New Post on Beirut Spring

Posted: 15 Feb 2014 09:40 AM PST

Why the formation of a new Lebanese government is a cause for celebration

lebanese-government
Photo: Dalati & Nohra

You have to give it to the cynics. They are exceedingly creative in the ways they express their derision and disgust at the formation of a new government, snorting their dismissals in creative and pithy status updates on Facebook and Twitter, where they count the many reasons why this government is the worse thing to hit humanity since the plague.

Pick your favorite gripe: The politicians are selling us out, inciting their popular bases only to eventually strike a deal behind our backs. There is only one female minister, and apparently she’s a zionist agent. The ministers are only in it for embezzling our public funds. This is a conspiracy of the rich to protect their privileges at the expense of the working class. We have waited eleven month and we ended up getting a replica of the government before it. The list goes on.

I suppose even the ministers themselves are not celebrating. Gebran Bassil is not going to enjoy his chit-chats with Ashraf Rifi, a famous FPM Bête Noire. Sejaan el Azzi is definitively not going to make a habit of inviting Hussein al-Hajj Hassan for drinks and arguilehs in his ministerial office. Each half of this government believes that the other half is literally trying to kill it. These guys are holding their noses to work together.

Raise your glasses

I for one, am going to celebrate. Not because I think our ministers are good men who came together in a moment of national salvation to guide the country to safety. Not because I have high hopes and expectations of what they are going to achieve. Not because I particularly enjoy Tammam Salam’s smile and charisma or because I miss Nabih Berri’s gavel. I am happy because holy-shit Lebanon still has the ability to form governments!

To understand how important that achievement is, take a step back and try to give Lebanon a bird eye’s view: This is a country that has only two neighbors: One is an enemy and the other is in open civil war, a war that brought us a million refugees, killed our tourism, blocked our export routes to arab countries and exacerbated the violence between our national factions. This is a country where nothing works: lights don’t turn on, sewers don’t drain, cars blow up and water is facing a catastrophic shortage. Our country is the very definition of a sinking ship. Commentators are wondering whether Lebanon is still a viable country, analysts are speculating about new borders and rating agencies are wondering about our solvency. Everyone was asking: Can lebanon still form a government or will it forever languish in a headless limbo? Today we got our answer.

The important realization here is that our political parties did not form this government because they’re greedy. They formed it because they really are panicking. Even thieves don’t want their country to fall apart. They’d have nothing left to loot. It is tempting to judge things through the lenses of politics, cult of personality and ideology. But in the end, the regular man and woman on the street will always prefer a government over no government. At least now they’ll have someone to blame.