SLEIMAN MUST PLAY THE GAME
NowLebanon.com
Thursday, July 3, 2008
Lebanon
The time has come for Michel Sleiman to play Christian politics or
else run the risk of becoming a bit player in what is becoming a very
nasty bit of power play. While the new president might be applauded for
his cautious approach to the recent cabinet crisis, the time has come
for him to step up to the plate and fulfill the role expected of him,
that of a mediator, a head of state and a Christian figurehead. At
the moment, his three portfolios are not going to give him much clout
in the cabinet, if and when it is formed, and so his goal, assuming
he wishes to have a stake in how the country is ‘run’, should be to
develop – as he has said he wants to do – his own parliamentary bloc,
allowing him influence in the various parliamentary committees and
by extension have a say in government.
To achieve this, he must appeal to the street, enlist the support
of the Patriarch – as well as rekindle the traditional presidential
alliance with the Armenian community – to avert a catastrophe for
which the Christians of Lebanon will no doubt pay the price. Indeed,
on Wednesday, Sleiman must have heard Lebanon’s Maronite bishops’
statement from Bkirki after their monthly meeting in which they
bemoaned yet another political crisis and declared that the interests
of any political bloc must never be placed above that of the country.
Tell that to Sleiman’s current nemesis, Michel Aoun, a man who appears
to be hell bent on putting himself before his country and who is
in direct confrontation with the new president. Aoun’s fear is that
Sleiman will ascend to the position of Christian zaim he so covets and,
through the cabinet negotiations, Aoun is doing all he can to undermine
the new president’s credibility and at the same time ensure he gets the
service portfolios necessary to wage a successful election campaign
in 2009. It is a cheap maneuver and one that ultimately plays into
the hands of an opposition that is skillfully allowing Aoun to do
its dirty work (Hezbollah and Amal are secure that they can deliver
the crucial services necessary for garnering election votes without
the service portfolios and have deferred the cabinet horse-trading
bargaining to their Christian ally).
The deadline for Sleiman’s by-now infamous 48-hour ultimatum to form a
government came and went without an inch of progress being made, and
now, to avoid looking like a man who is firing blanks, the president
must move to a Plan B and gather around him all those who genuinely
wish to see a government formed without delay and redouble his efforts
to break the deadlock.
From: Baghdasarian