tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6700183921884368962.post4094522486719618641..comments2024-03-27T20:43:41.891+00:00Comments on Arabdemocracy: The Moody BeykArab Democracyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17484561039671942435noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6700183921884368962.post-1401688614360574472009-07-21T15:33:13.384+01:002009-07-21T15:33:13.384+01:00Elie and Yazan, thanks for your comments.
I agree...Elie and Yazan, thanks for your comments.<br /><br />I agree with Elie that, in the absence of a radical reform of the system,we are heading to at best a state of perpetual tension or full blown intersectarian confrontation.<br /><br />This topic is worthy of another article in itself but there is no doubt that the Shiia community is no longer happy to be lumped in with the Sunnis in terms of representation. The Lebanese equation of a Muslim and Christian partnership is no longer valid. The Sunni+Shiaa+Christian formula is upon us with all its complications.<br /><br />Now to answer Yazan.<br /><br />The first to blame for Maronite isolationism are the Maronite politicians themselves and the sectarian system they have defended against all odds for decades. I picked on Jumblatt this time around because of his misplaced frankness while he repositions himself in panic.<br /><br />For the absence of true secularists, you only need to follow the excellent editorials by Nasri el Sayegh in Assafir to get the bleak picture. <br /><br />The natural secularists are on the left. They are divided, lacking in enthusiasm and creativity, stuck in the 70s for some while the others scavenge for a role with either March 14th or March 8th. The people you speak to Yazan ultimately have themselves to blame. The 'intellectual left' is satisfied with its mostly parasitic role while it abandons any real political ambition.<br /><br />The sectarian forces will not reform the system and hand it over to the secularists. The latter will have to fight for it.Alas, you can get them to talk to each other at this stage.Arab Democracyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17484561039671942435noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6700183921884368962.post-63714450524682511282009-07-21T14:43:07.896+01:002009-07-21T14:43:07.896+01:00I don't see how Junblatt's flip-flops can ...I don't see how Junblatt's flip-flops can be blamed for Maronite isolationism, more than Druze isolationism being blamed at Shiite and Sunni tribalism.<br /><br />Each and every leader in Lebanon holds roughly the same responsibility, because they all operate within the same frame, to achieve the same goals, using the same means.<br /><br />Hariri's support for fundamentalists, and Hizbulla's war against liberal Shiites, the sickening language of Maronite politicians from both ends of the spectrum, and Junblatt's own hypocrisy are all the same recycled shit that is Lebanese politics.<br /><br />Now Joseph, the question that always bugged me was, are there any true seculars in Lebanon? Everyone I meet when I am there, seems to be an ardent believer in the reform of this pathetic excuse for a political structure, but they all end up using the same paraphrases that their "supposed" opponents use. <br /><br />Are there? Where are they? In a country that is "2ad kess al-3a2rbeh" (excuse the vulgar expression) and of 3 million people, with relatively free media and free will to meet and move and organize, how are they not organized? how are they not even a small power to reckon with? <br /><br />Are they there?<br /><br />That's the real question, because if they're not, then why the hell do we question them leaders?Yazanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01774113380444289294noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6700183921884368962.post-76706105435716242522009-07-21T11:53:45.024+01:002009-07-21T11:53:45.024+01:00Dear Joseph,
Thanks for an informative insight int...Dear Joseph,<br />Thanks for an informative insight into Mr. Jumblatts political acrobatics.<br /><br />Lebanon's basic dilemma is in its election law. That the Lebanese Shi’ites, around 40% of the population, share 21% of the parliamentary seats, while Christians, roughly 35% of the population, enjoy 50% of the parliamentary seats make Shi’ite men and women as if they were lesser voting beings than Christian men and women. Under such conditions, it is easy to see why the Lebanese model of governance is fraught with danger, a model not conducive to long-term peaceful sectarian co-existence. In the modern age of human-rights consciousness, Lebanon’s discriminatory election law borders on being a form of apartheid. As the Shi’ite proportion of the population increases, given the higher growth rates of Shi’ite families than Lebanon’s other groups, the already capricious balance of power in Beirut will become even more unstable. It will only be a matter of time before the Shi’ite majority will demand a discarding of the Taif Accord and insist on a system of periodic census-taking, along with a one-person one-vote election law applied equally to every citizen who is resident in the country and subject to paying taxes. Otherwise, Lebanon’s civil unrest would eventually erupt, yet again.<br /><br />Elie ElhadjAnonymousnoreply@blogger.com