I envy the Lebanese officials for many things, as I am an envious citizen who, in vain, seeks to dissociate himself. But I always fail. For something mysterious always manages to draw me back into those abysmal dramas. They are entertaining, yet sad, humiliating, infuriating and repugnant. Despite this, I keep going back. I will not accuse myself of excessive patriotism, so perhaps it is just curiosity, driven by my line of work, or the desire to torture myself and ruin London's beautiful evenings with the news of the land of my forefathers. I envy the Lebanese officials, for their unadulterated patriotism, the nobility of their feelings and the sincerity of their intentions. I envy them for their foresight, their deep sense of responsibility and their blind attachment to the requirements of coexistence. I also envy them for their zeal for sovereignty, the prestige of the state and their excessive fixation on respect for the constitution, as I envy them for their extreme hatred of any violation, breach or abuse. I envy them for their keenness on the rule of law, the state of institutions and their unequivocal opposition to the logics of exploitation, infiltration, cronyism and larceny. And I envy them for their openness, their aversion to intolerance, one-upmanship, and unlawful enrichment. Their hearts are mines of soothing and reassuring outpourings, and their consciences have all the hallmarks of excessive nighttime worrying. I envy the Lebanese officials. Their statements are sensible, accurate and transparent. They are ambivalent and equivocal, and often are dissociated from the truth and full of obfuscation. I am an expatriate and I want to entertain myself. I thus wait anxiously and impatiently, for the white smoke to come out of the cabinet meetings. They say that a ‘healthy discussion' takes place there, and that the heat of the debate among the isolated isles within the cabinet is an argument in favor of the democratic game, rather than one against it. They say that the reconciliatory president often tries to dissociate himself, and that the smiles of those huddled around the table do not succeed in concealing the daggers and their mutual stabs. I heard a minister complaining of his colleague and ally ‘General' Charbel Nahas. I felt concerned for General Aoun as many other generals are gathering under his wings. There can only be one General. Speaking of generals, I want to say: Enough is enough. The army is not a factory of presidents. Whenever a general enters the palace, the presidency, the president and the army all become weaker. Stop political succession among generals. Latin America has long abandoned this game, and so has Africa. Stop the rotation of generals in the palace. Only then will the army regain its respect, will its leadership be heard and heeded, within the confines of the constitution, and will the army no longer be a prisoner, a subordinate, or a neglected entity. For the army must not dissociate itself from the security of the border and the homeland. I know that generalizations are unfair. There are exceptions, albeit modest ones. This is true of officials, as well as politicians. Moreover, I don't want to spoil the mood of the people at the end of the year. For this reason, I shall dissociate myself from continuing this article in the same tone, and will instead try to return to its essence. Last March, the Syrians were surprised that protests in their countries broke out, and so were the Lebanese. As months went by, it emerged that the earthquake that had stuck Syria measured seven degrees on the Richter scale. If one looks at the region from Bahrain to Iraq, to Lebanon and Syria, what emerges is worrisome: sectarian tensions and repressed regions, as though we are in the midst of a regional civil war. The Lebanese became divided over the crisis in Syria. It was no strange or reprehensible thing, for the fate of this crisis will determine the future of the region's balances, the limits of the Iranian role, the fate of the defiant axis, and the size of regional and international influence in certain Arab arenas. It is the right of the Lebanese to voice their opinion on the developments in Syria. This concerns them and influences their stability and alignments, yet it is not their right to play lightly on the edge of the earthquake and invite it upon their land. The Lebanese government is in want of a modicum of responsibility, of a firm decision to ban the earthquake from being imported. The army must be ordered in earnest, to firmly control the border with Syria, and to quell any violation from either side. The army must protect internal security and not deal lightly, hastily or complacently with thorny issues like Al-Qaeda's presence and infiltration from Lebanon into Syria. On the other hand, political leaders must be wary of a sectarian crisis threatening to copy the Iraqi scenario in Lebanon, following the Lebanonization of Iraq. The leaders have a historical responsibility at this stage. They must overcome their wounds, conflicts, doubts and desires for revenge. They would have to coexist later aboard the same ship. And because the outgoing year taught us the mantra of ‘the people want”, we say that the people's demands from these leaders can be summed up in one short sentence thus: Show the country a little compassion. And this applies to Lebanon as much as it applies to other ‘arenas'.
