To all leftists: Let’s discuss Rafik Hariri

Hariri was blamed for a project continuously obstructed by the Syrian regime

BEIRUT - Hussein Hajj Ali

March/April 2006

Ever since he came to power in 1992, Rafik Hariri has been a sworn enemy of Lebanon’s leftists. The reasons were clear. The leftists are by default opposed to billionaires in power with a neo-liberal agenda for the economy, which is perfectly in line with leftist thought and perspective.

Thanks to Syrian intervention, Hariri was further demonized to represent, in addition to being a capitalist monster, foreign influence in Lebanon, a supporter of peace with Israel and a corrupt leader who aimed at beefing up his fortune at the expense of the less privileged sectors of society.

For this purpose, the Syrian regime – through its Lebanese intelligence ruling arm – promoted second-class leftist/pan-Arabism figures such as former Beirut MP Najah Wakim and his confident Lebanese Communist Party’s (LCP) Saadallah Mazraani, former Chouf MP Zaher Khatib, late Sidon late MP Mustafa Saaad who was later inherited by his brother Osama, and a host of wannabe leftist MPs especially from the LCP leadership.

Accusations of these anti-Hariri people included all kinds of charges that neared slander and defame. Hariri was accused of buying massive areas of lands in remote places and then approving the opening of roads to these areas so that they boom and land prices shoot up. He was accused of embezzlement in all sectors especially in that of telecommunications. Soon enough, Hariri was blamed – exclusively – for causing an accumulation of public debt that had reached astronomical figures. Needless to say, not one of the accusations had any sustainable evidence. The so-called leftists merely shouted anti-corruption slogans blaming it all on Hariri.

Many of us, leftists, bought the Syrian-instigated false accusations. As time went by, corruption appeared to persist, except that Hariri had nothing to do with it. Wakim himself was proven to have been receiving oil coupons from Iraq’s dictator Saddam Hussein along with former Metn MP and son of President Emile Lahoud, Emile Junior. Leaks of other cases of fraud surfaced with the other presidential son, Ralph.

Stories of corruption intensified with the Medina Bank scandal in which many politicians, Syrian intelligence officers and the president’s sons were involved.  With time, the charges of Hariri’s corruption became less and less credible.

Other charges against Hariri also turned out to be lame. The main causes of the high public debt looked to have little to do with Hariri. As economists would argue, Hariri’s economic faults included his policy of pegging the national currency to the dollar, and focusing growth around non-productive or volatile sectors, the services sector. But such economic mistakes are a matter of perspective and debate and they can never get near demonizing Hariri. Furthermore, advocates of alternative economic theories maintained Hariri’s policies when they took over power briefly between 1998 and 2000 when they maintained the policy of stabilizing the national currency among other policies.

The biggest fallacy, however, surfaced later when it was proven that despite his premiership, Hariri could never get hold of the government. This was evident especially in the most corrupt and inefficient sectors that were much responsible for the public debt that nears $40 billion today.

The Ministry of Water and Electricity proved to be the custodian of one of the most corrupt institutions in Lebanon, the Electricite du Liban, which has cost the treasury so far close to $8 billion. This ministry has always been in the hands of pro-Syrian ministers starting with late Elie Hobeika, followed by Amal Movement ministers Mohammed Beydoun and Ayoub Humayyed, and today Hizbullah’s Mohammed Fneish.

Second in public spending came the unproductive sector, the army.

Third came the Ministry of Public Works that was always under a minister with loyalties to the Syrian regime. This ministry secured at times, lucrative contracts for Second Lady Randa Berri, Yarob Kenaan the son of former Syrian Lebanon’s viceroy Ghazi, Jamal Khaddam the son of former Syrian Vice President Abdul-Halim.

Even with ministries of less economic importance, such as the Labor Ministry, a pro-Syrian regime crony was always installed there to insure that these unions remain at the discretion of the Syrian command for any possible instant protest against Hariri. The intelligence-connected Labor Ministers who amassed fortunes by imposing “ministerial levies” on work authorization for non-Syrian foreign laborers in Lebanon, also made sure to grant licenses to non-existing unions whose leadership was pro-Syrian regime. This way, the once robust General Labor Confederation was divided into tribes, weakened and took its orders directly from the Syrian-Lebanese intelligence regime.

Even in ministries where Hariri had clear influence, such as the Finance Ministry, the pro-Hariri ministers could not exercise any significant power. Former Finance Minister and now Prime Minister Fouad Siniora tried hard to collect fees from the state owned Casino du Liban. Siniora failed and he was subject to a smear campaign. Today, we know that the Casino du Liban was a mafia-run institution where profit was directly channeled into the pockets of security officers and politicians. On the Casino’s payroll with astronomical salaries where Jamil Sayyed’s son, the president’s brother Nasri and his son, publisher of daily Addiyar Chrales Ayyoub (who was not on the payroll but was granted free gambling games), while former Zghorta MP Sleiman Franjieh had his cronies employed in the Casino as a reward for their loyalty.

The above brief description shows how much Hariri was not in control and how corruption was out of his hand. True some of Hariri’s men could have practiced some corruption inside the state bureaucracy, but this was the exception not the rule among Hariri’s entourage.

Accordingly, Hariri was being blamed for national debt and corruption that were clearly out of his control. Not only he was not responsible for the ongoing corruption orgy, he was unable to stop it or face the cronies of the Syrian regime in Lebanon.

But many leftists are still unmoved.

They blame what they call Hariri’s “economic project” as being the source of all evil in the country without even thinking of who was actually behind corruption. Today, they came up with a new accusation against late Rafik Hariri and his son and heir Saad: Sectarianism.

The LCP, Wakim and similar so-called leftists accuse Hariri of provoking the Sunni sect in Lebanon to follow him. They see the presumed Hariri’s sectarianism but never mind a religious sheikh, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, threatening everyone that Hizbullah’s arms were untouchable and threatening of a civil war with the Shiites if other politicians say or think otherwise.

Hariri was never a thief. He was not responsible for the deteriorating socio-economic situation in Lebanon. On the contrary, his name gave a push for the nation’s fiscal policies as trust of foreign investors was elevated in the country thanks to him serving as a guarantee.

Leftists conforming to Hariri’s economic policies might seem awkward in principle. But in a country like Lebanon, where nothing is actually what it really looks like, the leftists should make an exception. Hariri always intended to build a modern state, even if this state was modeled after capitalist economies.

Leftists should support the endeavor of Hariri and any other politicians willing to build a modern state in Lebanon. Once the modern state comes into existence, then the leftists will have the luxury of opposing Hariri’s policies all they can and debate such policies out loud. During his tenure as Prime Minister, Hariri never showed a behavior that he was not willing to listen to other economic or political philosophies and theories.

But before the state is transformed from a tribal coalition into a modern state, any talk about these policies or the need to oppose them will only serve the backwardness forces and the mercenaries who pretend to be leftist and communist while in fact they seek personal interest only.