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Lebanon's problems must have Lebanese solutions |
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Written by News Editor
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Wednesday, 02 January 2008 |
Lebanon news, Lebanese radio
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Beirut
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It would be naive to take at face value statements made by Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Moallem at his press conference on Wednesday. All governments are in the habit of saying one thing while doing another, and the regime Moallem represents is certainly no exception.
Nonetheless, there may have been a glimmer of hope in his expression of concern about the continuing political impasse in Beirut. The Syrian minister made what seemed like a genuine appeal to rival Lebanese parties to resume dialogue in order to reach "a consensus solution, away from any foreign interference."
Of course, similar revelations would have to be witnessed and absorbed in capitals other than Damascus in order for the Lebanese crisis to end, but a reduction in Syrian pressure could buy time for other actors to come to their senses. In the final analysis, though, it is the Lebanese who must take the lead in solving their own problems. Moallem's reckoning has been affected, no doubt, by his own government's rapidly deteriorating relations with France's because of the Lebanese logjam. If and when Lebanese politicians start differentiating between their own interests and those of their respective foreign backers, they too might begin to take more sophisticated approaches to this season of our discontent.
Moallem was not the first to call for dialogue in Lebanon, his sincerity is at least as open to suspicion as anyone else's, and all of the outside players seem to think that negotiations are just a formality until they get their way. These dangerous delusions reinforce (and are reinforced by) the fabulist tendencies of many Lebanese political figures. The result is a series of client relationships based on preposterous appeals to common cause and irresponsible assurances of unconditional future backing.
The Lebanese public is not easily fooled, but nor is it easily roused from fatalistic slumber. Most people in this country seem to know that their politicians are perilously reliant on foreign sponsors, and that the status quo is unsustainable. Many have also determined, however, that they are powerless to bring about change. Their leaders' constituencies are at least partly located abroad, making them almost immune to conventional means of communicating popular displeasure. It is very common, therefore, for Lebanese to assume that things cannot be made better, that the only choice is to make the best of a bad situation at home or seek out greener pastures abroad.
In truth, though, everyday people can help to reduce the danger. They can, for example, create new organizations that denounce fratricidal foolishness. Some Lebanese have already done this, albeit in a factionalized manner. More crucially, individuals can decide in advance that, even if they cannot be part of an active solution, they will not be party to any exacerbation of the problem. If and when tensions reach the critical level, the tribal chieftains must be denied the fodder (i.e. human bodies) they will need to keep the cycle of violence going. If sufficient numbers of Lebanese refuse to be used as battering rams by a bankrupt political class, some other way of resolving differences will have a chance of being accepted. |
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