Lebanon's meaning in the wider Arab context
By Rami G. Khouri
Commentary by
dailystar.com.lb - Wednesday, March 16, 2005
Something very important to the Arab world continues to take place on the streets of Beirut, and it is not primarily about being pro- or anti-Syrian. Neither is it mainly about political anthropology - the counting of headscarves, bellybutton rings, beards and designer shoes among the street demonstrators, in order to note their ethnic, religious and ideological identity.
Having attended all the demonstrations, I am convinced that Lebanon these days represents a historic, unprecedented drive for national self-determination by Arab citizens. The Lebanese seek to define three crucial aspects of their national identity and power structure that no Arab citizenry has ever done in the past eight decades or so of nominal Arab independence: first, the nature of their sovereignty and political configuration; second, the nature of their relations with neighboring states and foreign powers; and third, the relationship among their own military-security sector, the average citizen, and the institutions of governance.
The Arab people for the most part have never enjoyed the opportunity to define their most basic attributes of sovereignty and statehood. In several ridiculous cases last century, retreating European colonial powers defined the concepts, drew the borders, and hand picked the rulers of newly-created Arab countries that were formed primarily to serve European colonial interests.
This is history, for sure, but one whose enduring impact still drives events in tortured Arab lands today. This is partly because major Western powers that now champion Arab freedom and democracy for half a century installed, anchored, armed and assuaged the stubborn autocrats whose long reigns have made the Arab world the globe's last nondemocratic region. More and more Arabs now explicitly challenge the economic, security and political control mechanisms of this flawed modern order. Lebanon is the first serious example of spontaneous, indigenous Arab political activism to challenge and replace the ugly power structures that have plagued this region for nearly a century.
The particulars of the Lebanon case also reflect the core elements of national self-determination that apply to all other Arab countries. The key issues in Lebanon are:
l The nature, legitimacy and durability of the governing security- and Syrian-associated elite headed by President Emile Lahoud, which is increasingly widely challenged and politically weakened.
l How the popular Hizbullah party can move from its heroic genesis of liberating the South from Israeli occupation to an expected new future political role, given its status as Lebanon's single most formidable political party.
l Whether the emerging powerful coalition of opposition forces can channel its massive popular appeal into an effective political strategy that goes beyond the anger with Rafik Hariri's murder and the successful push to secure a Syrian military withdrawal from Lebanon.
l Whether an opposition-Hizbullah national alliance representing the vast majority of Lebanese can quickly agree on the next steps to form a credible government, hold clean parliamentary elections, redefine good neighborly, close Syrian-Lebanese relations, bring the security-military systems under civilian control, and launch urgently needed economic and political reforms.
l How a self-determinant, reconfigured, democratic Lebanon can define mutually beneficial relations with non-Arab powers like Iran, Israel, the U.S. and others.
These Lebanese issues mirror broad political principles and individual human aspirations that are common throughout the Arab world, where citizens more openly challenge numerous old, stubborn, security-focused, externally-designed, tattered and discredited Arab governance systems.
The new governance systems that Arab citizens design will be determined by the consensus that emerges from the political negotiations that have been initiated by the street demonstrations by the principal groupings.
Securing a Syrian pledge to leave Lebanon proved to be rather easy, in retrospect, given the Lebanese, Arab and international consensus on this.
The more difficult task now under way requires a new social and political compact among the Lebanese people to establish a better, more accountable governance system that ensures citizens' individual and collective rights, and accommodates their varied ideological, ethnic, religious and social values.
Lebanon's dueling demonstrations are not really very confrontational, and in fact are rather compatible in their core demands. There is acknowledgement and consensus on the facts that: Syria is leaving Lebanon; the Hariri murder must be investigated fully and those responsible brought to justice; a clean parliamentary election in May must accurately reflect the real balance of political forces in the country; disarmament of Hizbullah must await implemention of a Syrian withdrawal, and take place through a domestic process; and a new government in Lebanon must affirm the equal rights of citizens more than the security of a privileged, nonaccountable and often imposed elite.
These enormous challenges reflect the epic valor and complexity of national self-determination for any country or people, as Lebanon contemplates the potential reconfiguration of its entire national power structure. Half a century ago, Lebanon briefly and incompletely offered the Arab world an intriguing model of parliamentary democracy that soon was swamped and disfigured by the combined weight of the cold war, the Arab-Israeli conflict, its own civil war, and the stultifying modern Arab security state. Today, Lebanon may again lead the way for other Arabs who covet the same personal and national goals of normal statehood, a decent and accountable government, and reasonably equal opportunities for all its citizens.
Rami G. Khouri writes a weekly commentary for The Daily Star. |
