Maronite Patriarch slams Lebanon’s politicians

May 19, 2013

Beirut: During a Latin American tour Patriarch Mar Bisharah Al Rahi used extremely strong language towards Lebanese politicians who, he maintained, threatened Lebanese stability and security.

While officiating Colombia’s large Maronite community, he said: “They are not worth their posts and will disappoint us if they failed to agree in a new electoral law and form a new cabinet,” continuing: “It is not allowed after six years of discussions and wasting time not to reach common ground over an electoral law.”

His anger showed when he stated: “They don’t deserve to return to power.”

Clerical commentaries were part and parcel of this hapless country’s daily fare, one of the few spots around the world where Muslim and Christian religious authorities alike enjoyed a “stake” in political affairs, and which they milked to the hilt.

Still, few ignored the positive roles played by several clergymen during the formation of the republic and ever since. Rahi’s predecessor, Cardinal Mar Nasrallah Sfeir, was a rare rock that helped preserve the unity of the country under Syrian occupation.

Of course, the astute Rahi used his bully-pulpit to cajole Maronite tenors to compromise, apparently with little impact on account of his multi-pronged preferences that confused far more than they elucidated.

In Colombia, Cardinal Rahi revealed that a third of the Lebanese were living in poverty and only survived because of the $8 billion (Dh29 billion) in annual remittances transferred by relatives to look after their families.

He lashed out at politicians, accusing them of wasting time, bickering about elections, instead of dealing with various economic crises.

Using even sharper language on the repercussions of the Civil War in Syria, he revealed that there were upwards of 1.2 million Syrian refugees in Lebanon, and called on everyone to back the unanimously adopted June 2012 Ba’abda Declaration — a rare decision reached during a national dialogue session — that committed Lebanon to a policy of disassociation from regional crises.

“We have always demanded others not to meddle in our local affairs and it’s not acceptable for us to interfere in the conflict in Syria,” the patriarch clarified, though he failed to remember that he himself participated in the current deadlock when he declared that the Bashar Al Assad regime was “the closest thing to democracy” in the region.

That statement, made in March 2012, conceded that Damascus was ruled by “an extreme and dictatorial regime,” though Rahi mistakenly compared it with “many others like it in the Arab world.”

The Lebanese are sharply divided over the crises in Syria as the March 8 alliance, led by Hezbollah, supported the Baath regime and provided Damascus with men to fight the widespread opposition.

The March 14 camp, on the other hand, backed the popular revolt and some Sunni fighters volunteered to fight on behalf of the Free Syrian Army as well as a variety of armed groups.

Inasmuch as the Cardinal’s goal was to prevent the spillover of the Syrian conflict into the Lebanon, one wondered whether he still enjoyed the moral authority to guide his community, perhaps even the nation.