June 6, 1998. A very happy and historic day for Free Lebanon. The pilgrimage of Michel Aoun back to the holy land of Lebanon has just begun. The shackles have been broken and the spirit of Lebanon set free. First stop is democratic Australia. A land of the free, and a home of the brave. Millions of Lebanese throughout the planet are rejoicing today. The crime against the innocent has been acknowledged and the world powers have regained honor and our gratitude. Justice has taken a step forward, minute in comparison to the coming things, but significant in its symbolism. The good shepherd is free for the first time to gather his people in the Diaspora. The journey forward towards a Free Lebanon begins.

There are many obstacles to overcome. The forces of darkness still rule the land and hold our people hostage. 40,000 Syrian occupation troops keep an iron fist on all aspects of political, social and economic life in Lebanon. But as Michel Aoun says; Liberation wars are always fought between the weak and the strong. Our strength is the humanity of our cause and its call for universal justice. Our energy flows from the depths of our souls. Our convictions are mightier than the Syrian tanks. We know we deserve better that the Syrian dictatorship.

Prime Minister Aoun’s visit to Australia ushers a new era in the Lebanese struggle for independence and freedom. Years of media blackout and restrictions on our political freedom seem to be ending. Western democracies have finally begun to understand the essence of our cause and the decency of our struggle. We have not carried arms, hijacked planes, occupied embassies or taken hostages. We have resisted in civilized and humane ways. We refused to give up our rights for freedom and independence and we expressed ourselves peacefully but persistently. For no cause can die when the people are behind it. Today, there exist hundreds of thousands of Michel Aouns among our people. The cause is greater than one person. We follow ideals and values and not individuals. And that is precisely the effect that Michel Aoun had on the people.

The Lebanese people’s love affair with Michel Aoun is not a personality cult. It is an overwhelming sense of gratitude for a human who helped us achieve our humanity. Michel Aoun embodies the national aspirations and hope of the Lebanese people for a free, independent, sovereign, secular, humanitarian, and peaceful Lebanon. He is not an idol, but a simple and humble human being. He penetrated our hearts by his honest words and courageous stands. He is one of us. We know him and he knows us. We rejoice today, that the bird is free to fly the skies again, but our greater joy is when we can all go back to our beloved homeland.

What does this event mean? It is the beginning of organized peaceful resistance to the Syrian occupation of Lebanon. The third republic will come soon and liberation day is not too far. For the pen is mightier than the sword and our cause is just and humane. It is the dawn of the new 21^st century Lebanon. A nation dedicated to human rights and to the welfare of its people as well as to planet Earth.

The first republic was an arrangement between feudal and sectarian politicians who divided the political spoils among themselves and kept the people separated along confessional lines. Despite its relative success in bringing freedom and prosperity to the land, the first republic stagnated and refused to evolve into the next natural step. It distributed powers on the ethnic groups and completely ignored the individual. It surrendered the citizen’s private affairs to the religious bodies who were conditioned by dogmas influenced by 500 years of corrupt Turkish Ottoman corruption and thus are not reflective of the Renaissance and twentieth century values. It perceived the Lebanese people as a number of minorities, and failed to conceive the Individual citizen as the center of the nation.

The second republic of Taef is a contradiction in terms. It represents the total Syrian occupation of Lebanon and the rule of Mafias, warlords, financial moguls, and collaborators. It is not a republic or state in any sense since it lacks all criteria of independent statehood and government by the people. The land is occupied by 40,000 Syrian troops. The regime is appointed by the Assad Dictatorship and conducts no foreign policy of its own. The press is gagged and individual and public political freedoms, by western standards, are suspended. The police state monopolizes the media and conducts fraudulent elections and falsifies the will of the people. As per the US State Department reports and International Humanitarian organizations, the Lebanese and Syrian regimes use arbitrary arrest, kidnapping, torture, and assassinations to intimidate citizens who oppose the Syrian occupation of the Lebanon and the Assad regime. The Hariri government economic policy consists of heavy borrowing and the systematic pillage of the country’s resources into the pockets of the Syrian ruling class and their local puppets. Syria has exiled all the opponents of its occupation and only tolerates sectarian opposition which directly or indirectly nurture its goals by keeping the Lebanese divided along confessional lines, and thus maintain a fragile social order needing "assistance" from the occupation troops to maintain the peace.

For example the religious bodies have taken a big political dimension and are allowed to speak now of the rights of the ethnic groups instead of the rights of the citizen. The "National Liberal Party" of Dory Chamoun and the "Lebanese Forces" of Geagea, are basically Christian opposition parties speaking for the "perceived" Christian community’s interests. As shown in the municipal election, they are willing to cooperate with the occupation regime and form common electoral lists. Everyone else on the terrain, Hariri, Berry, Hrawi, Hizbolla, everyone without exception, are influenced by Syria, and are based on either sectarian affiliations, religious foundations, Feudal caste systems, financial mafias, or collaboration with the Syrians. None of them is national in scope and vision except the Lebanese National Assembly (Rassemblement Nationale – Tajamou Al Watani) of Prime Minister Michel Aoun.

