Gunfire Has Ceased, Yet Maturity Is Still Out of Sight

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Posted on Apr 01 2018 0 minutes read
Gunfire Has Ceased, Yet Maturity Is Still Out of Sight
If there is one thing that the Lebanese agree on – fortunately – that is never falling back into inter-communal violence. It took 15 years of an internecine civil war and nearly as many years of fragile peace under Syrian tutelage to understand and be convinced that no community can hope to control one day all the others and impose its political discourse on the entire population. Even Hezbollah, which holds virtually uncontested sway over Lebanon’s Shiites and disposes of an impressive arsenal, has given signals indicating that it would not take unilateral action against Israel, except in the case of an attack in South Lebanon.

The issue of violence thus apparently shrugged off, it remains for Lebanon to address the thorny problem of political and economic reforms, an area in which practically everything has to be started all over again. Especially getting over the legendary procrastination, which has so far meant that the most pressing issues are constantly referred from one government to the next, finally to be hastily dealt with and make a botch of the job!

The two most recent examples are the new electoral law and the draft budget for 2018. The former is an abysmal mix of proportional representation and communitarian preferential voting, which has come to obfuscate the voters. As for the 2018 budget, it was patched together under pressure from international investors, overshadowing the necessary structural reforms and stopping short at a 20% cut in spending imposed on the various ministries.

In Lebanon, gunfire has indeed ceased. All that the political class needs now is a measure of maturity to be able to admit that governance is above all public service.

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