“The present government of Salam is in dire straits and finds itself in a political straitjacket.”

Politicians need to put their differences aside for the sake of the country and its people

Lebanese politicians need to put their differences aside, stop their political bickering, walk full-steam into the parliament building in Beirut, raise their hands and elect a president. It’s easy They should do this for the sake of the country and its people and end the political stalemate Lebanon has been subjected to since president Michel Sulaiman’s six-year tenure ended on May 25, 2014. Since that day the country’s top seat has been left vacant to the whims of deputies, and sectarian groups who want nothing else than to gain political capital in exchange for their vote.

And it’s not for the lack of trying. From that date, around 22 parliamentary sessions have been held to elect a president, but all ended in failure because there was simply no quorum in the 128seat parliamentary assembly. In laymen terms, far more than half of deputies never bothered to turn up, declaring the sessions void. The latest session to elect a president is slated for May 13.

It’s as if parliament has been hijacked by political groups and insidious individuals who feel they can go along without a president until they deem it appropriate to elect what is widely seen as an essential figurehead needed to get the country moving and execute decisions for the welfare of the public. Consequently, the present government of Tammam Salam, which has been constitutionally charged with carrying out the functions of president until the presidential stalemate ends, is in dire straits and finds itself in a political straitjacket.

However, there is clearly a nonchalant attitude among the deputies and affiliations, which are split into two nefarious political groups meshed alongside sectarian lines, religious leanings, political perspectives and even external alliances — deemed to be the most important in the presidential deadlock. In the March 8 Group, Hezbollah and Michael Aoun’s Change and Reform Bloc are the most prominent. The other faction contributing to the deadlock is the March 14 Alliance — a loose coalition of politicians that include former Prime Minister Sa’ad Hariri and his Future Bloc.

This group includes establishment politicians like former prime minister Fouad Siniora and other Christian groups like Amin Gemayel’s Kateb Party and the reprehensible Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea. In spite of his past record and imprisonment for his role in the Lebanese civil war, his name continues to be put forward as presidential candidate for the group.

What is strange is that on the surface, these groups appear to be intractable hardliners, sticking to fixed attitudes that they will not change, playing hardball and playing to win with the help of their external allies. Yet, and this speaks for the nature of Lebanon’s political and social systems, they continue to meet one another as if it is “business as usual”. This is extraordinary. Aren’t they political foes? It’s as if they are saying “adversaries can continue to talk to each despite their different political aspirations”. Gemayel for instance has made it clear the idea is to continue to pressure Hezbollah to have a stake in the Lebanese political system so that they will have no choice but to support the state — a view that seems far-fetched because of the continued presidential crisis in Lebanon. Many leading politicians, including those from the two main groups, are worried about this and talk is rife of the threat of a recurrent civil war if they don’t soon overcome this political impasse.

United against terror

As a matter of fact problems do happen once a while. Al Qaida and Daesh (the self-proclaimed Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant) had on odd occasions found leeway with sparse pockets of violence especially in the northern part of the country. These are on the whole contained through the Lebanese army and, oddly enough, through the very same warring politicians in parliament who are supportive of calling for the “cooling of hotheads”. In other words, they know about the mess in Arab Spring countries and are doing their best to steer Lebanon from that road as much as they can.

Unfortunately, this doesn’t go the full way of agreeing on a presidential name, which could be upsetting many Christians who are also beginning to feel their power is waning despite the 1944 National Pact that gave them the presidential seat while Sunnis got the prime minister’s and Shiites the parliamentary speaker’s post.

Ordinary Christians haven’t fully yet fathomed what is happening and/or are being emasculated on the ground at a popular level. Could they be thus the sleeping next fifth column, one may legitimately ask? Well yes, and very probably no. This is basically because their parliamentary groups and leaders tend to be fractious and divided as much as the other groups. We have to be watchful for May 13.

Could it just possibly be the breakthrough that everybody is waiting for? The one that will undermine the argument that says Lebanon will only get its president after June when Iran signs a nuclear deal with America and its European allies? We wait to see.