Lebanese rub their heroes’ faces in mud

December 2003

It is natural for all people to create or invent a folk hero for them to admire and try to live up to his teachings and legacy.

The Americans have honest Abe (Abraham Lincoln) who was not necessarily as honest as they claim, but there is a consensus that he was an American hero who worked in the interest of his country even if it meant starting a civil war.

The Turks glorify Mustafa Ataturk, which literally means father of the Turks, who modernized Turkey and made it what it is today (this doesn’t imply success, but the Turks seem to believe so.)

Meanwhile, Lebanon has a bunch of heroes who are far from captivating the hearts and minds of its people.

Bashir Gemayal, considered by his followers as the leader of the Lebanese resistance and the savior of Lebanon, is considered by others as a power-hungry hoodlum who went an extra mile (south of the border) to achieve his goals.

Kamal Jumblatt, the founder of the Progressive Socialist Party and the Lebanese National Movement, is seen by many as the uncontested leader of the left while others consider him as a man who would stop at nothing to become president of the republic.

Regardless of what people perceive their heroes, the most disturbing part remains how they honor them. Apparently, the Lebanese use these icons only to widen the gap between each other as they daily drift away from reality.

How come on Sept. 14 of every year some people weep for their fallen president, Bashir, while others mourn the victims of the 1982 Sabra and Shatila Palestinian refugee camps massacre?

This is not to say that coexistence is good. On the contrary, coexistence is the nail in the coffin that would ensure that a true citizen would never rise from the ashes of these heroes.

A hero is usually guided by a sense of honor and duty and an urge to do what is good for his/her people. Heroes are of utmost importance for constructing a unified history, not only teach school children of what Fakhriddine II did to the Ottomans. This might also help bury the hatchet and build a civil society that only honors heroes for what they did not for the number of people he/she slaughtered or how many line up to shake his/her hand on a weekly bases.

Lebanon does not need a Fakhriddine, or Bashir II. It rather needs a hero who would lead the country from the darkness of coexistence into the light of secular citizenship and allegiance to the state, not statues.