THE FIRST REPUBLIC ECONOMIC MIRACLE

By: Charles Jalkh (Freedom Fighter) 

Prior to the Syrian invasion and occupation of Lebanon, and the installment of the Hariri-Lahoud puppet regimes, Lebanon had witnessed a cultural flowering and an economic boom unprecedented among developing nations. Since its independence and until 1975, the Lebanese economy expanded at an amazing pace. The nation's per capita income exploded. Beirut became the business, financial, cultural, and tourist capital of the Middle East. Millions of world tourists visited the only oasis of peace, democracy, and prosperity in the ME (besides Israel). Lebanon was nicknamed the Switzerland of the Middle East, and Beirut was Paris of the Orient.

Indeed, Lebanon's majestic green mountains, golden shores, archeological treasures, breath taking scenery, varied landscape, friendly and cultured people, free enterprise economy, and most importantly its spirit of Freedom and Liberalism compounded to create a unique experience and an economic miracle unseen anywhere else in the world. Lebanon had a thriving democracy, elected legislative and executive branches, independent judiciary and the only free press in the Arab world.

Unable to match Lebanon's accomplishments and dying of envy, the backward and totalitarian regimes of Syria resorted to sabotage and terrorism against Lebanon. Throughout the fifties and well into the seventies Syria conducted wars of aggression against Lebanon by trying to destabilize it on all fronts. It resorted to economic blockades (border closures, currency boycott), terrorism (car explosions, industrial sabotage, arsons, and forest fires), and assassinations (journalists, judges, religious leaders, even heads of states). Syria facilitated the infiltration of Lebanon by numerous armed groups including Palestinian guerillas. Finally in 1976, Syria invaded Lebanon directly. The Lebanese resisted, and it took a combined Israeli/US/ Syrian collusion to finally occupy all of Lebanon on Oct 13, 1990.

Since, the Syrian Assad dictatorship proceeded to totally annihilate Lebanon and dilute its identity. Directly with 40,000 occupation troops, and through the puppet regimes of Hariri, and Lahoud. Today the Syrian barbarians continue to strangle Lebanon in all domains; economic, social, political, cultural, spiritual, and physical. Freedoms have disappeared. The jails are full of political prisoners. The people are impoverished. The Syrian intelligence services intimidate, kidnap, arrest, torture, and kill as they please. The press is gagged, threatened, and bought. An Iron curtain has descended on the Lebanese Fragrant Flower. A Dark Age of terror has been imposed upon us. The crime is greater than the Chinese annihilation of Tibet. History has recorded, and we have witnessed, the murder of Lebanon by Syria. This crime shall not be erased from our memories for a thousand year to come.

Today, a majority of Lebanon's people lives in abject poverty. Proud, but with ever diminishing means. The occupation governments saddled the country with 23 billion dollars of debt. Most of it went to the pockets of the Syrian ruling class and the collaborators through fraudulent construction schemes and to build/finance the police state. The newly (Syrian) appointed government of Selim Hoss, claims to be trying to revive Lebanon's economy. Yes, this is the same Selim Hoss, the collaborator who provided a local mask for the Syrian final offensive of October 1990. They bring in economists, draw 5 years plans, raise taxes, organize shopping festivals, and conduct propaganda reforms, yet the Lebanese economy continues its slide. The people are growing hungrier every passing day.

Some Lebanese and other friends of Lebanon seem to have forgotten the secret behind the First Republic success. It was not the government plans, the tourism, the free enterprise system, the banking system, nor the capital that made Lebanon's Golden Age. Only one core reason stands at the origin of Lebanon's glorious past. It was PERSONAL FREEDOM.
The Lebanese were free, and thus became prosperous. We were free to worship without feeling a minority. Free to participate in politics and vote without intimidation. Free to voice any opinion. Free to speak our minds without government oppression and secret police wiretaps on our phones. Free to start a newspaper without any government control. Free to engage in business and create partnerships with other internationals. Free to travel. Free to party and walk late nights. Free to seek remedy and defend ourselves in independent courts. Free to criticize our leaders, and free to elect our parliaments. The guardian of our freedoms was our own Lebanese Army who had the sole control of our lands and no partners. The Lebanese citizen was well treated at home, and our passport respected worldwide. We had no Syrian troops, no Palestinian guerillas, no Hizbollah, and no saboteurs. The Syrian occupiers have murdered all these freedoms.

So to all well-meaning powers we say, none of your efforts will be successful in reviving Lebanon economically, unless Freedom, Sovereignty, Independence, and Personal Freedoms are restored.

There will be no wellness, no progress, no prosperity, and no peace without a Free Lebanon.

Long Live Free Lebanon