[Marxism] Status quo wins in Lebanon for now

["Fred Feldman" <ffeldman@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Most interesting item: the US Ambassador's aggressive intervention to warn
the Lebanese that the "world" (we all know exactly who that is) will judge
them by how they vote. A Bush-Cheney style tactic for when furriners go to
the polls.

As for Iran, I have no horse in that race.  Although getting Iran out from
under his great gift to imperialism and Israel -- his holocaust-denial
campaign -- will have its benefits. Any temptation I have to back the
opposition was killed dead when I read Robert Dreyfuss' nauseating exercise
in snobbery and class hatred of the oppressed and exploited.
http://www.thenation.com/blogs/dreyfuss/442221/ahmadinejad_s_red_tide

He classifies everyone who isn't middle class, isn't wearing lots of makeup
under her hijab, and isn't going to coke parties a couple times a week as
part of a "virtual fascist movement." It was stuff like this that helped
make me soft-on-Khomeini in the early stages of the Iranian revolution. The
snobs and Euro-American intellectual racists hated him and I them.

Anyway, if the Ahmadinejad people get this translated and passed out, they
may be able to turn the tide. It certainly helps his case.

One elementary factual error. Dreyfuss, consistent with his image of the
"lumpenproletarian" Islamist-fascists (hey, didn't Obama say to drop that
stuff -- or did he?), says that the Revolutionary Guards are backing
Ahmadinejad. This appears to be untrue. Like most of the Islamic political
machine, the leaders of the Guard seem to have lined up with Moussavi -- as
I suspect are quite a few working people.

Anyway, the article on Lebanon follows.
Fred Feldman

http://www.counterpunch.org/lamb06082009.html
June 8, 2009

Return to the Status Quo 
Lebanon's Elections 
By FRANKLIN LAMB 

Today's predawn stillness was shortly and regularly broken by the crowing of
Beirut's eternal chanters, its roosters. Some from as many as 20 stories up
in downtown and Hamra apartment building balconies and roofs, others shunted
and jammed into small cages or pits inside the Palestinian Refugee Camps.
They seemed to speak and pass messages from the posh neighborhoods of East
Beirut to the gypsy shacks and tents near Ouzai, as they welcomed the new
day. 

The votes have been tallied and the election results show pretty much a
status quo ante with the Majority picking up a net four seats (a new total
of 71 with 57 for the Opposition) at the expense of the Christian Maronite
leader and Opposition ally, former General Aoun and the Free Patriotic
Movement. Sometimes contentious in the heat of campaign, the FPM was
gracious this morning in conceding its opponents will remain the Majority,
if obviously disappointed.

One FPM supporter was in tears and she explained that having been educated
abroad, she returned to Lebanon and hoped an Opposition victory would expose
and end rampant corruption and the Ziam graft system and she was depressed
because she fears things might remain as they have been. Michel de
Chadarevian, a member of Gen. Michel Aoun's FPM political bureau told the
media that FPM was disappointed with the election result but would respect
the outcome and would now work with all parties to form a government of
national unity.  "Lebanon can only be governed by a national unity
government," he said. "Even if we had won we would have formed a national
unity government."

Hezbollah, which won all 11 districts in which it fielded its 11 candidates,
and along with its allies won 21 seats in southern Lebanon succeeded in
raising its vote tallies, despite a Saudi-funded rival Shai party, Lebanon
Option Movement. Hezbollah's and its allies also won 10 seats in the eastern
Baalbek region.

Hezbollah member, Hasan Fadlallah, an MP in the outgoing parliament,
explained: "What matters to us now is that Lebanon turns a new page, one
based on partnership, cooperation and understanding," he said. "Lebanon's
specificity is in its diversity and there is no majority or minority. No
party can claim to have won the majority among all communities." Hezbollah
MP Mohamed Raad, the Opposition leader in Parliament, reminded his fellow
Lebanese that "the majority must commit not to question our role as a
resistance party, the legitimacy of our weapons arsenal and the fact that
Israel is an enemy state".   

The US administration is reportedly disappointed that their 'Team' did not
achieve a stronger victory.  Just before the voting, the Obama
administration allowed Jeffrey Feltman, Deputy Secretary of State for Near
East Affairs, in clear violation of Lebanon voting laws, which required no
campaigning after midnight on Friday, to blitz the media through carefully
timed interviews with pro-Majority An-Nahar and al-Hayat newspapers, with
his personal calls for the Lebanese to have enough intelligence to vote as
Feltman saw fit.  Many Lebanese resented the additional interference in
which Feltman announced: "The election's outcome will naturally affect the
world's stance towards the new Lebanese government and the manner in which
the United States and Congress deal with Lebanon. I believe the Lebanese are
smart enough to understand that there will be an effect." 

