A Most Valuable Whistleblower

Abdelhalim Khaddam might go down in history as the man who killed the Syrian Baath.


Here’s my favorite new hobby: Watching Syrian “experts” comment on what their previous vice president has just said. Somewhere between their mumbling and their bumbling, you could relish in their impotence to produce arguments against a man who, until yesterday, was considered one of the people you can’t criticize.

But rest assured. Their tongues won’t be tied forever. They are just waiting to take their cue from the regime’s lousy spin master who will eventually design an elaborate Khaddam-is-one-of-the-bad-guys story. Something along the lines of being brainwashed in Paris by a Chirac who is too eager to destroy the last bastion of Arabism.

Khaddam’s closeness to the Hariris is an established fact; nevertheless, his testimony remains very significant not least because it was the first to come from a Syrian high official. His defection might encourage others to follow suite and might embolden hesitant Lebanese pro-Syrians (like Nabih Berri) to make up their minds. (In a way, Khaddam gave Berri an opening when he said that Ghazaleh Threatened Hariri, Jumblat and Berri).

The repercussions remain to be seen, but I estimate that this is indeed a very significant turning point.

Man’s Best Friend

Who let the dogs out?


It’s official, the Lebanese and the Syrians have started insulting each other "doggie-style".
One of the well-publicized banners held by group of Lebanese youngsters at Gebran Tueiny’s funeral read: “ The rooster of Annahar is stronger than the dogs of the Baath”. Faisal Mekdad, a Syrian diplomat who should have known better responded: “Every time a dog dies in Lebanon you want to start an international investigation?” The Lebanese are furious: “Stop killing us like dogs!”

Our canine friends must love the publicity, but why them? One answer is vocabulary; Take the phrase: “The Lebanese have a dogged determination to be victorious and free”. Or the phrase: “The killers have dogged Gebran till they killed him”, or “The Syrian regime has dug itself a big hole”. Not to mention all the doggerels and other slogans everyone keeps raising, only a few of which are witty enough to be dog-eared.

It would all have been funny if it weren’t too serious. The Syrian regime doesn’t just bark. It also bites.

A Plan For Victory

How Lebanon can help replace the regime in Damascus.

Most of the Lebanese are very motivated; we want to do something to make a difference yet we have an overwhelming sense of powerlessness and anger. We are watching our leaders fall one after the other and we feel that we can't do anything about it.
The security council is not helping either. We are learning that realpolitik often trumps high ideals and the sense of justice. Even the Arabs don’t seem to get it, and we’re stuck with saving our own asses. We are tired of words and condemnations, what can we do?

We have two choices: cry and blame others for our historic bad luck, or we can be pro-active and try do something about it. As far as things stand right now, the Syrians are playing a better game than we are. It doesn’t matter who’s wrong and who’s right, all that matters is playing the game right. Are we up for the challenge?

The dilemma is this: Entrenched in Damascus is a bloodthirsty regime that comes from a middle age mentality. The regime values notions like total dominion and revenge, and Lebanon will never be safe as long as the Assads or the Shawkats rule Syria. This is why, whether or not the international investigation implicates Syria, the regime has to go. How can we help achieve that?

The Syrian regime has two strengths:
1- It has convinced the west (and some intellectuals) that there are no better alternatives than the current rulers
2- I has a ruthless iron-grip on its interior and it’s stifling any form of dissent.

The problem is that they are creating a vicious circle. If no dissent is allowed, no alternatives to the regime can be created, and this enforces their first strength.

How can we as Lebanese change that? By looking at our own strengths: freedom of expression and the freedom to gather and exchange of ideas. This is not about poetry or slogans. This is about a plan that can actually work, a plan that is based on our competitive advantages.

What we need in Lebanon is an all-encompassing vision that takes advantage of our chore strengths to be able to influence and ultimately break, our neighboring regime.

All our energies abroad and in Lebanon should be focused transforming Lebanon into some sort of “Syrian dissidents incubator”. The purpose of such an enterprise is not to impose ‘foreign’ political ideas on our Syrian brothers and sisters, but simply to plant the seed of free expression in their minds.

Gebran Tueni has already done something similar by making Annahar the forum of choice for Syrian intellectuals Ali al-Abdallah, Yassin al-Haj Saleh, Burhan Ghalyoun, Muhammad Ali al-Atassi, Ali Sadreddine al-Bayanouni, Michel Kilo, Anwar al-Bunni, and Suheir al-Atassi who have expressed their strong discontent at his slaying. But what I’m talking about here is much larger than simply a newspaper opening its page for critics.