This is the only movement that has the Lebanese citizen at its center regardless of color, religion, sex, age, or ethnic origin. The scope of all other parties is their narrow confessional turf. The scope of our movement involve obtaining the human rights and freedom for all our citizens, the 3.5 million residing in Lebanon and the millions more in Diaspora, regardless of their affiliations.

The third republic that we are proclaiming will bring independence to Lebanon and freedom and equality to its entire people. It recognizes that occupation is the root of most evil. It also recognizes the need for an internal reform of the political system, based on the universal declaration of human rights. It intends to build a nation free from all foreign occupation troops, Syrian or Israeli. A totally secular state established through pure democratic means via free elections and safeguarded by a healthy but not paralyzing balance of power. A balance of power through institutions and not through the distribution of power among ethnic groups. We seek to graduate our citizens over the narrow confessional views into thinking of themselves as citizens of the nation with equal rights and obligations. To realize that their security and rights are upheld when they uphold the rights of every Lebanese from the Nahr Al Bared in the north, to Naqoura in the south. That any diminution of any citizen’s rights is a diminution for everyone’s rights.

We will also restore the independent judiciary and promote a free press. It will be a government by the people, for the people and from the people. A civilized state where the law is applied equally to everyone and no one is above the law. A constitution based on the universal declaration of human rights. A nation that promotes freedom and equality of opportunity, and does not discriminate against any citizen regardless of age, color, sex, religion, or ethnic origin.

We are not the "Christian opposition", for we are religion-neutral and our ranks consists of Lebanese of all faith and ethnic backgrounds. We are not feudal, for our leadership and rank and file are form all walks of life and all social and economic classes. We are not "Islamic fundamentalists", for with due respect to the social accomplishments that these movements have shown in Lebanon, we are not limited to a specific Lebanese group. We are a unifying umbrella for all Lebanon because at the center of our concerns stands the Lebanese human being, the citizen, the individual. Not the ethnic group from which he /she may have originated. We are concerned with all our citizens welfare, the Shiite of the south, the Maronite of Junieh, the Sunite of Tripoli, the Orthodox of Beirut, the Armenian of Burj Hammud or Anjar, the Greek Orthodox, the Caldanian, the Syriac, the Alawite, etc. In reality we do not see them as such and the religious designation is normally absent from our terminology and mindset. We use it here simply as a point of reference for others. We rather view each one of them as a single Lebanese citizen with equal human and civic rights and obligations. We have supported the civil marriage law for it is a fundamental human right and we look forward for at least an ideological melting pot of the Lebanese society.

We are also for a free enterprise system and market economy. But no true progress can be made under occupation, corruption, and waste. The morbid state of the Lebanese economy today is just a reflection of the current dictatorial rule. As president Reagan said during his historical first visit to the USSR: "Economic progress goes hand in hand with Freedom."

Finally, the New Republic is a state of mind. It is focused on serving the human being. It intends to promote a citizen that transcends his tribal or ethnic affiliation into a human and national affiliation.

We hold no grudges against any of our neighbors, despite their wars of aggressions against us. Despite the occupation of our land, the oppression of our freedoms, and the pillage of our resources. We would like to turn a new page. We are willing and ready to make peace with both Israel and Syria on the conditions that they withdraw from our country and sign a peace treaty with us respecting our independence and sovereignty, and the fundamental rights of our people.

World powers can trust us in the same manner the Lebanese people trust us. We are Democrats. We will make peace in the Middle East and advance its causes. We will have a formidable positive influence in forming partnerships and bringing economic prosperity to the region. We will help in an equitable solution to the Palestinian problem. We do not fear democracy. We rather cherish it. We do not fear direct popular votes in a free, sovereign, and independent nation. When sovereignty is restored, when the nation is built on individual human rights, when issues are debated freely, when all points of view considered and free elections are conducted, then you can trust and must respect the will of the people. First we need to liberate Lebanon from the combined Syrian-Israeli occupation. Next we need to establish the national constants and the new constitution. In a Lebanon that is independent, sovereign, secular and free, everything is possible within these boundaries. These are not promises we are making to the powers of the world but to our people. We deserve better than the Syrian Dictatorship and the rule of Mafias.

The world has everything to gain by helping Lebanon regain its freedom and independence through the application of UN resolution 520, which requires the withdrawal of the Syrian occupation troops from the country.

June 6, 1998, a great day f