Lebanon’s Freedoms at the Mercy of a Wannabe Dictator

When Aoun was elected as president, after grinding the country to a halt for more than two years till he got what he wanted, regardless of the toll it took on the country, it was a very dark day for many Lebanese. It was a very glorious day for his party and supporters though, and they have been making use of their newfound power in ways that have made many reminisce how things were under the brutal regime of Assad when his forces were still occupying Lebanon…

I thought a lot if I should write this post or not, given that I will probably get called up by the Cybercrimes Bureau or Military Intelligence like so many other innocent taxpayers since Aoun’s new “dynasty”. Then, I remembered, that even the Syrian Occupation didn’t scare us, so why should one of the 128 illegitimate MPs whose salary is paid for by my taxes scare me?

Self-censorship is the most fickle of enemies, and no matter how many times I get called by “private” numbers to come “have coffee” in the police precincts that my taxes pay for, and get bullied by a policeman or detective whose salary I pay for, I’m still gonna exercise my right enshrined in our Constitution and our commitments as a country to the universal declaration of human rights and freedoms our tiny nation has always been known for, since before the current president was even born.

As the Rest of the Arab World Spirals Back into Dictatorships, We Should Be Doing the Opposite, Not Mimicking them

Sisi would be like Aoun, just with an Egyptian accent. A former military man, turned civilian president by force and against most taxpayers’ will. The parliament that voted in Aoun, is an illegitimate one, one that wasn’t voted for by the people, but which extended its term multiple times, illegally. Even Aoun didn’t like the extension, supposedly at least, but that no longer seemd an issue for them when that same illegitimate parliament agreed to finally install him as president.

This flip-flopping has marked the past few years of the Aounists’ political career. Remember when Gebran Bassil was a human rights defender? Defending insults and curses against President Michel Sleiman, and calling the arrest and prosecution of citizens for tweets as “outrageous”?

The irony is that since Bassil and his father-in-law came to power, it’s all they seem to be doing. Nothing has happened to help taxpayers’ in their daily life, in fact, all they did was hike up taxes on us, while doing nothing to reform the corruption festering in every last corner of this country’s government.

What’s worse about this, is that they deny it’s them doing this. This is a problem, because it means that they are either outright lying to the Lebanese taxpayer, or they are incompetent and unable to reign in their overzealous subordinates who seem to have mistaken Lebanon for Saudi Arabia or Iran. Both of these possibilities are horrendous, and I don’t see the FPM doing anything to try and fix that.

I guess it’s true what they say, when you’re not in power, you support freedom and rights and the rule of law, but when you get to power, you start abusing it to maintain that power and further your personal agendas at taxpayers’ expense. As Trump would say: SAD!

A Bad Move at the Wrong Time

Censorship skyrocketing under the new “3ahd” is probably the worst thing this broken government can do. As places like Egypt and the Gulf become more and more autocratic by the day, with censorship and consolidation of power, masked by good PR stunts like “allowing” women to drive to distract from violently consolidating power and bullying weaker nations, like MBS tried to do with Hariri.

This means that content creation and media in the Arab world is at an all-time low. Egypt is off the radar, Syria is caught up in its war, the Gulf is becoming increasingly inhospitable to anyone that dares shift a toe from the official party line.

This is a golden opportunity for Lebanon to fill in the huge vacuum of good, liberated content. As LBC chief Pierre Daher said on a talk show yesterday, income from Lebanon’s media industry was at 200 million in 2011. Today, it has sunk to 40 million. This is partly due to the horrendous foreign policy Lebanon has been practicing, distancing ourselves from other Arabs who we can sell that content to, and getting closer to nations that speak Turkish or Farsi, languages we can’t create good content in.

The thing that makes us special, is we can say what we want without worrying that the government will lock us up, torture us and kill us, like most Arab nations do to their taxpayers. Since Aoun’s election, we’re slowly becoming a nation that jails innocent taxpayers, without a trial, for a Facebook post or tweet. What the fuck are you doing? This is LEBANON, not Saudi Arabia, and not Iran.

We Foresaw This

I wrote this post in October 2016. It’s sad to see that all my 6 questions turned out to be justified. None of us did anything about it though, or too few of us at least. Many of us buy the lies of the government, saying it’s not them who’s persecuting people for their opinions. Then who is it? It just magically started when you got to power? And if so, and you’re against it, then why not do something to stop it, instead of condone it?

This has made them bolder in their authoritarian practices. Nowhere is that clearer than in the bold, dictatorial hounding of popular talk show host Marcel Ghanem. A judge and a minister, whose salaries are paid for by your taxes, are using force to question a Lebanese journalist, against his will, over guests who appeared on his show. If that isn’t the definition of butt-hurt police state, I don’t know what is.

The Problem is “Bay El Kell” Slogan

Every time I hear that phrase, I cringe. “Bay el Kell” means “Father of Everyone”. It’s everything wrong with our patriarchal system, summed up in one phrase.

The only people you are a father to, are your own kids. We don’t pay your salary to be our father, or a man who thinks he’s there to “discipline” taxpayers, activists and journalists. Your job is to be a public servant, and do your job, not spend your days going after those with no power who call you mean names or don’t idolize you like your fans do, putting up your face on the Virgin Mary’s undershirt, while you jail people for “blasphemy”… Hypocrites.

You’re not my dad. You’re not anyone’s dad. Your job is to try and fix this country, not return it to the Dark Ages and act as a morality police, wasting our time and taxes. For the Aoun supporters foaming at the mouth with rage as you read this, and who are cracking their fingers to type “this is the law, we are just executing it”, what about the laws against corruption? The laws that state you need to hold free and fair elections every 4 years? The laws that say you can’t dump garbage in the sea and burn it? The laws that say you can’t build hotels on public beaches? The laws that say you can’t jail 3500 pot smokers a year while doing nothing about the dealers? What about all the others laws you break every minute of every single day? Why don’t you execute those? Or is it just outdated laws that consolidate your power and bully your detractors that you suddenly care so deeply about?

Please, spare us, not everyone is stupid as the MP who shared the picture of the face of Aoun on the chest of the Virgin Mary. How come that guy, paid for by your salaries, didn’t spend two weeks in jail like other people who “insult” religions? Hypocrites.

Enough is Enough

The elections are coming, whether they like it or not. It’s time to eject these dictator wannabes from power, and stop the abuse against taxpayers at their hands. If immediate action isn’t taken to stop the skyrocketing censorship and harassment of taxpayers and journalists, then Aoun and his party have become what they allegedly were fighting against all those years: a corrupt police state that freedom-loving Lebanese need to resist.

Tomorrow morning, we will be at the Justice Palace to protest against the police state tactics of the current government against Marcel Ghanem, at 9:30AM. Come down and voice your concern and anger, if not to support Marcel, to defend what’s left of our freedom of expression under this authoritarian, patriarchal regime, in what should be a freedom-loving republic, not a bunch of wannabe-Sisis.