Feltman attacked the head of the Free Patriotic Movement MP General Michel
Aoun, lecturing Lebanese voters: "one of your politicians is proposing that
Christians shouldn't depend on the United States. I hope the Lebanese had
accurately listened to the president's [Barack Obama] speech that
specifically pointed to the widest Christian religious minority in Lebanon,
the Maronites. The president spoke about the need for respecting all peoples
in the region including minorities.I hope the Lebanese would ask themselves:
do we want to be on the side of the international community and close to the
stances that president Obama made? I hope they would say, yes."

The June 7, 2009 election has done little to change the political landscape
here. It was never a question of an Islamic Republic if the Opposition had
decisively prevailed or whether Hezbollah's weapons would be decommissioned
before Lebanon was able to defend itself. Nor was it in question that a slim
majority by either side would not require a renewed commitment to the Taef
Accord calls and the full implementation of all the clauses and the need for
Parliament to enact a modern electoral law based on proportional
representation which a majority in Lebanon desire. 

With regard to the noisy issue of the arms of the resistance, there remains
insufficient political will in Lebanon to force the issue in Parliament,
although Israel has wasted no time insisting on it. The new parliament has
important business to conduct, from granting women rights, including the
right to confer nationality on their children, to aiding the Palestinian
refugees with civil rights until the return to their country and many other
pressing social issues.        

Many Lebanese while exhausted are justifiably proud of their generally
well-conducted voting day at more than 1,400 polling stations in 26 voting
Districts and are willing to work with their political adversaries for the
common good of Lebanon. 

Having spent election day as a last minute appointed "foreign observer" with
the Coalition Libanaise pour L'Observation des Elections, I went, for 13
hours, with colleagues from polling place to polling place, from Beirut,
Dahiyeh, Saida and Tyre plus some villages near Qana   and around Nabiteye.
We watched as voter IDs are verified and announced at each voting room; saw
them checked again by all the poll watchers against their copy of the master
list of registered voters who were allowed to cast ballots at their sites. 

Once the watchers all approve the name and identity of the would be voter,
the voter signs a registration, steps behind the curtain and places a 2 inch
by 2 inch "list" with the names of his choice inside an envelope (the voter
can cancel a name and 'write in' another candidate if he/she wishes), seals
it, exits the curtain and puts in into a large clear plastic box for all in
the room to see, sticks a thumb in a bottle of dark purple dye (the first
time this precaution, designed to prevent multiple voting,  has ever been
used in Lebanese elections), signs a form attesting to his vote and leaves
the room as another voter enters. Last night at exactly 7 pm all voting
stations were closed. Anyone in line was allowed to vote.   My observer team
happened to be at a school in Dahiyeh.

As the army chained and pad locked the school yard gates locking us inside,
probably 25 soldiers, and no doubt additional plain clothes security, asked
people to move one block away from the voting station. Inside, the chief of
the polling station allowed us to watch silently outside the room with the
door open and to take photos as the vote count started.  Each ballot was
removed one by one.  It was placed on a scanner and the ballot with its
identifying number was shown on a 4 foot by six foot screen.  Each watcher,
whether from March 8 or March 14 checked it, wrote down of his/her list the
voter number (no names are used) nodded to the Chief, marked their Master
Sheet, and the next ballot was taken from the voting box.  The atmosphere
was serious, polite and everyone appeared exhausted but proud of their work.
When the chains were removed from the gates ( it took two signatures from
ranking officers to accomplish this feat) we  departed the voting station
commending the soldiers,  and poll workers, many of whom had not slept for
two days they told us, for their accomplishment of running a largely
exemplary voting process. Our delegation concluded that this aspect of
Lebanon's election had been administered very well.  

The serious problem our team observed and one that could have been easily
avoided concerned the very long voter lines which were unnecessary. In every
voting station we observed, while there may have been an average of eight to
ten poll watchers, five security people and three staff at the head table
administering the balloting, there was only one voting booth at each
station. This resulted in hundreds of people, at many voting stations,
spending four hours or more in the sweltering heat, some with small children
or babies. I saw many elderly looking as if they could not stand up much
longer.  Why each station did not have a dozen voting booths is an open
question. 

Many Lebanese worked hard for months from the different parties and all
labored proudly with hope for their unique country and society which saw a
record average turnout at 53 per cent up from 45 per cent in 2005.  In
highly contested Districts such in Metn and Akkar, the average turnout was
65 per cent.  Hundreds of thousands of registered voters remained abroad and
this is one reason why 53 per cent may not seem impressively high, but
actually it is.  Those based here such as Lebanese government employees, who
voted two days early so they could work on Election Day, achieved turnout
figures between 89 per cent and 95 per cent, a record for Lebanon. In
non-competitive or already decided Districts, some Lebanese preferred a day
of relaxation at the beach or with family and friends to a sometimes long
trip to their village to vote, and sometimes only then to cast a vote that
will not affect the outcome of the election.        

Franklin Lamb is doing research in Lebanon.  He can be reached at
fplamb@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx




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