The crowd was markedly older, arak was on the table, and smoke filled the air. It was the 12th, a Thursday night in Jounieh, at the Guardians of the Cedars (GoC) dinner. The dinner brought together former fighters, family members, believers in the GoC's right-wing, secular-nationalist philosophy and members of the self described GoC youth. The dinner hit off without a hitch, there were piles of food, hummus, tabbouleh, vegetables, and meats. I sat at a table of younger GoC supporters, mostly college students. There was a collection of marching music and hymns in honor of the GoC militia. There was atleast 45 minutes of standing for the fallen members and to honor Lebanon."Phillip, we are not speaking Arabic, it is Lebanese," said one of the attendees after I explained I was learning Lebanese Arabic at LAU. To the GoC, Lebanon is Phonecian, not Arab. The Guardians see the Palestinians and Syrians as the ultimate enemies to their goals for Lebanon. The ideological leader of the Guardians, was poet and author, Said Akl. His protege, and warlord leader of the GoC, Etienne Sakr (known by his nom de guerre, Abu Arz) said, "there is no room for any Palestinian in Lebanon." Both Akl and Sakr attributed Lebanon's geography, its lack of desert (Lebanon is the only state in the Middle East lacking one) and its mountains, a feature which sheltered the Lebanese (Christians, Shi'ites, and Sunnis) for centuries. These geographical attributes, leading to isolation, fostered a unique Lebanese culture and language. Many, especially those in the media would call their philosophy of anti-Arabism and rabid anti-Palestinian ideology as racist and simplistic. Nevertheless, some of their ideology was a strong underlying current in
many of the right wing Lebanese parties from the early 1980s until today. "We didn't have this dinner to just make money," said one of the events organizers, referring to the $20 door fee, "it was to show the old fighters, some of whom were brothers in arms, that they didn't fight in vain." The night was also topped by a phone call by Abu Arz (Etienne Sakr), who is currently exiled in Cyprus. Sakr was sentenced to death in abstention by Lebanon. In addition, his Lebanese Renewal Party (the political parent to the Guardians of the Cedars) is banned in Lebanon.
Some Christians, even those not on the fringe like Sakr, do feel that he was one of not even a handful of Lebanese politicians who didn't sell out to a foriegn power. He didn't give into bribery by the Syrians, and didn't completely sell out to the Israels (as Antoine Lahad, commander of the South Lebanese Army [SLA] did). Even one of my teachers, after seeing my invitation to the GoC dinner, and a supporter of no political party said, "you know, they were right. [about the Syrians and Palestinians]"
Through an active recruitment policy, the Guardians continue to attract many Lebanese (although most of them Christian) to their line of thinking. The internet revolution has brought many in, in fact at the dinner I met one person who came because he met a GoC member via the internet. I've counted atleast four Guardians of the Cedars related groups on Facebook, a popular social networking site. In addition to Guardians run a number of websites:
http://www.cedarguards.org/wb/index.php
http://gotc.org/
http://www.gotc-au.org/
The GoC dinner was topped off by a cake, frosted with the former militias logo. Many started to shuffle out the door, the old militiamen sat and reminisced with their families, smoke from water pipes and cigarettes hung in the air. It looked like the extreme ideology the GoC holds may slowly be going the way of the dinosaur. Nevertheless,even if the GoC became extinct; like previous ideologies, even those on the opposite side of the political spectrum of the GoC, their ideals will influence people to come. Incredibly, it seems in the eyes of GoC members, their ideology is now filtering into their old enemies (mainly Sunni pan-Arab parties) and becoming more mainstream. In the words of the event's organizer, "it took us 20 years, we wanted the Palestinians out, and now look, the Sunnites (Sunnis) are going in and crushing Nahr al Bared."
_________
*Fellow blogger Ecce Libnano brought an interesting point to light, and one I would expect from many GoC members: 1. the GoC isn't a "rightist group." Many GoC members consider themselves to belong to an "ideology" which is neither left nor right. I based my comment on the fact that historically the GoC fought and identified with rightists inside Lebanon. In addition most of the people I talked to identified themselves as "right wing" or "rightists." One GoC member even refused to go to a club in Hamra (one that is decked out in Marx and Lenin posters) because it was leftist. Nevertheless it is a point to consider that "rightist" is just a Western label invented for the GoC.
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2 comments:
Nice post Philippe, although I depart form your characterization of the GoC as a "Right Wing" party! These labels are irrelevant and misleading when applied to Lebanon (or anywhere in the Middle East, where political parties are in reality, and in spite of their "secular" or purely "political" nomenclature, ethnic or ethno-religious formations with "ethnic" rather than "political" or "social" platforms.)