We need to transform this principal into THE guiding strategic policy for our dealing with Syria. We have to create incentives for Syrian dissidents to come to live and work in Lebanon. we have to allow them to thrive in an environment that allows them to mature their ideas. They should be invited to talk on LBC, Future and NTV, all watched inside of Syria. We have to give them incentives to assemble and plan in Lebanon. Our objective should be to “incubate” them until they have a good following in Syria, and until they are ready to “take charge”.

Will this work? My answer is this: If Syria didn’t feel tangibly threatened by Samir Kassir and Gebran Tueny, it wouldn’t have killed them. It is worth noting that both Samir and Gebran got killed when they started inciting the Syrians against their regimes.

That, gentlemen, is food for thought.

Annahar Resilience

Ghassan Tueini, the slain Gebran's father, pledged 'no tears' for his son's death and vowed to continue to pursue Annahar's uncompromising vision.

Gebran Tueni, R.I.P

Gebran Tueni, Prominent Lebanese Journalist and vehement anti-Syrian critic died on December 12, 2005, Aged 48.



You can find a video of the above speech by Mr. Tueni here
Mr. Tueni's personal website is here.
Mr. Tueni's English news website is this one.
Obituaries of Mr. Tueni here and here.
Previous commentry on this blog about Mr. Tueni here, here and here.
Reporters Without Borders' statement here.
Al-Arabiya article about Mr. Tueni here (Arabic).

Posting irregularities

Sorry for this guys, I’ve been having a lot on my mind lately, I hope things will get better soon. Meanwhile, keep your eyes on Open Lebanon to see what various Lebanese bloggers have to say.

Thank you for bearing with me.

Good Big Brother

Psst..The government has just made a brave decision on a very divisive issue.


Not everything that divides the Lebanese is political. Take the issue of traffic lights for instance. Everytime it comes up, anywhere in the world, the Lebanese get polarized. On one side, we have the proud rule breakers. Their argument runs as follows: “It is in our blood as Lebanese to trick the law. This is what makes us what we are and this is the reason why we’re so successful all over the world. We’re too free to be constrained”.

This naturally infuriates the other camp. They see the attitude of the first camp as an embodiment of all that is wrong in Lebanon. “How can we build a country if we lack the single most important trait of civilization? Discipline?” They fume.

In light of the above, the government has shown some surprising unity and resilience in making up its mind: It has unanimously decided to back the second camp. The city of Beirut is to install “Red light cameras” to monitor law-breakers and to fine them everytime they exercise their favorite sport of ignoring traffic lights.

This is a bit tricky. The government might want to think about how it plans to communicate to illiterate Taxi drivers what those cameras mean. That, of course, is secondary. They have to first explain to them what the actual traffic lights are for.

(P.S: Just for curiosity's sake and as an informal poll, which camp are you on?)

The Lebanese Bloggers on Husam, Hezbollah + Miscellaneous

This was my today's weekly entry on Global Voices Online. please feel free to comment here or on GVO.

Last week started with a press conference by a Syrian witness who withdrew his testimony from the Mehlis investigation. The witness, Husam Husam, announced that he was forced, coaxed and cajoled by Mehlis, The Hariri Family and others into saying what he had said, but he changed his mind because he “loves his country”.

Needless to say, the Lebanese Bloggers cried foul. Hani from The Lebanese Bloggers called it a “feeble attempts at dividing the Lebanese people whilst they (the Syrians) crumble”. Kais from Beirut To The Beltway called it a “stunt” and said it was a part of a “smear campaign”:

In another effort to discredit the investigation, the Syrian regime, still stuck at Mehlis’ interim report, has been waging a crusade to undermine the witnesses mentioned in the report. Unfortunately for the regime, the investigation has moved beyond the interim report and this latest stunt will not derail it. The suspects are on the way to Vienna and we still have a long way to go.

Kais didn’t let go of the issue. He wrote several posts throughout the week on the matter, but at the end, he concluded with obvious relief: “the investigation was not hurt.”
Many theories about the Husam saga have been tossed around. What they all have in common is their deep skepticism of his motivations. This was Raja’s (from The Lebanese Bloggers) hypothesis:

It is clear, that in return for giving up Syrian officers for questioning, the Syrian regime is trying to bolster its position in its public's eyes...or else, such yielding of power and "sovereignty" would lead to disastrous outcomes on the Syrian streets.

Mustapha from The Beirut Spring however sees the Husam saga as an aberration. In fact, he argued, things are going for the better:

Forget that clown Hossam for a moment; if you look at the Lebanese scene in the last few days, you can’t avoid the feeling that things are not looking as hopeless as they used to.

