By General Monzer El Ayoubi
Translation: Dr. Pierre A. Sarkis
In the sacred principle, the law is the balance of justice and the pot of righteousness. But the true fear is that from the gold drawer of the ruler’s wealth, the latter spends what he wishes, and as long as it is the country of the “wak wak”, including the country of the Cedars, laws were filled and published with its articles and decrees and its sectarian balance on the pages of the official newspaper, packed in luxury volumes that appear on the shelves. The jurisprudence and norms, however, were left for the proportionate application according to the needs, desires or the interests and passions of the tribes and their patrons.
Good governance contradicts astray and breaking inequality where the rule of law and authority is the right of the people, but religion is for God Almighty. And if we sail a little without delving into the science of law, constitutions, and the various systems and regimes, we find that the ruler in general is supposed to be an example for the judges of justice of different jurisdiction, but he is the only “ruler”, owner of the totalitarian specialty, as he is supposed to be just in all cases, entrusted with conducting the affairs of the people and nationals, wise in consolidating the rule and mode of institutions, and laying the foundations of a strong and capable state in order to achieve its strategic and geopolitical ambitions to the utmost desire.
In chronic reality, the cure for the issues of the homeland and the successive crises is based on the principle of the lack of accountability, sin that fold sin, and forgetfulness, the master of judgement. And if forgetfulness is in principle a natural phenomenon in all human beings, it is sometimes described as a blessing to the malady of life’s continuity and the need to overcome calamities, but at the same time it is a curse for it has become as satisfactory as Alzheimer’s, or following a brain trauma caused by deep emotion. In the classification of forgetfulness, science unfortunately intersects with Lebanese reality. Some of it is retrograde, meaning choosing historical events according to the self-interest visions of each confession, religion and tribe, with a banal individual cunning description, contradictory in its causes, motives and results, and our history book in our schools is but a witness.
In addition, transient global amnesia is also a talent practiced after the case has been folded, and maybe associated with the chronic disease “the sister” migraine-Syria, parallel to the seizures of a temporary epidemic which strikes the Saudi frontal and the Iranian temporal lobes of the brain, often affecting a political team or party according to directions and dependency. But Korsakoffs Syndrome which has afflicted 95% of politicians, has serious amnesia symptoms both for near and far events, “the October 17 popular uprising, the August 4 Beirutshima massacre, the July 15 explosion at the village of Tleil… “, to the extent of cases of dementia, or episodes of panic, fear or indifference.
In short, left for the upper political class and the evident oligarchy are the rest of the various kinds of forgetfulness to adopt from them what it can afford or what is appropriate, to name but a few: progressive amnesia caused by weight disorder or lack of in the region; dissociative amnesia resulting from not remembering the painful events of the Lebanese civil war, and thus, not drawing any lessons from it. It remains that sociology and politics, as well as, moral principles, have not ignored the contrived oblivion or factitious amnesia which is the willful forgetfulness of generic good or rampant evil, and the latter case is the most common habit and strategy preferred by the majority of trusted officials.
On the other hand, it turns out that the granting of an eligible driving license was imposed on the illustrious leaders in case it is impossible to generalize oblivion, because of the enormity of the incident or the rampant dilemma, negotiating curves, and thus, reducing speed to a minimum to overcome bumps, if found. One of the tools for negotiating curves is the adoption of the yellow light between the green and red in order to stabilize the boredom of waiting and drop the hope for any safe transit for the public to the end, from fraudulent maneuvers or misleading contrived events which proved first and foremost, its effectiveness. As for the judiciary, its fate is to be a rack on which all issues and crises are hung on, with rude political bidding in the halls of the three presidencies. It remains that the great affliction after the failure to silence the people is the decision to leave the vehicle, and push it towards the abyss outside the road full of potholes after stealing their money, and thus, humiliating them, starving them, impoverishing and displacing them.
Starting from crossing points that were useless crossings, and as a result of the explosion of one of the hangars, a political-judicial and parliamentary row broke out on the platform of Beirut Port between accusations of dictation and holding immunities that left the victims in pain after pouring dirt over them. As the gathering called for discussion in the course of the investigation, everybody became an expert in explosives, law and forensic evidence. In the meantime, the winds of strife paralyzed the windows of the homeland after the failure of grounding the lightening falling on the bloody triangle of Tayyouneh, a suburb of Beirut where clashes occurred recently. Hot air was burning the heads of the demonstrators and protestors with the bullets of hired killers albeit ideologues, with sniping of the fifth degree among the list of columns after the bakeries, gas stations, pharmacies and electricity factories. In parallel, the conspirators and the maestros of the black operation rooms succeeded in bringing back memories from three decades ago, dropping the willful forgetfulness of the place “Ain Al Remaneh” and the time, 1975, declaring the rupture of the Taif Accord cover which was not preserved. In a related context, the appearance of the divided and implicitly partitioned country was clear as the funeral of the victims and martyrs to whatever group they belonged, were honored by the armed parades of the militiamen of confessional and political parties, the least of which were boy scouts. As for their media, it was capable of determining the geography of vetoes and drawing the roads of the coffins towards the grave.
As for legitimate distrust, two parallel lines were drawn, the first raised in the face of a judiciary considered biased and the other against those who refused to lift immunities, considered perpetuators. Both are in a state of negative balance and deep silence in exchange of accusations applied from a common notion “the dubious one almost said take me.” In the need to disengage, spare the bloodshed, stop the devastation and patch things up, a dialogue table needs to convene on the pier of ward 12 to untie the puzzle of the Beirut Port disaster, and to prove that the detonator is not manufactured in “Ramat Hasharon” to the West of Tel Aviv where the enemy’s army weapons are located IWA.
With the urgency to solve the existing dilemma in terms of ensuring the rights of victims, revealing the facts and removing doubts, a mandatory path is essential to reassure all by lifting off, exceptionally and exclusively, the secrecy of the investigation before a smaller parliamentary committee to spare bloodshed, and a middle-line premise not granting anonymity to the action or the perpetuator “the wolf will not die and the sheep will not perish” (Arab proverb stressing on a compromise), or anonymity strengthening the basis of the recipient and the idea of mass suicide “let the wolf die and the sheep get slaughtered.” The last hope is that the daily calendar collated with the names of saints will be enough to prevent the national calendar from being filled with the names of victims and calamities. Mercy for the martyrs and healing for the wounded.
Beirut, 16/10/2021
Scholar in Strategic and Security Affairs
