By Elias Sakr
MAARAB, Lebanon: The Lebanese Forces (LF) supports the Arab uprisings and oppose the influence within Lebanon of “fading Arab regimes,” LF leader Samir Geagea said Tuesday.
Geagea spoke at a gathering of March 14 politicians and state officials that celebrated the approval of the LF’s new bylaws.
The bylaws come after nearly four years of workshops and deliberations.
“It is touching and significant that we meet today to lay another stone on top of Lebanon’s democratic foundations at a time when the people of the region rise up to demand freedom and human dignity,” Geagea told attendees at the LF’s headquarters in Maarab.
“In line with our beliefs, we cannot but express our compassion with the tortured Arab people seeking freedom, dignity, modernism and development. The fundamental nature of history has always been based on human freedom and dignity. Everything else is doomed to extinction,” he added.
The LF’s new bylaws – which will see the party’s leader directly elected by its members by the end of 2012 – will boost democracy, accountability and transparency within the party, Geagea said.
The leader’s deputy and members of the executive council will also be elected by party members. The leader’s term is now set to four years. Previously there was no term limit.
“You witness today the progress of the LF toward democracy and change through the approval of modern by-laws,” Geagea said. “The LF’s rule is to carry out peaceful, political and democratic struggle as witnessed today. Military force, war and all its miseries are the exception in emergency cases.”
Geagea warned that the LF and its allies will not remain neutral as the “government of fading Arab regimes,” draws Lebanon against the tide of democracy sweeping the region, in contradiction with the country’s long-time role as an advocate of freedom.
Prime Minister Najib Mikati’s Cabinet, in which Hezbollah and its allies hold a majority of seats, will reflect badly on Lebanon, said Geagea, who blasted March 8 groups for supporting fading regimes, in a lightly veiled reference to Syrian President Bashar Assad’s troubled government.
“How can we explain the arrest of refugees who fled the miseries of uprisings and the handing of [the refugees] over … to their country where sure death awaits them,” Geagea asked, referring to reports that Syrian refugees in Lebanon have been returned to Syrian authorities.
Among the attendees were civil society groups and delegations of Lebanese expatriates, who were updated on the new LF bylaws via a slideshow projection that featured testimonies by members of the LF committee that worked on drafting the regulations.
Among the major new arrangements, the bylaws structure the party into centralized and decentralized units.
The decentralized units include “centers” that are based on geographic units. Each center will see its administrative board elected by LF members registered or residing in the center’s geographic boundaries.
The centers are grouped into larger decentralized units, namely “regions,” whose boards will be composed of members elected at the center level, along with officials appointed to coordinate the activities of different centers in the same region.
Another level of decentralized units will group LF members into “sectors,” based on professional domains.
On the centralized level, the general congress will consist of the party leader, a deputy leader, members of the executive council, and the heads and deputies of centers and regions, all elected. It will also include appointed region and center coordinators.
The presentation concluded with a timeline of the major landmarks in the LF’s history since the party was established in 1976.