Rai warns Lebanon heading into the abyss

Rai warns Lebanon heading into the abyss   News - Lebanon News | 03:31 PM, Feb 5

The Daily Star

BEIRUT: Maronite Patriarch Beshara Rai said Wednesday electing a new president on time was a necessary condition for a strong state and warned that power-hungry politicians that were implicating Lebanon in regional conflicts were driving the country into the abyss. Reading a National Charter drafted by the Maronite Church as a roadmap for what the religious leader described as a critical stage in the history of Lebanon and the region, Rai also stressed on the need to commit to the three principles the country was built on: coexistence, the National Pact, and partnership between Muslims and Christians. “Electing a new president as a new head of the state within the constitutional deadlines is not debatable and it is a primary condition because its absence means an absence of the state and its future,” Rai said during a televised news conference. Rai also outlined what he said were the growing concerns of Lebanese, saying the Maronite Church could not remain quiet as the country neared an “existential crisis.” “The Lebanese should recognize that a national plan cannot be applied unless it produces a just, productive and capable state or else it will threaten the Lebanese entity,” Rai said. “Those adopting self-security measures justify them by [highlighting] the impotence of the state as well the people’s right to self-defense. This leads to a scenario wherein the strongest party imposes its choices on others and the other parties seek empowerment through foreign sides,” he added. Rai added that such a scenario meant Lebanon was being dragged into the “war of axes” and experiencing an unprecedented, “dangerous political paralysis.” “This is our biggest concern and so we warn the Lebanese, particularly officials, against continuing to exclude others, remaining obstinate and power hungry because that will only drive Lebanon to the abyss,” he said. Rai also said that among the concerns of the state was the presence of “political practices seeking quotas and authority rather than justice ... leading to a struggle for power at the expense of the National Pact, sabotaging the Constitution and paralyzing the state in the interest of foreign axes.” “One of the consequences of disrupting institutions is that rather than [seeing] the democratic practice of rotation of power, crises are made out of constitutional deadlines,” he said. Rai listed some of the consequences of disrupting institutions as being the inability to draft a new electoral law, form government and “fears of a vacuum in the presidential post.” The patriarch also criticized involving Lebanon in the matters of neighboring states without taking into account the repercussions on the country, reiterating his call for the adoption of “positive neutrality” with regard to the turmoil in the region. “We identify with what some have said that complete neutrality ... isolates Lebanon from issues around it and prevents it from being a part of regional dialogues aimed at coming up with solutions ... Neutrality is the most successful means to preserve diversity in [made up] countries,” he said. “For a neutral Lebanon to represent its [peaceful] message it should be strong enough to defend itself ... and it should be at a distance from regional conflicts as stipulated in the Baabda Declaration,” he added. The patriarch said the declaration was an important mechanism to prevent Lebanon from being used as a conduit for actions that could involve it in regional conflicts. It could also be used to develop a needed national defense strategy.