Lebanese Forces & Batroun candidate Antoine Zahra
Antoine Zahra, a Batroun MP with the Lebanese Forces in the current parliament, is running again in the district for the upcoming parliamentary elections.
But because Batroun is its own district this year and is not grouped with Tripoli, whose Sunni population strongly backs March 14, the battle won’t be as easily won as in 2005.
If this worries Zahra, he does not show it. In fact few things seem to unnerve him, as he jokes jovially over the phone giving directions, “Mine is the house where the checkpoints are!”
NOW Lebanon caught up with Zahra in his house, indeed surrounded by checkpoints and fortified with Kalashnikov-toting guards, to ask about the upcoming electoral race, which will pit him against March 8 aligned Gebran Bassil, the current Minister of Telecommunications, and Fayeq Younes, the former head of the Syndicate of Doctors, both with the Free Patriotic Movement.
NOW: Like many Christian areas, Batroun is going to be one of the districts where the race is going to be fierce and the outcome decisive. What do you think the outcome is going to be?
Zahra: It is clear that in Batroun, the confrontation is similar to that of all Lebanon – a confrontation between two political divisions, March 8 and March 14.
The main political candidates in Batroun are Sheikh Boutros Harb from March 14 and, myself, Antoine Zahra; the representative of the Lebanese Forces and those of March 14. While [on the other hand] there is minister Gebran Bassil, an important person representing Michel Aoun, who [in turn] has an important role with the alliance of Hezbollah and their openness to Syria and Iran. The decision is going to be between those two divisions.
The Batroun inhabitants are going to choose the political line that calls for the state – March 14. It is going to be a big victory for March 14 and a big difference between the margins of the votes.
NOW: It has been rumored that the mobile phone network has been used for the promotion of current Telecommunications Minister Gebran Bassil’s campaign in Batroun. Why didn’t you do that when March 14 was in control of the Telecom Ministry?
Zahra: Let us say that it is clear that Minister Gebran Bassil is using the governmental means and power to promote himself personally. Not only is he using audio means [via promotional phone recordings] at the cost of the government, as a minister he is using other means. One of them is opening a center to sell Batroun products.
We are going to complain to the supervising institution that is responsible for the spending and election media and we are going to … [make] a remark to the institution on how the media outlets are being used and [on] using the influence and power for political promotion.
These outlets and others did help in publishing the image of these [people] who are going against the state and its authority in their politics. So, the counter-reaction of the people in Batroun [is that they] are not going to be at ease with these [people] who are allied and quite about [the subject of] Syria and Iran and their politics in Lebanon.
NOW: What has changed in Batroun since 2005?
Zahra: All the neutral [people], or the non-politically committed public, discovered the difference between what Michel Aoun used to announce and what he implemented during his presence in the parliament with his team; the memorandum of understanding, his visits to Syria, to Iran, his agreement with the constant armament of Hezbollah.
All these were factors that have changed the public opinion of the Batroun people. Most importantly between 2005 and 2009, the impact of [former] Minister Suleiman Franjieh, who is allied with Michel Aoun, regressed in the Batroun area because he could no longer give what he could give when he was in power before 2005. And he could no longer scare others with his Syrian support… [As they] withdrew from Lebanon.
NOW: There has been a slander campaign against you based on what people say was your role with the Lebanese Forces during the civil war. Is it something that people are considering now during the electoral campaign?
Zahra: The campaign of defaming my personal reputation as a fighter in the Lebanese Forces reflected positively on me, because between trying to promote an image of a bad person, harming people and their dignity, and portraying me as a person who was always present on the Barbara checkpoint harming the northerners, my political pursuits have shown the opposite.
First of all… I don’t stay on checkpoints. I was specialized in technical aspects and to monitor the capacities of enemy forces, putting the maps and demarcations to confront them and this position does not stand on checkpoints or harms others.
Secondly, in all the areas that I roamed about in with the Lebanese Forces, all the people venerate and like me because I am from a good family and I am distinguished, known to be polite.
In addition, to distort the image of me [by saying] that I am ignorant and backward; [the opposite] has shown though out my political pursuits, my presence in the media and the services that I gave.
This campaign that tried to tarnish my image in 2005 turned in my favor when people meet me. My image is improving more and more, the more I am in direct contact with the people. Also, we could not always see the people always before when we were threatened with assassination attempts. Now we can see the people more and we are becoming more and more accepted.
NOW: What do you think needs to happen in Lebanon so that it can finally have stability in the government?
Zahra: What I think is after the problems that happened in Lebanon and the formation of the [post Doha Agreement] government, there was the obstructive one third in parliament; people of March 8th, who do not come to create a state, but instead to hinder it and impose their conditions.
This experience will not be repeated, March 14 will take the majority; the flexible majority which is about 68 to 70 ministers and the experience of having [this obstructive] one third is unacceptable.
I don’t think people are going to choose March 8 to administer the country. People want a government. They do not want to be attached to regional powers. The government that is going to be formed after the elections is a government where a majority is opposed by the minority. The majority is going to be March 14th, of course.
When dealing with this national issue everybody’s opinions is going to be respected, [the post election parliament] will not be a deactivated government that cannot act.