Fractured
Govt Leads
Devastated Country
By Dahr Jamail
27 July, 2006
Inter
Press Service
BEIRUT, Jul 27 (IPS) - Amidst the rapidly worsening
situation in Lebanon, the government finds itself too weak and divided
to deal either with the Israel or with Hezbollah.
In turmoil since the assassination
of former prime minister Rafik Hariri in February 2005, the government
of this tiny country of 3.8 million has been struggling to overcome
internal factions. That is despite free and fair legislative elections
which brought in a new parliament last summer.
"Our government can
help solve this crisis as much as it has helped with so many of our
main issues," a businessman in downtown Beirut told IPS. "And
that means they can accomplish exactly nothing."
Divided along the lines of
the fractious population of Lebanon, the government is split primarily
on its Syria policy. An inability to bridge this divide has left the
government severely weakened as the war grinds into its third week.
Israeli war planes continue
to bomb southern Lebanon. At least nine Israeli soldiers were killed
in fierce fighting with Hezbollah Wednesday while attempting to take
control of the southern Lebanese border town Bint Jbail. Thirteen Israeli
soldiers were injured. Hezbollah are believed to have lost 30 men in
the battle.
Israeli commanders had claimed
earlier that Bint Jbail had been captured. So far at least 18 Israeli
soldiers have been killed.
Faced with such fighting,
to which it is more a spectator, the government simply cannot meet Israeli
demands to control Hezbollah. Hezbollah fighters most likely outnumber
the Lebanese Army. And it is widely known that many in the army are
themselves Hezbollah members.
Hezbollah has a large following,
estimated to be as many as two million Shias, who revere Hezbollah leader
Hassan Nasrallah. That means that close to 60 percent of the population
follows the Hezbollah leader's every word. Hezbollah can exert enormous
pressure on the fractured government.
The government is weakly
positioned partly because it was set up with parliamentary representation
in proportion to sects based on a 1930s census. Following the end of
French colonial rule in 1943, the top government posts were allocated
to particular religious groups.
The president must be a Maronite
Christian, the prime minister a Sunni Muslim and the speaker of the
parliament a Shia Muslim.
The Shia part of the population
was far smaller then than today, leading now to disproportionate political
representation that has added to the instability and divide.
At present, a Christian-Sunni
alliance holds the majority in Parliament, though the two together are
outnumbered in the general population.
The position is similar to
that in Iraq, where people are invited to vote along sectarian lines,
only deepening the divide.
Lebanon's President Emile
Lahoud theoretically controls foreign policy and national security.
In reality, he is seen as a pawn of Syria, and as little more than a
figurehead.
Prime Minister Fouad Siniora
has won little respect in domestic issues, and has found little success
on international ones. Nabih Berri, the speaker of the parliament, is
widely believed to be pro-Syria and pro-Hezbollah.
The 128-member parliament
is split into three main groups.
The largest coalition, Tayyar
al-Mustaqbal (Future Tide), is anti-Syrian and led by Rafik Hariri's
son Saad. It is heavily backed by the United States.
The Amal party, with the
second highest number of seats, is widely supported by Hezbollah and
is the main Shia party in the country. The third and smallest group,
the Free Patriotic Movement (FPM), is led by Michel Aoun, a former prime
minister who returned from exile in 2005. The FPM is popular among Christians.
To cap it all, the government
faces a 2 billion dollar damage to infrastructure. And income from tourism
has dried up. The government continues to call for ceasefire, but it
has little means to enforce it. It waits for the rest of the world to
do something about the country.