Khalleek Bil Beit

Nothing were more calming and reassuring this evening than the words of May Chidiac and our Prime Minister Seniora.

May Chidiac addressed a crowd of women, the most notable of which are the female members of those who have been assassinated during the past two years, in Bkirki. She asked that if those women attending know any member in their family or in their neighborhoods who plan to go to the streets tomorrow to ask them not to, because no one wants things to get out of control.

We tend to dismiss women and their power in our societies. It's sickening sometimes seeing men control the political scene and make or break a future of generations to come. Mothers play a major role in mobilizing their children towards a certain cause, towards a certain party affiliation, or towards a way of thinking and it doesn't need to be directly political, but can be social and societal which in turn shapes political orientation as youth become adults.

As for PM Seniora. His stand diffused tensions (at least for me), which is to let the demonstrators demonstrate; it's a democratic system, but any plans of overthrowing the government without resorting to the Parliament are unacceptable.

If I was back in Lebanon, I will take a stand by staying home. It's a new way of expressing one's political views: Khalleek Bil Beit! Staying home to avoid conflict, to let those who might be among the demonstrators and who are vying for conflict to seethe with pain because they won't be reaching their sinister goal. I'm trying to be optimistic; tomorrow might just be only one day of demonstrations.

The question is what if the demonstrations dragged on until the Opposition achieved its goal of toppling the government? This is where the worse case scenarios are invoked in my mind.

At any rate, our government, the government of the Second Indpendence (houkoumat al istiklal al thani) did not get a chance to achieve a sliver of what it wanted to. Politics, heavy politics (which included political assassinations and HA/Amal Ministers boycotting Cabinet sessions) superseded all other policy areas and then the July war broke out and it inflicted problems more than the government was able to absorb and process in a short time period.

The government had a difficult task to achieve which is defining for the country a new paradigm to operate within, yet a paradigm that preserved the spirit of the Taif Agreement . So far, all parties involved failed to reach a consensus. But PM Seniora did mention in his speech today that dialogue was a challenge, as the other side when not agreeing to a proposal would immediately resort to threats, intimidation, and accusations of acts of treason.

I believed Seniora when he said today that he is not the type to seek power or domination, nevertheless he will not relinquish his responsibilities as a Prime Minister. He would step down if the Parliament rescinded its vote of confidence in the government, but right now, he's defending the Istiklel and I am with the government.

The demonstrators tomorrow might not know that by doing everything under the sun to topple this government they are handing a victory to the Syrian regime which is ready to use this upcoming disturbance to justify the need to have Lebanon return to its sphere of influence (because we are brutes and we don't know how to handle governance independently). But again, some of the demonstrators do not mind that at all.

"Nobody knows how many rebellions, besides political rebellions, ferment in the masses of life which people earth."