of Lebanese Parliamentary Elections

Lebanese Parliamentary Elections are scheduled to take place between May 8 and May 15, both in the country and across the five continents where the expatriate Diaspora has settled over nearly two centuries.

The country is divided vertically between:

1- The "Loyalists" - Lackeys of Syria, Iran and Russia, and currently the ruling coalition consisting of Nabih Berri's Amal Movement (pro-Syrian Shiite), Hassan Nasrallah's Hezbollah (pro-Iranian Shiite), and their Christian backers of the Free Patriotic Movement (Maronite Catholic) Michel Aoun and Gebran Bassil. Nabih Berri has been enthroned into the Speaker of Parliament chair for more than 30 years. Hassan Nasrallah leads the violent Hezbollah militia which draws all its weapons and money from the Islamic Theocracy in Iran, has established a mini-state separate from the legitimate State authorities, and has repeatedly plunged the country into wars and civil unrest whenever Tehran dictates it. Michel Aoun is the sitting president of the country who, at 87 years of age, is barely functional and is being manipulated by his puppeteer son-in-law Gebran Bassil into being a puppet for Hezbollah and the Syrian regime of Bashar Assad. This camp has other supporters from other insignificant parties affiliated for the most part with Syria, like the Marada Party of Sleiman Frangieh, the Syrian Social Nationalist Party, or the Baathist Party.

2- The "Opposition" - In this camp are two groups of candidates:

- Older establishment parties and figures who are professional sectarian politicians by definition, and while they are as corrupt as the Loyalist camp, they oppose the latter for sectarian, regional, and historical reasons. Included here are the Sunni Muslims of the Future Movement (the Hariri clan) as well as other Sunnis in Beirut, Sidon and Tripoli; the Maronite Catholic and Orthodox Christians of the Lebanese Forces of Samir Geagea and the Kataeb of Sami Gemayel; the Druze of Kamal Jumblatt; and others. This cluster has refurbished its image a bit because much of it hasn't been in power in recent years, yet it is generally heir to the violent militias that waged the 1975-1990 domestic war, and is supported by the Americans and the Saudis. When that war was over, these people made peace with the pro-Syrian camp of Hezbollah and Amal, accepted the Taef Agreement, participated in governments and in the financial plunder of the country during the 1990s and 2000s, and it is only over the past few years that it became an "opposition"  and an outspoken critic of the Syrian-Iranian occupation of the country.

- A new crop of young(er) candidates born out of the October 17, 2019 revolution. Here, I'll say at the outset that I am voting for these people, regardless of their youth and inexperience: In Lebanon, political "experience" means the corruption know-how and the connections needed to pilfer the Treasury and run the country to the ground. So inexperience is welcome. On the surface, they are secular, educated, hailing from professional backgrounds, have great ideas, are motivated, know communications, have fought in the streets against repression from the ruling coalition, have become the most outspoken critics of the Syrian-Iranian occupation, and ground their opposition in arguments of economic and governance nature, rather than in sectarian and communal positions. These October 17 rebels have forced the traditional establishment to shift to a more serious opposition. The only problem with this segment of the opposition is that it never unified into one front, and it is waging this campaign as a multitude of small, non-coordinating, sometimes very local (instead of a nation-wide appeal) pools of candidates, which is why I am not listing them here. This newer grassroots opposition might steal a few seats in parliament, but had it been unified it might score a landslide victory. 

May 15 will reveal whether the Lebanese people have achieved the required level of political maturity to topple the old primitive ways of doing politics and bring reason and modernity to Lebanese politics. I call on the Lebanese voters to vote for any and all of these newer October-17 revolutionaries, in a Pascal's wager-like bet: Just try something new; it might be better than the same old rotten way.

Here is an example of one such new opposition. The "Sovereigntists of the Matn" electoral list includes a candidate for the Greek Catholic parliamentary seat for the North-Matn district. His name is Alfred Riachi, and these are excerpts of statements he made to the MTV television station (03-May-2022).

(translated from Arabic, as seen on: https://www.mtv.com.lb/Newsmtv-لبنان-وُلد-على-أسس-خاطئة-واتفاق-الطائف-لم- ل  

• Lebanon was established on erroneous foundations.

• The Taef Agreement doubled down on the problem and did not bring about a solution.

• I call for excluding Nabih Berri from Parliament on serious suspicions of corruption, and he should be investigated. What right does he have to break the law?

• Nabih Berri is the “murderer” of Tayyouneh.

• The concept of “Preemptive Resistance” is nonsense. Let them show evidence that the Shebaa Farms are Lebanese.

• Hezbollah is an Iranian militia and I call for carrying weapons to confront Hezbollah’s weapons.

• Either we all take up arms or we trust the institution of the Lebanese Army and let each party surrender its weapons to the Army.

• I call for dismantling the rotten corrupt system because we cannot continue this way.

• The centralized form of government is part of the problem, whereby a party or constituent community takes control of the country, which leads to the estrangement of the other constituents, and to wars and acts of violence.