BY NADA AWAR JARRAR
Nada Awar Jarrar is a Lebanese novelist.
June 27, 2004
For a brief period two weeks ago, scenes of mayhem in Iraq vanished from our television screens and were replaced by equally harrowing images of violence in our own country.
A demonstration in Beirut's southern suburbs against fuel-price rises turned into a full-fledged riot. Protesters set up roadblocks, ransacked the Labor Ministry and threw rocks and explosives at the army. Soldiers in turn shot and killed six people.
The violence was indicative of the extent of desperation at the continuing economic crisis. But having been sparked by militias trying to weaken the hold of Hezbollah, which has kept the peace in that area for many years, it also showed that there are elements in our society who seek to take advantage of legitimate grievances to fight it out with their political rivals on our city streets.
It looks unfortunately a lot like Iraq, where insurgents seem willing to sacrifice the lives of thousands of fellow Iraqis to reach their own political ends. And there is another sad resonance: Our country lives every day with the lingering damage of occupation.
Israel used a renegade Lebanese sectarian militia to control southern Lebanon during its 22-year occupation of the region. Its members raped, tortured and imprisoned residents resisting the occupation. Tens of thousands fled from the south to the southern suburbs of Beirut, losing their homes and livelihood and facing economic and social hardships in an already overcrowded capital city. Despite the Israeli withdrawal from the south in 2000, very few people are prepared to return to live in a region devastated by the effects of the occupation.
Opinion here seems united that the forthcoming "handover" of power by the United States to a transitional government is all a farce. The Bush administration will install a puppet government based on sectarian divisions, continue its control over an economy that is already at the mercy of U.S. conglomerates and make sure the Americans are "invited" to keep their troops in Iraq to help maintain security.
"The American game," a friend told me, "involves ensuring that the transitional cabinet is loyal to the Bush administration and will do its bidding by playing off tribal groups against one another."
If the Iraqi prime minister is Shiite, the powers-that-be have decided, the president will have to be Sunni, and of course something will have to be done to appease the large Kurdish minority's demands for political participation.
It's not unlike the "confessional" system the French installed in Lebanon before finally giving us our independence in 1943. It was decided - though not inscribed into our constitution - that the Lebanese president would be a Christian Maronite, the prime minister a Sunni Muslim and the parliamentary speaker a Shiite. All political representation as well as civil service and other appointments have been similarly apportioned ever since, based on affiliation rather than merit, encouraging nepotism and corruption.
One year after the start of our bloody civil war in 1975, Syrian troops were invited into Lebanon to save the country from rising sectarian violence; and 15 years since the end of the war, despite some movement toward reform, Syria continues to play a significant political role here.
There is much speculation in the Lebanese press on Syria's preferred candidate in the forthcoming presidential election, to the point where a columnist in a leading newspaper challenged politicians to take Syria up on its word that the choice is entirely a Lebanese one and back the best candidate for the job.
The weather is just warm enough for swimming here now, and driving up to the mountains at the weekend means catching a cool, pine-scented breeze. Reading over what I have written, I am disturbed at the cynicism in my voice. I like to think that I have made a habit of hopeful writing, of creating characters who see in their relationships, in the small details of their lives, the very essence of being, regardless of what is happening in the wider world - and despite the chaos that some initiate to serve their own interests.
