The arch staller
Even the most resilient and upbeat Lebanese must be getting weary of hearing the endless stream of talking-head politicians forecast the formation of a new government. “In the coming days,” has the most popular prediction – Wiam Wahhab has been at his most Delphic in recent weeks – but the truth is that, not only is the opposition hell-bent on impeding Lebanon’s constitutional process – it must of course wait for orders from Damascus – it is flagrantly using the Free Patriotic Movement’s Michel Aoun to do its dirty work.
Aoun is the strategic cat, thrown amid the pigeons of Lebanese politics. His insistence that his son-in-law, Gebran Bassil, should have the telecom portfolio because, Aoun says, only the FPM can ensure the rigorous and transparent running of this most critical sector – despite the fact that in doing so he opens himself up to charges of nepotism and protecting the interests of his allies, Hezbollah – was the first obstacle cloaked as a matter of principle.
There was of course an agenda at play. Hezbollah, Amal and the brave ideologues of the SSNP nearly started a civil war in 2008 because the government had the temerity to interfere with Hezbollah’s private phone network, so it stands to reason that they would back Bassil for the job. From Aoun’s point of view, being seen to dig his heels in was a useful card to play with his supporters, decent people who have convinced themselves that their leader has been principled rather than inflexible, a mindset that sits well with their long held belief that the former army commander offers a genuine alternative to what they see as a corrupt, feudal and flabby Christian political class.
Now we have his most recent demand, that of a fifth portfolio to reflect his bloc’s apparently stellar showing in the June 7 elections – a poll, incidentally, Aoun said he would win for his March 8 allies. It is, if not proof, pretty damning evidence that he has become March 8’s No. 1 secret weapon.
For Aoun cannot be serious. His rationale is that he doesn’t want to appear weakened in public by being seen to make “too many concessions.” Does he really expect us to believe that the same allies to whom he did not deliver election victory would allow him a 50% share of the opposition’s allotted – according to the 15-10-5 formula – 10 seats? Such an agreement would leave only five portfolios for Hezbollah and Amal. Already, cracks are beginning to appear, with Amal chief and Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri saying that he is not going to give up any of his allocation.
All this nonsense must come as further proof to the professional middle-class, which put its weight behind Aoun’s so-called reformist agenda, that their man has lost the plot. He wooed them when he was convinced he would be elected president, the position he might already hold had he played his cards right. Now, he has become a hustler, abandoning the ideals of transparency and reform his supporters so quickly rushed to embrace.
Aoun has lost every battle he has fought in the past 20 years, from taking on the Lebanese Forces in 1989 to losing the parliamentary elections in 2009 and everything in between. History, however hard it tries, will have trouble listing his concrete achievements. We wouldn’t care if it weren’t for the fact that we are putting our lives on hold while he sows more political destruction.