A mind-bending general moment affects the beloved kingdoms?
All the while Lebanon is mesmerized with forming a new Government and the Constitutionality issues....
The constitution is NOT the problem in the recent Lebanese stalemates. It is the lack of respect for the constitution that is an issue.
How can a people claim to be guided by the constitution when it is convenient and to discard the constitution aside when the constitution presents an obstacle?
Lebanon needs to empower the Constitutional council to act as a final arbiter on what is constitutional and what is not . That requires not only empowering the Constitutional council but allowing any citizen to have unencumbered access to the council and its chamber. Had that been the case then I would have brought a long time ago a case that challenges the constitutionality of the election of the current president as well as the constitutionality of having sectarian affiliation serve as a prerequisite for some governmental elected offices such as Speaker, PM and President....
A constitution is not supposed to spell out the details of the procedures in the daily affairs of a nation. It is a sacred document that is to offer general guidance about the most important principles that a state cherishes; personal freedom, executive powers, legislative power …This does not mean that ambiguity is to rule the day... It simply means that the judiciary , the Constitutional Council, can make rulings as issues arise that will spell out what is acceptable and what is not. An effective Constitutional Council is to act as a guardian of the constitution on behalf of all of us and its acts can and do lead to a living constitution. Unfortunately the Constitutional Council was disbanded when the country needed it most and its composition reflects political allegiances more than it reflects judicial merit.
In Lebanon it is clear that the PM designate is to form a cabinet composed from whoever he wants and the president has to sign off on the composition prior to its being sent to the Chamber of Deputies for their final approval. This is very clear and any other additions are simply unnecessary baggage. There is no such thing as an allocation to the president or a veto power or a proportional representation relative to the parliamentary seats. As I have argued before many times, this simple novel interpretation simply kills the function of the Chamber by making the Cabinet the mini-Chamber with all the powers. It will in effect combine the legislative and the executive together when the intent is for a separation...
No , the problem is not in the constitution but in governance. Unfortunately very few, if any, of the political leaders respect the constitution and have the courage to stand up in its defense. Pity a nation whose leaders are unprincipled....
“There is no constitutional legitimacy for any authority which contradicts the ‘pact of communal coexistence’.”
All of this is designed to guard against any clear majoritarian decision-making, ensuring that sectarian deal-making and ad hoc arrangements rule the day. So I agree that the Constitution is very much at fault. But it’s worth pointing out that the Constitution accurately reflects the political community it “constitutes”. Should it be — indeed can it be — a document that leads the way to a new form of political community? Might such a constitution simply be too out of step with its community? The upshot of this might be that the Lebanese Constitution has to evolve, and possibly quite slowly.... Even the US Constitution had to evolve to some extent, in step with its constituency ....
The rules need to be clearer. There are very few principled leaders the world over, so it is futile to moan about governance and unprincipled-ness… An essential precondition to getting people to respect the rule of law is to make that law unambiguous.
At the very least, a time limit should be imposed....
Even in the ideal situation when Taif eventually gets fully implemented by abolishing confessionalism, we are expecting to get some mechanism that will safeguard the respected rights of the constituent communities. We will never be true liberal democrats in the full sense of the word. It looks like it is our fate due to multiple reasons. There will always be safeguards for the principle of co-existence....
Big chunks of the UP.SO.-brokered regional security apparatus are collapsing like papier-mache castles; people long dismissed as irrelevant to the fates of their respective polities are forcing the question of their existence; and the idea of an Arab Middle East suddenly matters in a way it hasn’t for decades. And the local conversation basically amounts to who will be the second deputy dogcatcher in the Upper Metn. I get that all politics is local, but Jesus, who cares?
If people think that Lebanon is so singular that none of what is happening elsewhere matters, then I’d love to have that view explained. And if the general view is that dominant politics can’t be pierced by grand tumult in the neighborhood, then great; let’s hear that explained too. But I look at what conversation takes place here and wonder whether there’s a news blackout that strikes this forum in particular. If nothing else, don’t you want ask why Lebanon can’t/won’t/mustn’t be a candidate for volcanic political change?
Softly spoken and acting as misunderstood don’t buy you a bag of beans....
Or perhaps Shakespeare's Macbeth comes to mind ” It is a tale Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, Signifying nothing.”
And all around Lebanon and the entire region the people are demanding their basic rights, regimes have fallen, history is in the making and the best Lebanon can offer is talk, talk and more talk.....
Egypt and Tunisia had it easy. Only 1 goon to get rid of.... We have 2 dozen or so in Lebanon. Revolution is the only way to go.... People must protest in front of every Zaim’s house to either go to exile with their international backer or be hung in a public square in their hometown and get dispossessed from ALL their Billions stolen from the Public Den over decades.... No exception to this… every one of these henchmen is a criminal that has robbed, maimed and killed the people for decades.... The only exception is the Valiant, Nationalist Resistance of Hezbollah and Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah.
For a people who claim to be so smart and educated, how do you put up with electricity cuts? Inadequate infrastructure, terrible environment, garbage everywhere, No Zoning Laws to speak of....etc, ? Lack of decency and rule of law? etc...
It’s as if the Lebanese do not want to be governed.... As a Lebanese myself, I certainly don’t want to be governed by any of the current political parties. I don’t even know what any of them stand for! Anarchy is the way to go for now. Let the private sector and free market run the show. The strong swim and the weak gets a helping hand....
This is the way it works now, except Lebanese have a wasteful, inefficient government that gets in the way and steals most of what is out there.
The soap opera must end. Hariri, Saqr, Geagea, Gemayels, Jumblatts, Arslans, Harb, Sfeir, Khazens, etc. are all the same... Pawns placed in front of the Lebanese to keep them occupied while their riches are plundered for the benefit of a few – mostly the puppets themselves.... Classic diversionary tactics.
Yes we Lebanese smart, educated, multi-lingual bla bla bla idiots fall for it all the time....
Here’s a constitutional blueprint for Lebanon....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2YjXdwEaS0k&feature=player_embedded
