"
By: General Michel Aoun
(Translated by: Elias Bejjani)
15 May 1998
In the heated debate on the upcoming municipal
and mayoral elections the Lebanese differ in their critical opinions between
extreme self blame and self forgiveness. Some say that the Lebanese lack
collective memory, repeat their electoral behaviour
patterns without any awareness for the meaning of the election process itself,
and do not benefit from previous experience in this field. They claim too, that
Lebanese people are like machines programmed to accept political feudalism with
familial and denominational patterns of behaviour, in
which they are trapped and unable to free themselves.
Others say while it is true that the Lebanese are modernized in the way
they dress, eat and enjoy life, their other life concepts in general go back to
the stone age and are unrelated to the spirit of
modernization, especially in the domain of public life. Some Lebanese, and they
are not a minority, believe that Members of Parliament (MP's)
are merely parts of wedding and funeral decorations. They elect them on this
basis, ignoring the vital legislative and monitoring national roles of the parliament
members.
They even go further in estimating M.P's power
and authority through trivial matters like realizing a psychopath from jail
after stabbing a decent citizen or breaking into his neighbor's house ... and
always the proof of power comes on the account of the victims. Lebanese give M.P's preference to protect then from administrative
penalties. The M.P's themselves encourage citizens to break the law in a bid to
justify their illegal rescue interventions, rendering the rescued citizen
eternal hostages for election days. Accordingly, we see many towns and villages
represented by illiterate Map's while hundreds of their residents are
university graduates.
Some perverted citizens in a bid to philosophize their wicked actions try
to convince themselves and others that they are tired of opposition. Is the
opposition responsible for imposing increased taxes, squandering public money,
corruption, displacement, immigration, lack of security, bribery, infringements
on human rights, assaults on innocent citizens and
impediment of public services? Opposition in its essence is the act of
rejecting all of these misdeeds and the means of ending all infringements on
individual rights.
While the date for the municipal and mayoral elections is very close, we
remind our people of their national obligations and responsibilities. The Free
National Current calls on the Lebanese to help in the change through the
elections, for God's will starts from here. Almighty God will not help us
change anything unless and until we change ourselves first. The situation in
The Free national current's battle is to liberate people from the hostage
and subservience mentality, so that