M N Hebbar
Nearly five months after parliamentary elections, Lebanon is still without a government. The pro-western coalition that won is floundering in the morass of Lebanon’s peculiar sectarian politics, and the country is once again drifting toward crisis.
What is wrong with Lebanon and why is it so hard for elected politicians to form a government?
" But this political maneuvering is only a symptom of a much deeper problem: an antiquated power-sharing system adopted six decades ago " After the June 7 elections, a simplistic narrative emerged in the West: because Hezbollah and its allies were defeated at the polls, the Shiite militant group would lose some of its luster and a pro-U.S. political coalition would rule Lebanon. In fact, Hezbollah remains the dominant military and political force: it holds the key to both domestic and external stability, and its actions will determine whether there is another war with Israel, or if Lebanon will once again be wracked by internal conflict. The current political vacuum gives Hezbollah free rein to continue its military build-up in southern Lebanon.
Saad Hariri, the Sunni leader and U.S.-backed prime minister-designate, has been unable to form a cabinet. Shortly after the election the Druze chieftain Walid Jumblatt defected from the winning coalition to the Hezbollah camp. Michel Aoun, the Maronite Christian leader allied to Hezbollah, is demanding that his party retain control of the telecommunications ministry, which has the power to tap phone lines.
But this political maneuvering is only a symptom of a much deeper problem: an antiquated power-sharing system adopted six decades ago.
Political deadlock in Lebanon can quickly deteriorate into sectarian violence. The last impasse over a government went on for 18 months. During that time, Lebanon was without a president for six months and the parliamentary vote to choose one was postponed 19 times. The stalemate was finally broken in May 2008, when Hezbollah ignited the worst internal fighting since the end of the civil war. When the prime minister, Fouad Siniora, outlawed Hezbollah's underground fiber-optic communication network and dismissed a Hezbollah-affiliated security chief at Beirut airport, the militia dispatched hundreds of heavily armed fighters into the largely Sunni areas of West Beirut. They quickly routed Sunni militiamen, seized their political offices and shut down media outlets owned by Mr. Hariri.
*Published in the UAE's THE NATIONAL on Nov.6, 2009. |
