Aoun’s project will stay grounded until his mastery of key skills grows clearer
Roughly a week after Walid Jumblatt made waves by confessing his problem with being a member of March 14, causing many people scratching their heads, we’ll now see headlines and op-ed columns dominated by the “position” taken by Michel Aoun, on the formation of the government. It’s time for another round of puzzlement, and an attempt to make sense of what Aoun means in the Lebanese political context.
When Jumblatt dropped his bombshell, we said that in some ways, his reasoning was borderline-maddening. However, it was completely in line with the requirements of our sectarian political system and the performance of its practitioners.
But Aoun represents a true conundrum; when you go beyond the noise that’s being generated, a supposed John McCain-style straight-talker is actually quite confusing.
President Michel Sleiman’s role in the system is fairly clear; Samir Geagea’s concern with the Christian community pegs him as a certain type of politician. But the secular Aoun’s alliance with the Islamist Hizbullah, a group that’s in some ways outside the state the former general has long championed, is not as easy to fathom.
Hizbullah’s desire for an alliance with Aoun is understandable, but not the other way around. Aoun is allied with some of his fiercest enemies in the past; does this make sense to his followers? He was all in favor of examining waste and corruption when it came to the Ministry of the Displaced; now, Jumblatt’s a nice guy, and talk of “opening files” is forgotten. Why is Aoun on such bad terms with the Maronite patriarch? Many such questions can be asked.
When Aoun returned from exile, he ranted against chaos and a lack of discipline, but he seems to lack organization and institution-building in his own party.
Aoun champions competence and ending the old ways, but he’s a family operation, with a nephew and son-in-law as his chief political representatives.
With the exception of harping about the debt, which anyone can do, Aoun’s agenda is all over the place. Issues bubble up, and disappear.
While Jumblatt is obviously of the system, Aoun offers us a “para-politics,” of trying to pretend that he’s the key element in the system, while trying to be above the system at the same time. When you hear him speak, you hope at first that you could be a part of this new Republic he advocates; when he’s finished, you find yourself disgusted because you’re in the actual one.
As for competence, anyone can be good at one thing: but to be really effective in politics and public life, there are essential people, organizational and communications skills that must be mastered. Until a clearer picture of Aoun as a politician, communicator and organizer emerges, he won’t get his project off the ground.