Here's what the great Bernard Lewis said about this:
"The seating arrangements of the first French National Assembly after the Revolution do not express a law of nature, and the practice of classifying political ideas, interests and groups as right or left obscures more than it illuminates even in the Western world where it originated. As applied to other societies, shaped by different experiences, guided by different traditions, moved by different aspirations, such imported labels can only disguise and mislead."
Take Amal or Hezbo of the SSNP for instance, were it not for Western simplistic labelings, the totalitarian and conservative instincts of those parties would clearly have qualified them as "Right", not "Left" wing; yet they are "Leftists" in the universe of inverted realities that Western "pundits" use to describe them.
but nice blog, and great post anyway. good luck with this.
Phillip, i've already posted the response below (to your comments) on my blog. But here it is again, in case you don't visit me while in Syria ;)
A little bit of trivia regarding the faulty "Right" "Left" nomenclature in Lebanon (and the Middle East, for those countries that have the benefit of political parties to begin with), the Kataeb's official name is the Lebanese Social Democratic Party (it touted a social agenda ALWAYS "Left" of "Center".)
For the rest,
--the Baath, which is always billed as a socialist (read "Leftist") party in Western literature on the Middle East, is in fact a "Right Wing" organization; its founder Michel Aflak, and its spiritual guide Sati' al-Husri were both students and admirers of pan-Germanic fascism.
--The Progressive Socialist Party (founded by the Druze Kamal Jumblat in 1949), is almost exclusively a Druze formation, attracting Druze membership and advocating for Druze interests in Lebanon. True, in its program the PSP fights against the influence of communities, clans, and ethnic formations in Lebanese politics, but still, it Party remains predominantly the shelter and advocate for the Jumblats' feudal following. In its early days, Jumblat's party was allied to the political friends of Camille Chamoun (opposed to the government of Pshaarah el-Khoury); in the 1960's Jumblat's Party became pro-Soviet AND adopted the pan-Arab program of Nasser (hence becoming Arab-Nationalist and Soviet-style communist at once, as if communism and "nationalism" are compatible.) In the 1970s, Jumblat's party supported the "conservative" Maronite Slaiman Frangieh. During the Lebanese civil war, Jumblat annointed himself spokesman of the "Lebanese Left", a "Left" that included fascists, Palestinians, "Right Wing" Baathists and Syrian Social Nationalists (a Syrina variation on German National Socialism aka Nazism.)
--The most important radical "Right wing" party in Lebanon remains the Syrian Social National Party. Founded in 1934 by a Lebanese Greek Orthodox, Antun Saadeh, the PPS (Parti Populaire Syrien officially) was modeled along the national socialism of Hitler with whose ideology Saadeh was well acquainted (and one could say infatuated. He also taught German at AUB in the 1930s--not that it means anything.) The Syrian National Socialists called for a pan-Syrian empire extending from the Taurus mountains to the Red Sea and from Cyprus in the West to the Gulf (Iraq.) The interesting thing about the PPS was that it was also an anti-Arab and anti-Arab Nationalist (Saadeh himself, as recounted by Bassam Tibi in his works on Arab Nationalism, fought vehemently with Saati al-Husri who attempted to "Arabize" the PPS. "The Syrian nation is a complete nation" argued Saadeh, "and it is different from and superior to the Arab nation". It contained Arabs, Jews, Phoenicians, and others (in Saadeh's view), but it was uniquely Syrian!!! Interestingly, the PPS , like Jumblat's PSP (and its Druze predilections), remains almost exclusively a sectarian formation and a Greek Orthodox "club". In its program and ideology throughout the 1930s-40s-50s and 60s, it had been closer to the Lebanese "Right" (if we can still call it that), and it continued to draw inspiration from pan-Germanic (European Right) ideas. Actually, in the 1950s, the Syrian Social Nationalists defended and fought alongside Camille Chamoun against the "Leftist" Arab nationalists (if we can call them "Leftists").
So you see Phillip, even in my oversimplified rundown, the categorization of Lebanese political parties is too complicated to be slotted in clearly defined (and stable) labels.
I's say it would be more accurate to refer to these "parties" as "voting blocs" with agendas answering primarily to sub-national ethnic and communal interests, not purely political or social ones in the Western sense. So, right off the bat, the Western "Left/Right" nomenclature is misleading more than anything else.
The always sharp Tony Badran has treated this topic extensively on his blog; a treasure trove of information on Lebanon. Visit him if you have time... but check out this entry first:
http://beirut2bayside.blogspot.com/2005/11/right-and-left-in-lebanon.html
good luck with your work, and safe travels in the Middle East!!!
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