What socio-political reforms for Lebanon? (Part 2)
Posted by: adonis49 on: December 3, 2008
What socio-political reforms for Lebanon? (Part 2, November 31, 2008)
What Republic does Lebanon have? Lebanon has no republic except the official name: Lebanon has no strong central government to spread the general good to all its citizens or impose its laws to all its 18 religious castes.
There are various concepts for republics, but the common denominator is that what is good for the largest majority is good to the individual. And there are no such benefit or purposes in Lebanon.
My brand of Republic is to give the citizens choices and opportunities to decide among the public and private institutions that offer competitive levels of services in quality and performance.
Institutions such as schools, universities, hospitals, insurance, health coverage, industries and so on. The citizen or family does not have to opt exclusively for public or private institutions , but he can have a mix of loyalties that relate best to their individual reflection for the present and for the future.
What could be considered best now might not project any benefit for a sustainable society.
A Republic should invest enough to compete with private institutions without targeting certain sectors for hegemony; otherwise, society might be confronted with a heavy elite class of bureaucrats, a long time nemesis in any institution.
The system should be balanced to entice the private sector to compete fairly. This tag of war between public and private competition for quality and performance is the most beneficial system to achieving stable capacity for development.
Does Lebanon have democracy, which means that the individual is the most powerful element during the municipal and legislative elections?
Not really. Democracy in Lebanon is farcical: individuals follow the caste orders and feudal lords and the few free minded “citizens” are no match to what we call “The bulldozer factor” of caste selection for representatives.
The election laws are utterly biased toward the caste system: the system of proportionality has been rejected again and again. Most of our political parties are confessionals; the secular parties have hard time overcoming the biased electoral laws.
In modern democracies, claims of communities and syndicates are heard and negotiated under an established and respected Constitution and the laws of the land; not so in Lebanon.
Furthermore, our syndicates are mirror images of our caste system in their representative system and behavior.
Actually, universities degrees are not recognized until you register into the appropriate professional syndicate. There are many professions without a syndicate or a legitimate association for the government to acknowledge them in State institutions or even for stamping the profession on the passport!
What is considered a “majority” in a democracy?
What is the appropriate time span to revise the decision of a “majority?
What are the conditions and situations that forces upon a democracy to revise decisions?
What is the efficient balance between duration to exercising authority and needs to infuse the administrations with new and fresh figures?
What is certain is that when a homogeneous group, caste, party, or syndicate is consistently at odd with the policies of a Republic then, the Republic is not functioning properly because that reflect a tendency that no intensive efforts are invested in communicating and dialoguing with the “minority” groups.
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