Lebanon’s new leadership ought to use this golden opportunity

What the Arabic press says about Lebanon’s new leadership.

Lebanese president Michel Aoun gesturing as he addresses his supporters east of Beirut this month. Dalati Nohra / EPA

On October 31, Michel Aoun assumed the presidency in a deal that saw the return of Saad Hariri, the leader of the Future Party, as Lebanon’s prime minister.

Writing in the London-based pan-Arab daily Asharq Al Awsat, the Lebanese columnist Bassem Al Jisr attributed this new constitution of the executive branch to the cooperation between president Aoun and premier Hariri.

Al Jisr saw this step as an effort to consolidate national unity, ease tensions, promote security and stability and boost the economy that has been affected by internal and external conflicts.

According to the writer, it is not enough for Mr Aoun and Mr Hariri to agree on the names of the ministers and on the assignment of the ministerial portfolios.

“It is not just preferable but necessary that the parties and parliamentary blocs help them to form a comprehensive national government,” Al Jisr noted.

He added that it should not take weeks or months to form the government as was the case under the premiership of Tammam Salam.

He expressed hope that the new president and prime minister would not allow this to happen, “as any delay in the government formation would cast a shadow over the future of the nation.”

Al Jisr said a new chapter is unfolding in Lebanon and that it is likely to usher in a new era for the country if president Aoun, prime minister Hariri and parliament speaker Nabih Berri succeed in implementing all the terms of the Taif Agreement and in preventing the flames in Syria from reaching the Lebanese shores.

Writing in the London-based pan-Arab newspaper Al Hayat, columnist Hassan Nafaa argued that Mr Aoun’s election was only possible in light of exceptional local, regional and global circumstances on the one hand and as part of a political bargain that placed Mr Hariri at the head of the government on the other.

“Lebanon now faces a new situation: either the crisis will continue and new ways will be developed to manage it, or the cards will be shuffled to help the country find a real solution to the crisis.

“The Lebanese system will continue to lack efficiency in this sensitive phase if Mr Aoun and Mr Hariri fail to cooperate. That will allow the system to overcome the numerous challenges it is facing,” Nafaa noted.

According to the writer, the existing institutional formula based on the formal coexistence of a Maronite president and a Sunni premier cannot withstand these challenges; hence the need for a new formula that would introduce substantial modifications to the Lebanese system.

“Lebanon’s political system has always enjoyed a host of freedoms unlike any other Arab country, but it has never been a democracy owing to its confessional foundations.

“True democracy is based on citizenship, non-discrimination and total equality before the law, and as such it is in absolute contradiction with any confessional perspective,” he added.

As such, the writer said that Mr Aoun and Mr Hariri have a golden opportunity to drive Lebanon’s democratic shift in this exceptional moment.

“In his capacity as president of Lebanon for the coming six years, and for his sake, Mr Aoun should invest in his long-standing coalition with Hizbollah and in his new relation with Mr Hariri to drive the efforts towards shifting Lebanon’s current system to one of democracy.”

* Translated by Carla Mirza