Lebanese vow to stay on streets despite reforms

NOTHING LESS THAN WHOLESALE CHANGE TO POLITICAL SYSTEM, PROTESTERS SAY

Facing escalating mass protests, the government of Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri approved yesterday a package of economic reforms and a 2020 budget without new taxes, hoping to appease people in the streets. Protests swelled in the hours after the announcement, however, as many demonstrators scorned the package as “empty promises.”

Hundreds of thousands of people have flooded the streets since Thursday, furious at a political class they accuse of pushing the economy to the point of collapse. Schools, banks and businesses were closed. Banks would remain shut today.

“Your movement is what led to these decisions today,” Hariri said in a televised address. “The demands are many and justified and varies but the clear demand that everyone united around was for dignity and respect and for them and their voice.” But despite the reforms package, Lebanon’s dollar-denominated sovereign bounds suffered hefty losses yesterday following sharp drops on Friday. Some sank to record lows.

Investors said the political turmoil showed that the country was running out of time to sort out its economic problems.

Demonstrators gathered for a fifth day said they would remain — settling for nothing less than a wholesale change to a political system based on sectarian power-sharing and the removal of a political elite they say has lined its pockets by exploiting poverty and differences.

Lebanon’s cabinet was discussing the last point related to the power sector, in a list of reforms after agreeing all the others, the president’s office said yesterday. The government convened to approve a reform package, including halving ministers’ wages, in a bid to defuse the biggest protests against the country’s ruling elite in decades.

Power sector reform is one of the biggest issues the government is tackling. Lebanon’s teetering government met yesterday to approve a belated economic rescue plan as thousands gathered for a fifth day of mass protests against the ruling elite.

HOW DID THE PROTESTS START?

A proposed tax on mobile messaging applications last week sparked a spontaneous, crosssectarian mobilisation that has brought Lebanon to a standstill and put the entire political class in the dock.

Hundreds of thousands of protesters gathered in central Beirut and other cities since Thursday to demand better living conditions and the ouster of a cast of politicians who have monopolised power and influence for decades. Euphoric crowds partied deep into the night, leaving all political and sectarian paraphernalia at home to gather under the national cedar flag, dancing to impromptu concerts and chanting often hilarious anti-establishment slogans.

Lebanon’s economy has been on the brink of collapse for some time and the initial grievances of the protesters were over proposed tax hikes. But the demonstrations have evolved into a massive push to unseat ruling dynasties widely seen as corrupt, and Hariri’s 11th-hour rescue plan was met with disdain.

“What is happening in the streets reflects the pain of the people,” the National News Agency (NNA) reported him as telling ministers, though adding generalised accusations of corruption against all politicians was an injustice.

“We must start by lifting bank secrecy on the accounts of those who are appointed minister now or in the future.”

Lebanon has strict rules over bank account privacy that critics say makes the country susceptible to money laundering.

Aoun’s son-in-law and ally, Foreign Minister Gebran Bassil, has been a particular figure of anger among protesters.

Yesterday thousands of people again gathered in front of the government houses in Beirut and elsewhere in the country.

HOW ARE PEOPLE REACTING?

Many said Hariri’s reform attempts smacked of a desperate attempt by the political class to save their jobs.

“It is a day of destiny for us. All our hard work and efforts in previous days and years were to get us to this moment,” Roni alAsaad, a 32-year-old activist in central Beirut, said.

“If they could have implemented these reforms before, why haven’t they? And why should we believe them today?”

What was initially dubbed the “WhatsApp revolution” morphed into a mass non-partisan push for a total overhaul of a sectarian power system still run mostly by civil war-era warlords, three decades after the end of the country’s conflict.

Given the size of the gatherings, the five-day-old mobilisation has been remarkably incident free, with armies of volunteers forming to clean up the streets, provide water to protesters and organise first aid tents.

“The message to the politicians is don’t ever underestimate the power of the people because once they unite they will explode — peacefully,” said Hiba Dandachli, 36, a protester.

If they could have implemented these reforms before, why haven’t they? Why should we believe them today? It is a day of destiny for us. All our hard work has brought us to this point.” Roni Al Asaad | Protester The message to the politicians is don’t ever underestimate the power of the people because once they unite they will explode — peacefully.” Heba Dandachli

| Protester