General Emile Lahoud’s
Ruined Credibility
By: Elias Bejjani
Every Lebanese nationalist whether Christian, Muslim or Druze has been lately bombarded by
the million dollar question: Why do you oppose General Lahoud’s regime when you know
that Israel, the U.S and Syria want the current status quo in Lebanon to remain as is?
Our simple response has been and still remains the same: Our stance stems from solid
transparent patriotic convictions, no more and no less. It is a fact that President Lahoud
has breached each and every one of these convictions since Syrian President Assad
appointed him in his new position, in a bizarre unique precedence.
In spite of the media aura surrounding him , the vast majority of officials have privately
termed the new Lebanese government of President Emile Lahoud as the most pro-Syrian
government ever in Beirut. Though our current President might have a different governing
style than Former President Hrawi, due to his military background, there is no doubt that
both men serve the same master and definitely function in the same milieu of collaboration
and subservience.
Lebanon’s people are not that naïve, to be deceived by the way Lahoud is portrayed
through the mercenary media. He is not the savior. He will not liberate Lebanon and will
not create the state of law, justice or equality as false propaganda preaches. His
credibility has been injured from day one in office, and here are some of the vast number
of examples delineating this fact:
Re-opening the case of the students who peacefully demonstrated last year in front of the
MTV station in protest of banning the airing of an interview with General Michel Aoun.
- Arresting more than fifty university students, lawyers and teachers for
distributing a leaflet issued by the National Congress on the Internet. The leaflet
contained an article by General Aoun addressing the infringements on Human Rights in
Lebanon.
- Blacking out Mr. Dory Chamoun’s visit to the Presidential Palace and
banning any news in this regard in all media. It is worth mentioning that Mr. Chamoun
changed his opposition stance lately and jumped on the Taif wagon, but apparently the
regime and its regional sponsor have not accepted his repentance yet.
- Not respecting his word in facilitating the return of former President Amine
Gemayel from exile after making a promise in this regard though Gemayel , like Chamoun ,
changed his long-term opposition stance , publicly supported Lahoud and joined the Taif
regime.
- Charging arbitrarily Minister /Brigadier Issam Abou Jamra with slander for an
article he published in the Al-Hayat newspaper. Abou Jamra exposed in his courageous
article the reality of the fake presidential election and addressed the Syrian occupation
to Lebanon.
- Not lobbying for the hundreds of innocent Lebanese citizens detained arbitrarily
in Syria’s notorious jails for political and religious reasons as if these detainees
are not Lebanese, though most of them are soldiers, priests and patriotic Lebanese. The
irony of it all is that one side lobbies, finances and sponsors public and private
campaigns to release the 150 Lebanese detained in South Lebanon and Israel, and the other
ignores completely the hundreds of detainees in Syria.
- Keeping a blind eye to the implementation of the Taif Accord in regards to the
withdrawal of the Syrian army from Lebanon. Though this withdrawal should have happened
seven years ago, the regime has completely ignored the presence of the Syrian army in
Lebanon despite the fact that the Lebanese Army today has over 70,000 troops, well
trained, reasonably equipped and more than capable to maintain security both, on the
borders and inside the country.
- Not giving the one million Lebanese citizens living in the Diaspora the right to
exchange their identity cards in the countries where they reside. It is worth mentioning
that some newspapers in Lebanon and the Diaspora published unconfirmed reports last year
stating that those Lebanese who do not go personally to Lebanon to exchange their identity
cards within ten years will lose their right in the Lebanese citizenship.
- Allowing the Syrians to open their own election polls on the Lebanese soil, and
.
- Declining to participate in King Hussein's funeral.
What credibility can the Lahoud regime enjoy when leaders like General Michel
Aoun, Brigadier Issam Abu Jamra, Kamal Chatila, Minister Edgar Maalouf, Former President
Amine Gemayel, Raymond Edde, and hundreds of politicians and citizens are denied the right
to return to their own country when the regime has no legal reasons whatsoever to keep
them in exile?
The Lahoud regime credibility will never be honored or respected as long as the Syrian
occupation forces impose hegemony on the country and its people.
The only way for the regime to regain its credibility is through actual practices with
respect to laws, regulations, the Constitution and the Human Rights International Charter
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