"Crisis and the Empty Circles"
By: General Michele Aoun
(Translated by: Elias Bejjani)
12 December 1997

Likely the biggest Lebanese treasure in this year's news lies in the style in which the Hariri occupation government is handling the financial and economic crisis, the crisis that Lebanon's second republic is facing at the end of the national regime's seventh year in office.

Officials are running in circles trying to politically outwit the people, humiliate their intelligence, put down their spirits and, blackmail them financially. They aim to gain more time to temporarily cover their scandals, after which they can commit bigger more notorious ones

All their acts are taking place in the disgusting atmosphere of full Syrian patronage. Syrians are seeking safe outlets for these puppet officials. The Syrian regime alleges that it does not want any disasters at this time while continuing to ignore the fact that its illegal presence in Lebanon is the primary disaster in current Lebanese life. It is because of their support for Hariri's hasty plans that Lebanon is at present facing a deadly economic and financial crisis, a crisis that is leading the whole country towards comprehensive national bankruptcy.

The government's haphazard money borrowing and investing in non-productive projects has led Lebanon to this deadly crisis. Based on this fact, how is the borrowing of more money going to save Lebanon from the current crisis?

The delay of the disaster is the current focus of the regime. It plans only to give those influential high ranking officials (who are making huge interest profits from investments using the national currency) the chance to safely remove their money, after which the disaster will be even more devastating.

What is needed today is to put an end to the Syrian control over Lebanon. This must be followed by the appointment of an investigating committee to review thoroughly all the acts and achievements of the successive Hariri governments and to pinpoint the actual reasons behind the national financial collapse.

The number of scandals that have already been unveiled are only the visible one tenth of the iceberg. The Middle East Airlines company current scandal is not a mere commission crisis. The scandals started after thousands of unneeded employees were imposed on the company's payroll through the illegal influence of the regime's figures.

The theft scandals did not start with post office stamps and customs, but with mega government projects for which the government allocates budgets much higher than actual cost. The destination of these monies is yet unknown.

Keeping the Hariri imposed Syrian government in office because Syria has decided so, is going to lead to more disasters. No proposed solutions will help solve the current crisis as long as the regime and its mentality are not changed. Lebanon has sunk to murky depths. The question is: is it possible to treat the dark ailment with its precipitating virus?
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