27 years since after his assassination, Kamal Jumblatt’s endeavor still makes sense

The politician, thinker and leader founded the Progressive Socialist Party

March/April 2004

Why a tribute in this issue to Kamal Jumblatt? Is it to praise and patronize about an idol? Is it to fortify our positions behind a man who died 27 years ago and had his pros and his cons? Surely not. By the commemoration of his death, Alternative wishes in the first place to open a debate about the man, about his ideology, about his politics and about his own status on the Druze, on the national, the regional and international levels.

Lebanese youths today have legitimate questions about the leaders Lebanon had in the past few generations especially that all of them are described as great-ones by their followers. Names such as Camille Chamoun, Raymond Edde, Moussa al-Sadr, Bashir Gemayel, Maarouf Saad and others are idolatrized rather than criticized and praised rather than studied.

The Alternative team is in that respect seeking a new approach. “If they all were great ones how come things ended up this bad for the country?” is the question to be answered.

To go back to Kamal Jumblatt, several questions need to be answered. It is undisputable that the man was unique in his political beliefs, in his charisma, in his spiritualism and intellectualism. But, was he able to transform his inherited feudal Druze leadership into a sustainable national one? Despite the fact that he and others such as Moussa al-Sadr, managed to gather a variety of people around them, their leadership ended up being exclusively a sectarian one. Wouldn’t the credibility of a leftist, secular and progressive movement on the national level be jeopardized if its top leadership emanated from a feudal family with a powerful communitarian status?

On the other hand, one cannot but notice that all Lebanese politicians who thought they could play a regional role beyond the scope of their small country had a tragic end to their careers. Could this be a lack of wisdom or an excess of ambition in a time where “revolution” was the motto of all political movements in the region?

Finally where did Kamal Jumblatt’s legacy start and where did it end? While some argue that his legacy is there in the party he founded which is still presided over by his legal heir, his son Walid, others assess that is ended the very moment his son inherited the party.

The debate is hence open about those who made Lebanon’s and this region’s modern politics. The taboo about those legends should be broken for the sake of critical and thorough assessment. Alternative seeks your views and opinions about this issue.