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2 The anti-Siniora craze in
Beirut By Sami Moubayed
DAMASCUS - The image of slain prime
minister Riyad al-Sulh, co-founder of Lebanese
independence, stood over the massive
demonstrations that began in Beirut last weekend
aimed at bringing down Prime Minister Fouad
al-Siniora. The demonstrators surrounded his famed
statue in the heart of the Lebanese capital where
he stood in silence, arm on vest with his fez
slightly tilted, watching his countrymen
attempting again to bring down his
republic.
Sulh, one
of the most celebrated founding fathers of
Lebanon, was a formidable man indeed. His arrest
by the French in 1943 had triggered similar
massive demonstrations in Beirut, although for
very different reasons than the ones taking place
now. He did not live long enough, however, to
watch other demonstrations bring down his
colleague, president Bshara al-Khury, on September
18, 1952. Sulh was assassinated in Amman in 1951.
A master of street politics under the
French Mandate, Sulh knew that the Lebanese street
was dangerous. Losing it can be fatal for even the
finest of leaders. If it brought down president
Khury, the father of Lebanese independence, then
it certainly can bring down Prime Minister
Siniora.
But what if Sulh had been alive
on December 1, 2006? Would he have approved of
what is happening in Beirut? Living Sunni ex-prime
ministers have supported the anti-Siniora
demonstrations, including Salim al-Hoss (who was
Siniora's instructor at the American University in
Beirut), Najib Mikati and Omar Karameh.
Although Siniora, like them, is a Sunni
(from Sidon), he has nevertheless alienated scores
of Lebanese politicians since coming to power in
July 2005. The March 14 Coalition that supports
him accused all independent Sunni leaders who were
not supportive of the late prime minister Rafik
al-Hariri of being the creation of Syria. Hoss,
for example, is by no means a creation of
Damascus. Nor is Omar Karameh, who inherited
family leadership in Tripoli, northern Lebanon,
from his brother Rashid and his father Abdul Hamid
(both former prime ministers).
Karameh and
Hoss, who have supported the anti-Siniora
movement, believe that Lebanon cannot survive if
it continues in a confrontation with Damascus to
please the United States. Nor can it survive if it
alienates Sunnis who are not supportive of the
late Hariri. Among those supporting the movement
are Druze leader Talal Arslan and Maronite leader
Sulayman Franjiyyieh, in addition to Karameh,
Hoss, Mikati and the two paramount Shi'ite
leaders, Hasan Nasrallah of Hezbollah and Nabih
Berri of Amal.
Other reasons for the
anti-Siniora craze in Beirut include:
1.
Fouad al-Siniora's choice of cabinet ministers was
disappointing because it was forced on him by the
March 14 Coalition and failed to represent all
political groups in Lebanon. The cabinet always
seemed more interested in blaming its faults on
Syria than in finding real solutions to the
problems facing Lebanon. It pursued a strong
anti-Syrian line, which is unwelcome to many
Lebanese Sunnis who by virtue of human nature,
history, marriage, origin and tradition are allied
with or sympathetic to Damascus because it always
has been the strategic depth of Lebanese Sunnis.
Syria was always the safe haven to which Lebanese
Sunnis resorted so as not to be overpowered by
Lebanon's Christians. Under Siniora, it was
depicted as the "Great Satan" to the Lebanese.
2. Although the Siniora cabinet included
ministers from Hezbollah and Amal, representing
the opposition, it nevertheless had no members of
Michel Aoun's Free Patriotic Movement, a political
group that cannot be ignored or sidelined in
Lebanese politics. Another important Christian
completely sidelined under Siniora is former
minister Sulayman Franjiyyieh, who heads the
Marada Party and is also close to Damascus. He too
has joined the anti-Siniora demonstrations in
Beirut. Aoun returned to Lebanon after the Syrian
withdrawal and declared a new policy claiming that
now that the Syrians had left, he no longer had a
grudge to settle with Damascus nor could he blame
Syria anymore for any of the problems facing
Lebanon.
The March 14 Coalition, however,
insisted that every wrong happening in Lebanon was
the doing of the Syrians. Aoun was shunned for his
views and, in a fit of rage, he lashed out against
them, reminding the Hariri bloc that they were the
same ones who legitimized Syria in Lebanon in the
1990s by assuming government office during the
heyday of Syrian power under the late prime
minister Hariri.
Siniora, after all, had
been minister of finance when Syria was in control
of Lebanon. Marwan Hamadeh, one of the loudest
anti-Syrian voices, was minister of health, and
Walid Jumblatt had been a close ally of Damascus
and minister of the displaced under Hariri. The
dramatic U-turn by the March 14 Coalition, and its
continued anti-Syrian tone even after the exodus
of the Syrian army, shed serious doubt on the
government's convictions, loyalties or beliefs.
3. Fouad al-Siniora has failed to control
security in Lebanon. This is something that Aoun
has not failed to stress in every speech or
occasion. Under Siniora's reign and that of Acting
Interior Minister Ahmad Fatfat, dozens of violent
and uncontrolled demonstrations took place,
upsetting the peace in an already troubled
Lebanese society.
The first were the
demonstrations over the Danish cartoons lampooning
the Prophet Mohammed, which led to the resignation
of the original pro-Hariri minister of interior
Hasan al-Sabe. When Siniora was in the opposition,
he blamed the cabinet of Omar Karameh for failing
to protect telecommunications minister Marwan
Hamadeh, who suffered an assassination attempt in
2004, or to prevent the assassination of former
prime minister Rafik al-Hariri, who was killed in
February 2005.
Yet under Siniora, many
Lebanese leaders, including Jubran Tweini, the
renowned publisher of the mass-circulation daily
Al-Nahhar, and more recently industry minister
Pierre Gemayel, have also been assassinated in
Beirut. Aoun has made it clear that he is
unwilling to see more assassinations while Fatfat
and Sabe learn how to run a country's security.
4. The Siniora cabinet was accused of
trading Syrian support for an alliance with the
United States after Washington passed the Syrian
Accountability Act, along with several anti-Syrian
resolutions at the United Nations, then pressured
the Syrians to evacuate from Beirut in April 2005.
The US did not protect Lebanon, however, and on
the contrary, it encouraged an Israeli war last
summer, aimed at crushing Hezbollah.
The
war was not limited to Hezbollah strongholds. It
targeted airports, seaports, roads, bridges and
civilian districts. None of them were the property
of Hezbollah but, rather, owned by the
