Under Aoun, Freedoms in Lebanon Vanishing… These Tweets by Gebran Bassil Might Help

I had a feeling this would happen when Aoun finally became president after the longest temper tantrum in recorded history, that saw the entire illegitimate government grind to a halt till they got what they wanted.

My worst fears were realized, with the number of people being jailed for expressing their opinion skyrocketing in the “new term” which has so far been a disaster on every level:

• Attempt to increases taxes on the people without raising wages, while giving tax breaks to big corporations and giving themselves wage hikes that remain even posthumously…
• Imminent third illegitimate extension of this almost decade-old parliament
• Corruption scandals in the open, and disobeying court orders that seek to rectify disgusting theft of public property, like in Ramlet El Bayda and Horsh Beirut

These are just a few of the disastrous results of the “3ahd Jdid” they’ve promised us with.

FPM chief was pro freedom of expression in 2013

Reading this, you’d think it was fake, so I dug in and embedded the actual tweets so you don’t think I’m pulling your leg with mad photoshop skills.

But it doesn’t stop there, he went even further:

Beautiful, right?

While writing this though, the fifth person this year has just spent his 7th day behind bars for a Facebook status considered “insulting” to the president…

The double standards are astounding: to see the FPM come to power, and be Sisi-like, is sad. The FPM chief used to think “freedom of expression is sacred”, but apparently, not more sacred than his father-in-law…

It’s amazing to realize that a president who once said atheists and seculars are akin to terrorists, is behaving just like the current president (who used to bash Michel Sleiman for exactly that). Assy was called to go down to the infamous Cybercrimes Bureau, where he refused to sign a pledge under duress that he’d never mention the president again. As a result, the attorney general filed a lawsuit against him, and the legal battle with the president cost him a lot of money, and more than two years. The charges were dropped only after Michel Sleiman’s term expired…

Now, it seems the full force of the government is being brought down on anyone saying something Aoun doesn’t like, just like it was during Michel Sleiman’s term. I really wish the current government would listen to the language Bassil used in 2013, and consider this alarming trend of jailing people for statuses: “outrageous”.

Is this the new 3ahd? Is this what Lebanon has come to? Is Aoun’s dream to become the new Sisi? Is this the Lebanon where folks from all over the Arab world would come to to publish and speak freely? Are they trying to tell us that speaking something they don’t like will land us in jail? Are they that scared? Do they have that little disregard for our constitution, and the international agreements we’ve ratified that guarantee freedom of expression and speech? Is Michel Sleiman a better president than Michel Aoun, because he didn’t prosecute taxpayers for a Facebook status? Is his skin thinner than Donald Trump’s?

This has to stop. Listen to your own tweets!

UPDATE: After having a conversation with @JeanAssy, I’ve updated the post accordingly and fixed the mistakes.