LEBANON
Changes in Government Leadership Won’ t Solve Lebanon’s Corruption Gabby Conforti 2,700 tons of ammonium nitrate exploded in the Port of Beirut on August 4th, killing at least 200 people and wounding thousands more. The devastating effects of the explosion left more than 300,000 people stranded without homes. More than half of Beirut, Lebanon’s capital city, needs to be rebuilt or repaired. There is no information at this time suggesting that the explosion was intentional or anything but a catastrophic accident. The word “accident,” however, does not reduce the culpability of the Lebanese government. Criminal negligence kills, too. Less than one week after the explosion, former Prime Minister Hassan Diab announced that he would step down from his role as Prime Minister following pressure from the Lebanese people. Diab stated in his resignation speech that the blast was caused by corruption that is “bigger than the state.” Diab’s statement about rampant corruption in Lebanon rings true, but many refuse to laud his recent resignation as positive political change. Diab’s resignation has rather been interpreted by the Lebanese public as him taking the fall for the real power players in the country: President Michel Aoun of the Free Patriotic Movement (FPM) and Speaker of Parliament Nabih Berri of the Amal Movement. The FPM and the Amal Movement, along with Hezbollah, entered into a political alliance in 2006 and now control the majority of the seats in the Lebanese Parliament. President Aoun and Speaker Berri have resisted calls to resign, and there is no indication that they will step down from power. Yesterday’s designation of Mustapha Adib as the country’s next Prime Minister has solidified Aoun and Berri’s positions, although Adib’s designation seems promising at first glance. Adib has served as Lebanon’s ambassador to Germany since 2013, and he may be perceived as new blood. In his acceptance speech today, he promised to spearhead the reforms necessary to resuscitate Lebanon’s economy and to restart negotiations with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), which reached an impasse in July. Adib also visited
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Scenes of Beirut days after the explosion
Gemmayzeh, a neighborhood close to the port which was severely damaged in the explosion, and chatted with residents there. He’s the first Lebanese political leader to do so. Yet hope in Adib’s appointment may be misplaced: after all, he is a member of Lebanon’s reviled political establishment. He served as an adviser to former Prime Minister Najib Mikati for twenty years, and he is viewed as having close relationships with the country’s main political parties, according to Al Jazeera. In today’s vote, Adib received about three-quarters of the support of Lebanese members of parliament (MPs), mainly from MPs who represent the FPM-Amal-Hezbollah alliance. Support from this powerful alliance means that Adib will ultimately have to answer to Aoun and Berri. Without their blessing, Adib will not be able to implement any major economic or political reforms – reforms that the two men and their parties have opposed for months. In many ways, the political aftermath of the Beirut explosion epitomizes exactly what is wrong with Lebanon’s political system: the country’s politicians are unwilling to reform, and the country’s citizens pay the price for their failings, time and time again. Throughout the country’s ongoing economic collapse, the “price” paid has been in the citizens’ hard-earned dollars. The Lebanese economy is effectively a “…regulated
