The Guardians of the Cedars -The Movement of Lebanese Nationalism issued the following communiqué:
While the leaders of the country disagree on all critical issues, beginning with Lebanon's foreign policy, national identity and regional role, to the Palestinian refugees problem and the uproar over their weapons, permanent settlement and "civil rights", and ending with the sharp division over the weapons of the so-called "Hezbollah", whether or not coexistence is possible under a logic of the State versus that of the mini-states, and the failure of the ongoing debate on this issue; while all these chronic divisions are metastasizing in all directions, the citizen wonders about the future and fate of the country and finds nothing but the bitterness of disappointment and the terrifying vicious circle inside a dark tunnel at the end of which no light is visible in the foreseeable future.
And if Lebanon's leaders are impotent at agreeing on critical issues, what is to prevent them from agreeing on the country's domestic affairs and focus on addressing social and living standard issues, and providing minimal services to their citizens so they can live in dignity and hold on to their land until big solutions come about?
Everyone talks about young people's emigration, the human drain, the voiding of the land and its sale to foreigners, but no one walks the talk to address these terrifying prospects by creating work opportunities to thousands of new graduates and propelling the economic engine forward by encouraging local industries and protecting them against foreign competition. No one is doing anything about creating new development projects and subsidizing the agriculture sector to at least guarantee food security. Not to forget the State's primary duty to guarantee the basics of a life free from want, namely water, electricity, and telephone at reasonable prices that are affordable to the limited income class, now that the vast majority of people have fallen from middle class into poverty.
Everyone talks about corruption and the need to fight it, while government institutions and departments continue to sink further every day into the culture of corruption without any oversight or accountability. The ordinary citizen is literally afraid of approaching this "cave", unless he or she is wealthy or backed by the right connections!!!
If the State is impotent at doing anything vis-à-vis this state of affairs, what then is the purpose of its existence, its raison d'être? What justification is there for those leaders to stay in power after they have become part of the problem, rather than part of the solution? How is it allowed that the citizen bears the brunt of various back-breaking fees and taxes and supplemental taxes, without any services in return?
We fear that the policy of driving people into poverty and hunger is a deliberate systematic policy whose aim is to tame and humiliate the citizen to keep him on the leash of obedience, to force him to accept and submit to the fait accompli, and to devote himself entirely to securing his livelihood and that of his family, thus abandoning any will to seek his national aspirations and follow his dreams. Otherwise, how can one explain the complete silence of the citizen over this political masquerade that is perpetrated against him and at his expense? How can the citizens acquiesce to the transformation of their country from a haven of prosperity and cultural creativity into a mendicant country of need and deprivation whose only purpose is to furnish "entertainment" services to Arab summer tourists of all kinds???
Woe to you, leaders of the country, the day when this people will rise in anger.
Lebanon, at your service
Abu Arz