Maybe it was the thirteen years of incarceration,
solitary confinement and profound introspection. Or
maybe it was one of the lessons of the Cedar
Revolution. But the new political agenda of the
Lebanese Forces as expressed by its leader Dr. Samir
Geagea at a rally organized by his supporters in
Paris earlier this week is a landmark event in
Lebanese politics.
After years of advocating federalism in the tiny
nation-state that would entail carving out a
Christian canton, which would extend from the
so-called Christian East Beirut to the northernmost
town in Mount Lebanon, the Hakeem, as Geagea’s
supporters like to call him, announced a radical
shift in the Lebanese Forces’ political agenda. “We
used to describe our territory in the past as
stretching from Kfarshima to the Madfoun and we can
say nowadays it stretches from Kbayyet to the Kleiaa”,
said Dr. Geagea. Kfarshima and Madfoun would have
represented the northern and the southern tips of
the canton the Lebanese Forces dreamt of
establishing, while Kbayyet lies in the extreme
north of the country and Kleiaa is practically on
the Lebanese Israeli border. Even to his former
opponents, the Hakeem proved that he is worthy of
his nickname. Hakeem is Arabic for “wise man”
although Dr. Geagea originally earned the nickname
because the term is also used to refer to a
physician.
The Hakeem’s
declaration is perhaps the most significant
event in Lebanon’s recent history. It is no less
significant than the withdrawal of Syrian military
personnel from Lebanon on June 26 of this year.
Angered by the excesses of the Palestine Liberation
Organization (PLO) in Lebanon during the late
sixties and the early seventies and frustrated by
the support that the PLO had amongst Lebanese
Muslims, whose leadership saw in the PLO a Trojan
horse that they could ride to well-deserved broader
political participation, the Christian Lebanese
Forces gave up on the idea of a united Lebanon in
which they could live side by side with their Muslim
compatriots. The outcome was fifteen years of
bloody civic strife that cost the country 170,000
lives, hundreds of thousands of maimed and injured
citizens and nearly $100 billion in direct and
indirect damages, according to a World Bank
estimate.
The civil war ended officially in 1989 with the
execution of a new National Accord at an
internationally-sponsored conference in Taif, Saudi
Arabia. Regrettably, the Accord also relegated the
enforcement of the fragile peace to neighboring
Syria, a country and a regime that has never
accepted Lebanon as a stand-alone state.
It
soon became clear that Syria’s role extended far
beyond what it was intended to be. It turned
Lebanon into a client state, controlled out of Anjar,
a small town in the Bekaa Valley, by the head of
Syrian intelligence who transformed his job into
that of Lebanon’s High Commissioner. He is also
thought to have become the leader, or at least the
point man, of a joint Syrian-Lebanese mafia that
raped the country and its economy.
Fearful of the Lebanese Forces’ agenda and
suspicious of its history of collaborating with
Israel, Syria framed Geagea in 1994 for a crime of
which he was later cleared. Despite a Pardon Law
that covered all acts of violence preceding its
enactment, it masterminded multiple death sentences
against him for crimes he had allegedly committed
during the war years. For eleven years, the Hakeem
was held in solitary confinement in a dungeon at the
Lebanese Ministry of Defense, three floors
underground. His cell was smaller than 8 ft. by 8
ft. Since he was not allowed to receive newspapers,
magazines or political books, the Hakeem spent his
time reading up on theology, philosophy and history;
in prayer; and on introspection.
In
the aftermath of the Cedar Revolution parliament
enacted a new Pardon Law last month that ended
Geagea’s prison nightmare. His first appearance
after his release revealed a frail and almost
breathless ageing man-- but he was feisty as ever.
The major difference from the Geagea of yesteryears,
however, was that the man’s thinking had clearly
evolved dramatically.
Even before his release, his Forces had started to
reach out to its former enemies. They demonstrated
shoulder to shoulder with former Muslim and Druze
militiamen during the March 14 rally; ran alongside
them on common slates in the parliamentary elections
in June and July; and demonstrated a newfound
determination to forge a lasting Christian-Muslim
partnership. The Lebanese Forces had realized that
Lebanon is too small to be partitioned and that it
is the destiny of all Lebanese to unite if Lebanon
is to stand on its feet again.
The battle for the de-Baathification of Lebanon and
for the full restoration of freedoms is far from
over. Nevertheless, the Hakeem’s wisdom is bound to
speed it up. His new outlook deserves to be
recognized, reciprocated and supported.
