Patching & Camouflage
By: Elias Bejjani
LCCC Media Chairman
26/2/03
The most recent American media spin on a
plan for a post-Saddam Middle East has been fairly captivating to world observers. The
plan entails a comprehensive democratic change that will spare no Middle Eastern or Arab
country. The United States, according to leading current and former officials, will make
sure that all current regimes will be replaced with democratic substitutes. The envisaged
regimes will honour human rights, freedom of speech, and most importantly will be
democratic and free from the influence of fanatic religious fundamentalist ideologies. The
new and reshuffled Middle East could very much become a reality after toppling Saddam
Hussein and his regime.
It is also interesting to see that many political analysts have interpreted the recent
political changes in Turkey as the first stage of this American road map to democracy for
the Middle East. The peaceful marriage between Turkish secularism and moderate Islamic
political parties has inspired many analysts. They believe that this Turkish example,
through which Islamic parties have accepted to rule through a secular constitution and
abide by its clauses, will be promoted and implanted in many other Middle Eastern
countries. In the same context, the Saudi ruling family surprised even its own people by
announcing that an elite group of its princes met with Saudi opposition groups and worked
through a difficult, but constructive dialogue on designing mechanisms to modernize the
Kingdom's regime. The Saudi opposition groups have already started their own radio and TV
station from Belgium with the blessings of the US.
In this regard, similar changes, albeit on a much smaller scale and in a more discrete
way, are observed in Egypt, Syria, and the Palestinian self-autonomous state, although
driven by different motivations and timing. Egypt's President Hosni Mubarak has begun to
groom his son Jamal as a potential heir to Egypt's presidency when the circumstances
arise. Palestinian Chairman Yasser Arafat bowed to US and Israeli pressures and
reluctantly agreed to amending the Palestinian constitution in a bid to create a new post
of Prime Minister that will inevitably strip him of his unlimited powers and turn his
position into a symbol and a figurehead void of any true authority.
On the Syrian-Lebanese front, the transformation has taken a different route, albeit more
evident and specific. Syria is apparently striving to follow this US-motivated wave of
change regardless of the cost. The prime objective of the Syrian regime is to preserve its
own Alawi-Baathist base and maintain the stranglehold it has on the puppet government in
occupied Lebanon. The Syrian-Lebanese agenda of appeasing the US has been unfolding
quietly and deliberately shielded from the media glare. The only exception was the recent
minor redeployment of the Syrian army out of North Lebanon.
We wonder if Syria has started to prepare its hostage, Lebanon, for the impending Iraqi
war and its consequences. We also wonder if the US-Middle East roadmap to democracy is
going to specifically include Syria and Lebanon, which are the most notorious countries in
the whole world for abuse of authority, repression of civil liberties, infringements on
human rights, and a blatant disregard for any political opposition. Some political
analysts believe that Syria has promised pro-Arab officials of the US State Department to
patch up and upgrade not only its own regime, but also the one it has installed in
occupied Lebanon since 1990. The Syrian dictator has started his deceitful plan to brush
up and polish the two regimes in a bid to fulfill the American criteria for the path to
democracy.
In a similar vein, it is easy to understand the sudden cancellation by Maronite Catholic
Church Patriarch Sfeir of his visit to the United States that was scheduled for March 7 of
this year. Cardinal Sfeir was subjected to tremendous Syrian pressures, veiled threats,
and intimidations to postpone the visit. These scare tactics include the recent arrest and
3-hour detention of an American Maronite priest serving a Maronite Parish in the US at
Beirut airport. The priest was released after he was extensively questioned about the
activities of Lebanese-American opposition groups in the US, their sources of finance, and
their relationship with Cardinal Sfeir.
Analysts believe that the advice of pro-Arab US State Department officials that was
whispered lately to the Syrian and Lebanese regimes goes something like this:
"Quickly initiate some democratic changes or both regimes will be toppled". The
advice seems to have found open and eager ears in both countries. Accordingly, Syria has
acted to take advantage of the regional tensions and prevailing odds, hoping that the US
will buy into these superficial and essentially deceitful changes. In support of
this view, four unannounced "changes" suddenly took place in Lebanon that run
counter to all positions previously taken by Syria and its Lebanese puppet regime: The
deployment of a few hundred Lebanese army soldiers in South Lebanon to positions that were
previously under UN control; The widely publicized and theatrical Syrian Army redeployment
out of North Lebanon; The revival of the controversial naturalization judicial suit; The
Medena Bank bankruptcy scandal whose course was immediately reversed when Lebanon's
politicized judiciary was suddenly allowed to step in and forcefully raise charges of
money laundering.
The Lebanese Army deployment in South Lebanon was artificial and deceitful since Hezbollah
still fully controls South Lebanon. According to Lebanon's Information Minister, Ghazi
Aridi, Hezbollah alone decides on the timing, kind of weapons used, location, and
circumstance of attacks it carries against Israel from Lebanon. The sudden revival of the
naturalization suit that had been dormant for the past eight years will be an excuse for
many opportunistic politicians to join the new government and abandon the legitimate
opposition. These politicians who work under the "Taef umbrella" have never
really been part of the true opposition. The carrot and stick policy used in referring the
Madena Bank to the judiciary, then immediately withdrawing it, was seen by many observers
as follows: A stick to many pro-Syrian groups and individuals (including Hezbollah) who
fund themselves through money laundering, and a carrot to the money Mafia through
rehabilitating Lebanon's bank sector in order to make it attractive to the influx of Arab
money made nervous by tensions in the Gulf.
The Syrian regime and its appointed Lebanese officials have ignored the reality and
potential consequences of the current regional and international status quo. They have
deluded themselves to the extent that made them believe that the 1990 US-Syrian deal could
be replicated in 2003. In 1990, Syria agreed to join the American-led military
coalition against Saddam Hussein only after it was permitted to invade Lebanon's last free
enclave and was given full control over the country. The Syrian regime and its Lebanese
acolytes also overestimated the power of the pro-Arab US State Department officials who in
reality have very little, if any, influence over the American road map for democracy in
the Middle East.
We warn Syria's policy makers and their installed puppets in Lebanon that their deceitful
patching up of their two rotten regimes will not work this time and that the magic will
turn against the magician. The wave of change is so strong that it will definitely engulf
all the inhumane and savage regimes of the Middle East, especially those that exist
against the will of their oppressed people. This wave of change will not spare the regimes
in Damascus and Beirut whose officials and politicians should use the little wisdom they
have left, which we believe amounts to very little, collect their personal belongings, and
depart before it is too late.
The Lebanese have always wondered why the free world has sat idly for the last 30 years
while Lebanon gradually drowned under the sands of the totalitarian dictatorial Syrian
regime. Still, the Lebanese never lost their hope, self-confidence, or faith! They
have been fighting back bravely with all available means and resources, as they have done
for the last 7,000 years of their deeply-rooted history. Judgment Day is near for those
who betrayed Lebanon! The time of reckoning is upon them. They are doomed and we shall
overcome.
Long Live Free Lebanon