Pessimism/Hezbollah:

Mustapha’s optimism didn’t convince too much people; many were disheartened by what they saw as targeting the Mehlis investigation. A sense of despair poked its head on the Blogosphere with headlines like: A Pessimistic Take and The Lost Moral Compass. What added more to that despair was Hezbollah’s intransigence on the international tribunal; the Party of God seems bent on sabotaging plans for such a tribunal, prompting yet another angry round of posts on Hezbollah. Kais went to the extent of comparing them to the Iranian Basij:

In the 1990s we were asked to view them [Hezbollah] solely through the resistance prism. Nobody paid attention to what Hizbullah was creating in the towns it controlled: a mini-Islamic order. This isn't freedom of religion, this is oppression of an extremely moldable community with a history of persecution and neglect by the government and its self-appointed leaders. Hizbullah found it easy to fill the vacuum in those areas and lure some of the disenchanted youth into its ranks (I should add Hizbullah was very "generous", thanks to Iranian funding).

Lazarus in Letters Apart, wrote extensively about the Shebaa Farms, which is one of the reasons why Hezbollah says it needs to keep its arms.

Miscellaneous

Some other Lebanese bloggers think (rightly) that other issues are worth pointing out as well. On World AIDS Day, Moussa from Ur-Shalim raises the issue of HIV awareness in Lebanon and says that more should be done about it because “HIV patients are discriminated against at work at in the society, so some simply do not seek help, preventing them from having access to health care”

In the same spirit, La La from La La Land asks her readers to Help educate children with brain injuries.

Lebanon.Profile from Lebanese Political Journal also rest politics aside to write about the "positive news:" The brisk pace of re-construction in Lebanon.

The Lost Moral Compass

An increasingly bleak view is clouding the Lebanese outlook, and as our honorable Lebanese tradition dictates, this is the time we start playing the blame-game.

To the outrage of many Lebanese commentators, the “Shiaa coalition” has decided that an international tribunal is a bad thing for Lebanon, and it has made it very well known. The March-14 people think they know who is to blame: Hezbollah and Amal. They are the ones taking us to the slippery slope towards the unknown, they say. Gang-ho writers are scoffing smugly at how the shiaas are "fighting a lost cause", but more levelheaded observers acknowledge the extent of their influence and are pleading with them to make the right decisions. (much like that silly hope that Lahhoud will let go of the Presidency on his own)

This is the point where we have to step back and admit that we have made mistakes, and that if anything should be learned for the future, it’s that in politics, principles and convictions do matter.

What started that line of thought in my head was what Issam Abou Jamra, an FPM bigwig, said today on TV.
He told LBC’s Walid Abboud that the PSP’s demand to oust the Lebanese President is a “revolutionary quest”. And that “You can’t have a revolution and compromise at the same time”. To Abu Jamra, Jumblat can’t ask for the president to resign while at the same time being under him in the Lebanese government. Jumblat has to show instead that he truly believes in the revolution even if it were at his own expense.
This statement by Abou Jamra is at the heart of what’s going wrong in Lebanon today. I would suggest we read it again: “You can’t have a revolution and compromise at the same time”. Ni2ta 3al satr.

This rings so true of Hezbollah and Amal today. While many like to say that the March 14 people were right to strike a deal with them on the 2000 elections law, I’m increasingly inclined to find their arguments rubbish. One such argument is that Hezbollah and Amal are the representatives on an important community and that we should have a partnership with them. But how can we know how truly representative they are if we agreed to sign an elections law that inflates their popularity?

How dare we sit and write in our newspapers today how bad Amal and Hezbollah are, if we are the ones who initially helped them get here?

Once the door of compromise has been opened, everything becomes legitimate. When moral clarity is lost, you can only blame yourself for what happens next. The likes of Assem Quanso, Wi'am Wahhab and Sleimen frangiyeh grow guts and start preaching.

An apparently Shiaa blogger was insulted when naharnet referred to Amal and Hezbollah as the “Shia community”. This reminds me of those Americans who say that Bush doesn’t speak for them. Hezbollah and Amal, like Mr. Bush, are the results of free and fair elections. This is why when Mr. Bush declares war on Iraq, all newspapers can safely write: “America declared war on Iraq.”

So before blaming Amal and Hezbollah, we should blame those who lost their moral compass long ago and allowed them to become the legitimate representatives of “the Shiaa community”

Stating the Obvious?

It might be stating the obvious, it might be too gimmicky, but Hayya Bina's "Km square vs. Km sovereignty" project is forcing onto mainstream Lebanese political discourse what has been so far the exclusive domain of intellectuals and the Blogosphere.



Read about the project here (Arabic here), and tell me what you think.