Human Beings Are Assets, Not Liabilities

 By: Charles Jalkh (Freedom Fighter)

The born again Lebanese will be a different kind of human being. The new citizen will have to renounce the past of confessionalism and tribalism. He/She will see oneself as a human being with equal rights and duties as all other citizens of the nation. The new citizen will no more consider himself as a Maronite trying to protect his community's political privileges and recapture the illusion of the first republic. He will no more see himself as a Sunnite, happy with the Taef accord because it awarded his community additional political powers. Nor as a Shiite, who after years of neglect finally saw some access to power and opportunity but unfortunately at the hand of warlords. No longer a Druze, who is willing to betray Lebanon and act as a spoiler to any republic that does not return the Maan Emirates rule. No longer an Armenian, who is "not concerned", who may care more about business, who feels a stranger because the Phalangists burned the Statute of the Martyrs in Bikfaya, who will deal with "these Arabs" regardless of whichever tyranny they choose. The new Lebanese must be God-loving at heart, but religion-blind in practice, or there will be no Lebanon. Either we rise beyond the little confessional turfs and build the Third Republic, or we die as a nation of hope, coexistence, tolerance, freedoms, equality, justice, and progress. We will just become like Syria, a totalitarian regime ruled by one group or another through a policy of elimination of the others.

We must rid ourselves of the "If they were not here, I would have been happier" mentality. There is no elimination of anyone. Life's power of diversity is greater than any isolationist wish or practice. We are all flowers in the fragrant bouquet of life. We are all equally important in our heavenly father's eyes. We have no right to exclude anyone from the blessings of liberty, justice, and the pursuit of happiness.

The Lebanese should not run into the Syrian occupiers arms to be "awarded", one or another ethnic group, more power over the others. That is precisely the game of the occupation. We may expect this from collaborators, but not from religious figures who should have allegiance to the nation of Lebanon and its entire people, and not just to their "clan" and tax jurisdictions. Fellow Lebanese, all religious bodies in Lebanon today are digging your graves deeper because they serve other masters than Free Lebanon. The Maronites should not be happier today with the puppet regime of Lahoud, as the Sunnites should have never been happy with the puppet regime of Hariri. We are all losers in this game. We only win when we are all lifted together as Free Lebanese. We all win when the Syrian occupation troops leave our country, and our sovereignty is returned, when a new system of government designed by the Lebanese is created. The new constitution must consecrate that religion belongs to God, but the nation is for everyone. Any Lebanese should be able to become President of the Republic, Prime Minister, or Parliament Speaker, regardless of religious or ethnic background. Our only true protection is in having patriotic leaders that do not sellout our nation to external powers and break our constitution. Our true protection is when the law is upheld equally to everyone. When the human rights of the smallest of us is respected in the letter and Spirit. When no one is truly above the law. When a balance of power is established. When the will of the people is respected on periodic basis in peaceful manners through democratic elections. When no one betrays Lebanon to Syria, Israel, or to any other foreign power, because they would be restrained by watchful legislative and judicial bodies. Our Final and most important shield is our own Lebanese Army who will Control and Protect the totality of our homeland, with no Syrians around, no Palestinian guerillas, no Militias, no United Nations, no one whatsoever, NO OTHER PARTNER. Our own children in our own Army will protect us all.

The New Lebanon needs to be "ethnicity" blind. We should not care about your background as long as you were born between Naquoura and Nahr el-Bared and swear allegiance to Lebanon, to Human Rights, and to no other country. We respect your privacy and history whomever you are. When you are a citizen, you have rights in this land through a constitution that elevates us all. Non-citizens also have human rights in this land, although different and civilly limited. As a guest of Lebanon, you have rights guaranteed to you by the Universal Declaration of Human rights of which Lebanon is a signatory. We understand and proclaim that Human rights apply not only to the Lebanese, but also to the Palestinians, the Syrians, the Israelis, the Egyptians, the Siri Lankis, the Filipinos, and any other human being living in Lebanon or anywhere. But you do not have the rights of the citizen unless you legally become a citizen and renounce all other allegiances.

That is not to say we believe in a two-class society. But all temporary visitors to Lebanon are expected to leave the country, and cannot have permanent rights equal to that of the Lebanese citizen. The 1.5 million Syrians invaders are also required to depart promptly. This is a general rule practiced in all nations including the US, Canada, and France.

Since legality has fallen in Lebanon on October 13, 1990, the Syrian occupation regime has conducted a massive illegal nationalization drive that ethnically cleansed the Lebanese, and diluted the Lebanese identity, in favor a bus-transported (from Syria) population that swears allegiance to Syria and not to Lebanon. The Syrian occupation regime has been conducting fraudulent elections in Lebanon the past few years through these non-Lebanese to portray to the world a false image that democracy and peace has returned to Lebanon. To attract foreign investment, which is being looted by the Syrian ruling class, and burdening Lebanon with so far 25 billion dollars foreign debt bill. Thousands of Palestinians were also nationalized in a bazaar that saw wholesale sellout of our nationality. The Ethnic Cleansing of the Lebanese people has created extra sensitivities for all Lebanese groups which are today manifested by the absolute rejection of any settlement of the Palestinian refugees in Lebanon. The world must take a lion share responsibility for the resettlement of the Palestinian refugees in other countries than Lebanon. This is not a racist position, but simply an issue of demographics. Lebanon is a country poor in natural resources and with one of the highest population densities in the world. We simply cannot economically and socially absorb any further waves of refugees. The problem is not ethnic balances, we simply do not have the physical space, nor the resources.

The Lebanese realize, that the Palestinians were forced out of their homeland into Lebanon and other neighboring countries against their will, while the 1.5 million Syrians are invaders who came by choice and on the tank top of 40,000 Syrian occupation troops. Whichever peace emerges in the Middle East, and when all the dust settles, and if a some Palestinians do settle in Lebanon, then it is my personal hope that the Lebanese take them in as full Lebanese with equal rights and duties and full dignity. We should not think of any human being as a liability, rather as an asset and resource to the nation. We simply cannot achieve justice, peace, and prosperity in our homeland while having hundreds of thousands of human beings living in ghettos, and denied equal rights to the blessings of life, liberty, and opportunity.

We must put the human being at the center of all our values and become blind to her/his background regardless of gender, age, color, religion, ethnic, or national origin. The only hope for the Lebanese is when we protect and empower the individual. Gone are the days of "ethnic balances". You are never a minority when our nation is built on the rights of the One. We are simply 3.5 million "Individual" Lebanese. Our rights are equal. We all rise as a civilization and as individuals together and we all falter when the rights of the smallest of us are violated.
We must invest in the human being in our land. First, liberate Lebanon from the combined Syrian-Israeli occupation. That alone will unleash the forces of society and attract all dormant and awaiting Lebanese resources from around the world. Then, provide education, opportunity, and access to all the resources of society. Invest in the human being. Establish liberty for all by lifting the terror of the police state and its secret services. Empower the individual. Allow peaceful change to occur through democracy. Encourage the free flow of capital and business. Protect our labor from exploitation and our environment from abuse. Reforest and remake Green Lebanon. Peace is made first within, then with our fellow human being, our co-citizen, our guests, our neighbors, and all people of Earth.

There will be no Peace in the Middle East, without a Free Lebanon!

Long Live Free Lebanon