Lebanese MPs react angrily to attempt to abolish political sectarianism

Mayssa Zeidan, Foreign Correspondent

• Last Updated: November 23. 2009 11:17PM UAE / November 23. 2009 7:17PM GMT

BEIRUT // It is an issue at the core of Lebanese politics, and often cited as a main source of its problems.

But when president Michel Suleiman and parliament speaker Nabih Berri came out in support of a national committee to abolish political sectarianism this week, they were greeted by a firestorm.

Some political leaders reacted with scepticism, many others in anger, and several shrugged that any attempt to tackle the sectarianism built into the Lebanese government is 20 years too late.

“Calling for the abolishment of sectarianism, no matter how good it might sound, is not doable anymore ... It will only lead to undermining the Christians and distort Lebanon’s pluralistic character,” said Maroun el Khaouli, vice president of the General Confederation of Labor Unions and the head of the Lebanese Labor party.

The controversy began on Sunday when Mr Sulieman, addressing the nation on the eve of the country’s 66th anniversary of independence, announced: “To encourage vast participation in political life, a national committee should be established and charged with abolishing political sectarianism.”

Mr Berri, the parliament speaker, then vowed to establish such a committee. He promised that parliament “will embark on a legislative push that centres on implementing the long-awaited Taif Accord provisions of administrative decentralisation and the abolishment of political sectarianism. We turned a new page with the formation of a new cabinet.”

But the brouhaha soon began. The Maronite Patriarch, Nasrallah Botros Sfeir, said: “Sectarianism cannot be written off, and before abolishing it from the texts, it should be abolished from the souls."

MP Amin Wehbe, a member of the March 14 coalition, added: "The road to abolishing sectarianism requires a committee of experts in education, media, sociology and social development."

“We should first stop being sectarian parishes and subject to the sectarian leaders. Then maybe abolishing sectarianism can be a start of a political victory and no one can hijack the country’s fate or control it,” he said.

Lebanon’s current political structure, enshrined in the 1989 Taif agreement that ended the country’s bloody civil war, ensures that neither Shiites, Sunnis or Christians, the three main religious groups, dominate. Half of the seats in parliament are divided among seven Christian denominations, and the other half are reserved for members of four different Muslim sects. In the executive branch, cabinet seats are also parceled out in confessional allotments, while the three highest posts in the country – president, prime minister and parliament speaker – are always held by a Maronite Christian, a Sunni and a Shiite, respectively.

Most appointments in the public sector are similarly based on a sectarian quota system. Even for the military and the security forces, maintaining a sectarian quota is the goal, one that had not been obtainable during the Syrian occupation as many Christians were reluctant to join the military.

In his address, Mr Sulieman also called for the full implementation of the Taif Accord, which called for “disbanding of the Lebanese and non-Lebanese militias”. In October 1989, the Lebanese National Assembly met in Taif, Saudi Arabia, to ratify a national reconciliation accord. It was designed to end the Lebanese civil war that had been raging for 15 years.

“Taif stated the dismantling of militias, then abolishing ... sectarianism,” MP Antoine Zahra, a member of the Lebanese Forces parliamentary bloc, said. “Is there going to be an abolishing of political sectarianism in the presence of a sectarian armed venture?” he added, refering to Hizbollah. MP Ammar Houri, a member of the Lebanon First bloc, led by the prime minister, Saad Hariri, warned that any talk about abolishing sectarianism as long as Hizbollah remains a potent political force “will disrupt the balance” of power in Lebanon. “Everyone wants to implement Taif but without any discretion. We refused to be blackmailed by certain items of the Taif.”

MP Farid Khazen, a member of the Reform and Change bloc aligned with Hizbollah, said raising the issue “stems from the need to have a secular system in Lebanon and it has nothing to do with” any calls to resolve the issue of Hizbollah’s weapons.



mzeidan@thenational.ae