The Guardians of the Cedars Party issued the following weekly communiqué:

The outlook is bleak and the bloody series continues. People get killed by the roadside and the Syrian regime is decimating the Lebanese without an end in sight. Meanwhile, the international community merely issues condemnations and denunciations, the government refers the murders to the international tribunal, and the Lebanese people have all but given up on everything. Those of Lebanon’s young people who remain are searching for any means to join those who preceded them abroad to escape this hellish situation.

In the midst of such a depressing climate, the war is escalating between the various political leaderships over the upcoming presidential election, and the chances of an agreement are close to nil. Candidates are trying to make their way into Baabda Palace by all available means, even if this leads to the destruction of the country. Their goal in getting there is just to get there, and not to rescue the country as they claim. To prove this, it is sufficient to go back to the record of these candidates and see that they all had previously participated more than once in the government. They exercised power and authority in many capacities and they totally failed in the discharge of their responsibilities, bringing the country to the state of clinical death it is experiencing today.

Consequently, we conclude that the present candidates are not qualified to assume the presidency of the country, particularly in these fateful circumstances, and therefore the Lebanese people do not put much hope in these elections.

In this context, we challenge all the candidates to tell the people how they will deal with all the hot issues that comprise the core of the Lebanese problem, such as: The Palestinian presence in Lebanon, armed and non-armed; will they disarm them and prevent their permanent settlement, with actions and not just words? And what about the weapons of Hezbollah and its mini-state with its full set of institutions? Will any of the candidates have the courage to stand up to this dangerous phenomenon that is preventing the rise of the desired Lebanese State? Is there any one among the candidates who is capable of addressing the terrifying state of the Treasury and its compounding deficit? And how? Will they fight the corruption that is deeply rooted inside the State since Independence?

More frustrating than the preceding is that one of Syria’s prominent agents, who once said that he’d throw himself before a Syrian tank to prevent it from withdrawing from Lebanon, is trying to present himself as a compromise candidate, and according to press leaks his chances of succeeding are pretty high.

Shame on you, gentlemen! The country is on its death bed and it needs statesmen and not politicians, men of a different mold than traditional politicians, men who are of the brand of saints and not demons, men who are capable of stand up to Syria, to its colonialist designs, and to its continuing murders from Kamal Jumblatt to Antoine Ghanem.

In a nutshell, the Republic needs a savior before a new dummy is brought in to manage the crisis for another 6 years, during which time Lebanon would cease to exist.

 

Lebanon, at your service
Abu Arz
September 21, 2007