Adonis Diaries

No Second Term: Including all politically appointed positions

In the middle of the 19th century, the State of Mexico experienced a mass upheaval united on a single demand: No Second term renewal to the President. General Porfirio Diaz was elected president, and stayed for 35 years as dictator.

In 1910, Emiliano Zapata and Pancho Villa led a land revolution and burned the Presidential Chair, along with the dictum “From the Throne to the Grave”.  A new Constitution denied any second term ( after the six-year power tenure): Better, no politically appointed positions in the government should enjoy a second term… The initials to the Presidential stamp reminded the one in power: “No to Renewal!”

The critical problem to overcome is “Conflict of Interest” among political personalities and their private business corporations. No second term clause to politically appointed positions can substantially diminish this normal urge to taking advantage of power for extended period of time.

In Mexico and the developed States, you hear Mr. President, Mr. Minister…In Lebanon, every political figure requires a distinctive honorary title, a title that is inherited after the individual is no longer in power, and sons are referred with…Titles borrowed from the defunct Ottoman Empire.

In this pseudo-State of Lebanon, only the President of the Republic (must be a Maronite Christian) is denied a second term. In the last two decades, two Presidents enjoyed an extension of three more years under the Syria mandate of the Assad dynasty. Prior to the lengthy civil war that started in 1975, two other Presidents tried to extend their terms that resulted in short civil wars and the demoting by mass upheavals of these power-hungry Presidents of Khoury and Chamoun.

Since 1943, the Lebanese got familiar with only four Chairmen of the Parliaments (and they are to be from the Shia Moslem sect): They are voted by the deputies for another 4-year terms ad nauseum until they retire from old age. Our current “Chairman of the Parliament”, “Maaleeh” Nabih Berry has been  a sitting-bull for over 3 decades…

Since 1943, the Lebanese got familiar with about half a dozen Prime Ministers (must be a Sunni Moslem), a musical chair that reflect which regional power he pays allegiance to (Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Syria…), an the US is the maestro behind the regional powers of this boring music…

In Lebanon corruption is the norm and no longer a bad connotation: If the political figure fails to take advantage of this power opportunity he is considered a fool and sick in the mind…

For example, a feudal warlord admitted publicly that he keeps two accounting books: the book reserved for the government should show horrible deficits and the enterprise requiring influx of tax payer money…This same warlord admitted bluntly that every prisoner during the civil war was executed and the cadaver dumped in deep wells, and he is ruling as if nothing is the matter with…

Note: Post inspired from an article by Jorge Samman (Mexico City) to the Lebanese daily Al Nahar