By: Elias Bejjani Every time two Lebanese citizens meet, one of them usually starts the conversation with the same routine question: "How is the situation in Lebanon"; have you heard anything new? And the same routine response is echoed in reply: "I frankly don’t know what’s happening anymore. All I can tell you is that the country seems to be going down the drain, economically, politically and morally and things are getting worse and worse every day". The nature of the question as well as that of the response show concern and anxiety on one hand, despair and pessimism on the other. While it is normal to demonstrate concern for what is going on back home, and be worried about the deteriorating situation, it is not acceptable at all to be pessimistic and nonchalant when it comes to crucial national issues such as Syria’s barbaric occupation of Lebanon and the enslavement of our people to Syria’s will. Our people should never feel defeated or lose hope no matter what are the hardships despite the laborious work undertaken by our occupants and their local advocates to make us deviate from the right national track to reach a state of hopelessness and helplessness. While we are fully aware that the ultimate goal of our Syrian occupier is to poison our will and minds with a submissive mentality in which resistance becomes ineffective, rejection nonproductive, confrontation an act of suicide and lobbying for liberation a stance of madness, we are committed more than ever to fully liberate Lebanon from the Lebanese Government pawns and their Syrian masters. In this respect, it is a patriotic obligation for each and every Lebanese person living in Lebanon and the Diaspora to thoroughly apprehend the intricacies and complexities of the current imposed status quo in Lebanon. It is equally an obligation to lobby for the "Lebanese Cause" in every country where we live to make people aware of the agony and pain the Lebanese in occupied Lebanon are enduring every single day. Most importantly, it is a must to expose the Syrians and the "Made in Syria" Lebanese regime incompetence and denounce the policies they pursue and the repercussion their actions will have one day on Lebanon, the Middle East peace process and the Free World’s economic and political interests in the region. While the USA, European countries, Israel and most of the Arab countries have been so far using double standards with the Lebanese people; admitting on one hand that Lebanon is an occupied country where Human Rights and freedoms are not respected and where the Lebanese Government is nothing but a puppet of the Syrian regime, while supporting, cajoling and appeasing on the other hand the Syrians, giving credit to the Lebanese Mafia-officials and discouraging the activities of the patriotic Lebanese opposition, they are missing the point on a number of things: 1-It is a fact that Syria's economy today is not even considered an "emerging market economy." Instead, it could be accurately described as an economy in total shambles. Mr. Assad's faithful supporters must now hold two and three jobs to put ever more expensive bread on their tables. Inflation is running at around 20 percent annually; the country has no stock market and an industrial base that is almost worthless; the hundreds of small factories that exist are shuttered because no one wants the shoddy clothing and shoes they produce and last but not least Syria still owes the former Soviet Union over $10 billion. In this respect, one wonders what kind of "economic" and "political" interests the Free World thinks it can get from good relations with a bankrupt state. 2-If the USA, France, and other free countries fear that Syria stands for Arab causes and values and that confronting Syria will put their respective countries at odd with the GCC countries and the Arab oil cartel, please let it be known to everybody that Syria is the last country in the Middle East to stand for Arab causes and values and is at the very top of the hate list of practically every Arab country; according to a poll recently made by a very prominent Palestinian newspaper. It is a fact that there is today a number of Arab countries who would be very happy if Syria was dismantled of its powers; starting by the Jordanians, the Palestinians, a majority of the Gulf States and the Lebanese. A mere 100 million people. Whatever happened in the past cannot be altered. What counts however is the present and the future. Thus, we, the approximately twenty million Lebanese in Lebanon and the Diaspora and all those who love Lebanon, must ferociously continue lobbying for a Free, Sovereign and Independent Lebanon whatever the USA and European countries' attitudes’ are today towards both Syria and its installed Lebanese regime. A better job will be achieved if all Lebanese understand thoroughly the Lebanese crisis and the means needed to solve it. Accordingly, each and every Lebanese and Lebanese descendent should consider himself as an Ambassador for the Lebanese Opposition in the country where he lives. An Ambassador whose duty is to scientifically and intelligently lobby for the Lebanese cause This is the optimal way to generate world wide support, pressure the Syrians to withdraw from Lebanon and put an end to their ongoing annexation plans. In this national context, neutrality and indifferent attitudes, especially on the part of the Lebanese Diaspora , is a crime committed against our own people in occupied Lebanon. A crime against our fathers’and grandfathers’ identity, history, civilization, pride, sacrifices and culture. For the last eleven years, the Lebanese in occupied Lebanon have been impoverished, ripped of all their rights, intimidated, harassed, humiliated, oppressed and governed by a police state, typical of the previous Baltic USSR republics. The voice of our people in occupied Lebanon has become so muffled they can barely articulate the word "Freedom". We the Lebanese in the Diaspora are their Voice, a voice that they expect to be courageous, intelligent, well informed, persistent and very loud...Let us not disappoint them. This article was published also on the following home pages 1-(www.clhrf.com) Canadian Lebanese Human Rights Federation 2- (generalaoun.simplenet.com) Free Lebanon 3- (www.freelebanon.org) United States Committee for a Free Lebanon 4- (www.algonet.se/~arz/guardians) Guardians of the Cedars. Long Live Free Lebanon. |