Comrades, go back to the streets, you go back to clarity, Samir said

By Bashir Hilal

March/April 2006

PARIS: Once again we witness a Lebanese one-million demonstration. A short while prior to this demonstration, even most of the optimists couldn't have believed that such a crowd – in terms of numbers and the diversity of regional and  sectarian affiliations -- could have come together due to the nation's building up tension.

No doubt, many details remain to be uncovered as to the breakup of the different affiliations of the demonstrators. Yet, we can say with some confidence that the huge number had nothing to do with the organizational abilities of this or that party, or even with the coalition of parties that had called for the protest. The matter was simply related to popular sentiments that we couldn't guess or figure out because of the grey and bleak political situation on the eve of the event due to the ongoing assassinations – despite the withdrawal of the Syrian troops from Lebanon – in addition to the hesitance of the Lebanese security forces in taking over control, the departure of the Free Patriotic Movement (FPM) from March 14 as it entered into a "paper" with Hizbullah and the riots in the Ashrafieh area. Other grey indicators included the ongoing Lahoud presidency as a sign of the persistence of the age of Syrian mandate despite the scattered campaigns against him, the remaining of many security officers with loyalties to the deposed Syrian-Lebanese security apparatus, the perplexed cabinet's performance and the Hizbullah veto on more than one political occasion.

The one million crowd was not due either to the charisma of some March 14 leaders despite the importance of these leaders and the importance of charisma in politics. The one million crowd that looks much like the March 14 due to its political nature was as forceful even in the absence of a charismatic person like General Michel Aoun knowing that many opponents of the parliamentary majority were betting on Aoun's absence to see a smaller crowd for they were still thinking that the General represented 70 percent of the Lebanese Christians and that should reflect automatically as a decrease in Christian participation. The Ashrafieh riots also made the opponents think that a Sunni-Christian gap might follow and affect the demonstration. These events were also believed to have caused inter-Sunni divisions and consequently a decrease in the weight and influence of the Hariri leadership. Such analysis also had it that Walid Jumblatt's offensive and sharp language was isolating him from the Sunni sect and its presumed Arab dimension, of course in addition to Jumblatt's distance away from the Shiite sect which is always being presented as following Hizbullah and eventually in a comprehensive conflict with Jumblatt. Finally, these analysts also had it that Jumblatt credibility with the Christians was on the decline in light of his disagreement with Aoun before, during and after parliamentary elections.

This is not to undermine the effect of some reasons on rallying the people on Feb. 14: Party organization, politics, media and the charisma of some of the leaders in addition to popular sectarian considerations all contributed to a bigger rally. Yet all of these reasons do not look enough to explain why the number came out to be one million especially at the time the political situation was like I said, grey.

There should be another angle for the understanding of the massive rally.

The majority of the Lebanese are involved in sensitive structures based on sectarian relations, infra-sectarian loyalties and a clienteles system. The concept of the state itself has been witnessing major cracks over the past 30 years during which all kinds of wars happened and were followed by the control of Syrian intelligence that penetrated into the minute details of Lebanon's life. Here, we can safely assume that the Independence Intifada that succeeded in forcing the Syrian troops out of Lebanon has freed the Lebanese political awareness at four levels:

1. The Lebanese were convinced of the need for independence by all means including their unwillingness to see non-state forces guarding the borders, treating Syria and other Arab states as counter-part countries. They were also convinced of their right to decide on their national issues of peace and war and their economic system. They were tired of automatically connecting them to the Arab-Israeli conflict, via violent means.

Here, we should pay attention that not all Shiites are willing to give up on Lebanese independence despite all of their ideological education which Hizbullah tries to publicize along side a kind of Islamic Shiite internationalism.

2. The Lebanese were convinced of their need for a final draft constitution which is for the time being the Taef Agreement, despite the random attacks on it and the attempts of some groups such as Hizbullah and Amal to give some of its clauses different meanings such as interpreting when the cabinet should vote and when not claiming that on national issues, only consensus could approve such decisions.

Along these lines the Lebanese are craving to put an end to the unique situation of armed groups outside state authority believing that these arms would jeopardize the idea of equality among citizens.

3. The Lebanese are now in need for more transparency in politics and that's why they rallied around the leaders who are considered by some of endorsing an offensive language while such an honest language proved to be very popular as opposed to what has been known as Lebanese political lying.

4. The Lebanese, and despite all signals indicating the opposite, are desperately seeking civil peace and do not seem ready for a new civil war even if the Syrian leadership and its Lebanese cronies push in such a direction. The current political divisions are one thing and a civil war is another.

This does not mean that dialogue should be ruled out. On the contrary, dialogue is needed on the condition that it would not remain talk only and a means for populist talk for some politicians. Along these lines, we remind everyone and with sorrow what the late journalist and writer and the rose of our martyrs Samir Kassir wrote when he called for an Intifada inside the Intifada and when he said: Go back to the streets comrades, you go back to clarity.

It is hard to come up with conclusions about an event as huge as the Feb. 14 demonstration. No doubt there are many factors behind this million person show and we might need more tools for a deeper look. However, the rally formed a defeat to the politics of the edge that the Syrian regime has been so far employing to make the Lebanese choose between its bloody dominance and the killer chaos.

Bashir Hilal is a member of the Paris Group of the Democratic Left Movement. His piece first appeared in www.metransparent.com and was translated for Alternative with the author's consent