Lebanon’s elections: On the Road to Arab Modernity?

by Rami G. Khouri

Released: 22 Jun 2005

BEIRUT -- How refreshing! An Arab parliamentary election whose results were not known three months ahead of time, and did not result in the ruling party winning a victory of over 90 percent, as has been the norm in many Arab countries in the last half century.

Lebanon’s parliamentary elections that concluded with the fourth round of voting Sunday brought in both some new faces and a new opposition majority that has the opportunity to make some history. This brings to a close the second of three phases of a modern drama of Arab political transformation and renewal that could ultimately prove to be historic for the entire region.

Despite the spate of assassinations in recent months, including the bomb attack Tuesday morning that killed the former secretary general of the Lebanese Communist Party, George Haoui, Lebanon remains the Arab country with the best chance to break away from half a century of governance by policemen or warlords in business suits. It can spark other changes throughout the region if it moves toward a more modern, democratic political system. We shall soon find out if this is to be, though the road ahead will include other setbacks and killings, as forces of the dark past resist the tide of change that seems to have started to wash over the Arab world.

Media coverage and conversations among people here have stressed how the elections sapped the promise of the mass popular expressions for independence, unity and change that emanated from the Lebanese who took to the streets after the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.

People are concerned that after a brief spell of excitement and hope, Lebanon has returned to the familiar landscape of its tribal chieftains, local political machines, patronage networks, and ethnic and religious communities that find it easy to circle the wagons and retreat into their little fiefdoms. I am not so sure that this is correct, or that the promise of the exciting prospects for change of the last four months has been dissipated. National transformation is a long and slow process, and Lebanon is in its early stages.

The first phase was the combination of Lebanese popular protests and international diplomatic pressure that brought about a Syrian withdrawal from Lebanon between February and April, following the Hariri assassination. The spontaneous mass expression of the Lebanese will to govern their own society and choose their own leaders achieved five rather stunning and speedy results: Syria withdrew from Lebanon, the Beirut government of Omar Karami resigned, the heads of Lebanese security and police agencies were retired or changed, an international team is investigating the Hariri murder, and the parliamentary elections were held on time and in a generally free and fair manner, with local and international monitors.

Never in the history of the modern Arab world has popular activism achieved so many significant results in such a short period of time. The performance of the interim Prime Minister, Nejib Mikati, and his cabinet colleagues has been one of the bright spots in this transition, especially their management and oversight of the parliamentary elections. They remind us that public service in the Arab world can be honorable, efficient and impartial.

But these have been the easy achievements, in view of what remains to be done in terms of reform policies and reconfiguring a modern, egalitarian political system that is based on the equal rights of all citizens rather than on the proportional collective weight of ethnic and religious communities. The elections were the second phase of Lebanon’s transformation, and they dramatically reflected the broad popular will for change. This is evident in the majority victory of the opposition coalition headed by Saad Hariri, the son of the slain former premier, and the strong performance in mostly Christian districts by the iconoclastic Michael Aoun, who is a voice of change, defiance, principle, megalomaniac arrogance and political-military eccentricity all rolled into one.

The fact is that old-style tribal and communal politics was the configuration that the Lebanese used to make their voices heard, because the electoral law is crafted on the basis of parliamentary seats allocated to Christians, Muslims, Druze, Alawites, and other such confessional groups. The citizenry also needed a brief respite from the tumultuous changes of the past four months. The elections were a chance to resume normal life for a brief moment. The allegations of politicians making strange alliances with former foes in order to win seats strikes me as quite naïve. Politicians are crazed beasts in a feeding frenzy, prepared to sell their mothers in order to achieve incumbency. This is what politicians do, and we should not be surprised when it happens over and over again.

More important is what the citizenry has said before and during the elections. My reading is that the Lebanese broadly have used their electoral voices to demand new ways of doing political business, including removing the Syrian presence and influence, waging a battle against corruption, moving on economic reform challenges and reconsidering the religion-based political system. Their collective demands and achievements since mid-February have significantly relegitimized a political system that had been largely delegitimized by the three decades of Syrian dominance.

The third and most difficult phase of Lebanon’s possible transformation to modernity and democracy begins now, and we shall soon see if the new parliament will rise to the enormous challenge before it, especially in the fields of political and economic reform. The massive voice of the Lebanese citizen expressed itself in Martyrs’ Square in the past four months with powerful and heartfelt demands for change; that citizen’s voice must now articulate its sentiments once again, this time through the new majority in parliament that can bring about change through the rule of law.

It is inconceivable to me that the millions of Lebanese who took to the streets peacefully to demand change for the better have now gone back to their old ways and sentiments. The fact is, a great deal has changed in Lebanon in the last four months, and the stage is set for more change yet, if the elected political class proves itself as bold and enlightened as those ordinary Lebanese men and women who continue to fly their national flag on their home balconies and adorn their windows with pictures of their martyrs -- Rafik Hariri and his companions, Semir Kassir, Basil Fleihan, George Haoui and many others -- who paid for their lives in order to bring about the changes we see all around us today.

Rami G. Khouri is editor-at-large of the Beirut-based Daily Star newspaper, published throughout the Middle East with the International Herald Tribune.

Copyright ©2005 Rami G. Khouri

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Released: 22 June 2005
Word Count: 1,084 words
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