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Sunday, July 29, 2007

Dictatorship, The Only Solution For Lebanon?

I was listening to a band play some oldies and munching on some tabouli when the discussion on how to "fix" Lebanon came about. After much debate the director of my LAU program, a woman who had lived through the Civil War, and has a doctorate from Georgetown say, "the only way to fix Lebanon is with a dictator. Get a dictator who stops the sectarianism, makes us a nation, and gets some order." While she was fervently anti-Syrian, she must have noticed how Syria had grand gardens, clean streets, working traffic lights. Laws were observed and there was a semblance and order about the place. This is all completely lacking in Lebanon. Lebanon looks like a tribal mishmash.

A village pledges allegiance to their feudal tribal lord and that's final. Most Lebanese still don't go outside of their sectarian boundaries. Many Lebanese Christians I've met still refuse to drive down to predominantly Muslim Hamra, in Beirut. Just to note, Hamra is no more than 10 to 15 minutes away from Achrafieh (the Christian area).

How can democracy even hope to thrive in a place where the people will really only vote for their feudal lord and/or their sons? Its less a Parliament and more of a Bedouin style gathering. Each family/sectarian group has its own "tent," ie the Druze tent would constitute portions of the Chouf, the Christians would have much of Jabal Libnan, the Shi'ites would have the Bekka and the the south, Sunnis would have portions of Beirut, Sidon and Tripoli. In the end they all gather and try to grab as much of the pie (Lebanon) as they can for the family and sectarian group.

And we expect democracy to win out and deliver Lebanon from Syrian domination? I think not.

Dictatorship offers:

  • Stability
  • Security
  • A chance for a country to have a unified goal
  • The possibility of secularism

However, Lebanon would need some sort of a benign dictator the likes of Lee Kuan Yew. I doubt we will see such "progressive" leadership out of Lebanon. A Lebanese leader would need to push Lebanon as the Middle East's leader for free-market reforms, be secular (no more sectarianism), clamp down on Islamists (that includes Fatah al Islam types and Hizbollah), build a strong Lebanese Army, shut down anti-Lebanon parties (this would include the likes of the SSNP, a group that wants Lebanon's union with Syria). All in all a successful leader would end up alienating a good 50% of the population, at the very least.

Lebanon has already been under a dictator's heel, one who let Lebanon retrogress. When Syria's Asad ruled Lebanon, it was like his own private fiefdom. The country's money was sucked dry and everything was as corrupt as could be. As such I have serious reservations about the decendents of Phonecian traders really being able to pull off a success story here in Lebanon through dictatorship. I just don't see the dynamism needed to pull off true reform.

When I am around my Lebanese friends, they usually talk about the need for federalism, and a strong central government. Normally I would be inclined to agree, but realistically it doesn't seem like a strong federal government will come about in this country. The people physically and mentally block eachother off, and the mentalities about outside groups (I'm talking about Christians thinking about Druze, Sunnis thinking about Shi'ites, that kind of thing) has remained unchanged since the 1800s.

What do you seek, my countrymen?

Do you desire that I build for You gorgeous palaces, decorated With words of empty meaning, or Temples roofed with dreams?

Or Do you command me to destroy what The liars and tyrants have built?

Shall I uproot with my fingers What the hypocrites and the wicked Have implanted? Speak your insane Wish!

What is it you would have me do, My countrymen? Shall I purr like The kitten to satisfy you, or roar Like the lion to please myself?

I Have sung for you, but you did not Dance; I have wept before you, but You did not cry.

Shall I sing and Weep at the same time? - Khalil Gibran, My Countrymen

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