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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Lines In the Sand

Taxis, tour buses, and private cars are lined up and not moving. Nevertheless, the border between Lebanon and Syria is full of hustle and bustle. Money changers, beggars, and to quote Cher, "tramps and thieves," are all around. Cars and SUVs coated in Arabian sand trickle through the crossing after coming from Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and other oil producing Gulf states.

After getting the passport stamped (along with twenty five other Westerners in my group) we waited for about two hours until the bus would be allowed through. As the bus passed under the border post there was nothing but concrete, past the border post were the dun colored hills of Syria.

The Syrian side of the border is quite an ironic place. First, there must be about one thousand pictures of Bashar Asad dotting the road, but then there is a duty free shop, complete with a Dunkin Donuts. What a great mix of consumerism, globalization, and the police state.

The duty free shop in itself was a study on the haves and have nots in Syria and Lebanon. The duty free was loaded with everything from Swiss chocolate, Cuban cigars, lego toys, and lots of liquor. Rich Lebanese business people and/or their sons would go to the place to buy $700 cellphones and $450 digital cameras. Syrians who went to the duty free were mostly army officers. The corruption in Syria is such, that those in the army, especially higher ranking officials are the only ones with cash to spend.

Also in the duty free, I got my first experience with the Syrian secret police, or, Mukhabarat. No matter where you went in the duty free, which was apparently owned by a Lebanese, there would always be a Syrian dressed in military fatigues or in dress pants following you. I went to take a shot of insulin in the bathroom and magically the "janitor" shows up to mop, only, he didn't mop, he just stood there near my bathroom door. When I exited he put the mop away and disappeared.

On the road to Damascus there were a few villages, and tons of Bashar Asad photographs. Everything in Syria was "cleaner" than in Lebanon. Garbage didn't usually line the streets, in Damascus there were many people out and about, traffic lights and traffic laws were obeyed. One of my fellow students asked me, "why are they obeying traffic lights like this?!" We were used to Lebanon where there are no traffic lights and one can drive while drinking a beer. My answer was, "what do you expect people to do if they knew their government wiped out a city and killed 20,000 people."

My answer really seemed to be the mood in Syria. The government was quite powerful. From the gaze of Bashar Asad's posters to the piles of Mukhabarat (I heard one Lebanese I was with say they were 1 in 5 of the Syrian population), Syria was firmly in the control of the al Asad clan.



My video of the Lebanese/Syrian border.

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