[Mb-civic] The Lebanese lesson - Boston Globe Editorial

[William Swiggard]

  The Lebanese lesson

February 18, 2006  |  The Boston Globe

RECENT EVENTS in the Middle East have provoked a great deal of 
hand-wringing over a perceived deficit of democracy in the region. 
Irrational speculation about a cultural penchant for autocracy 
alternates with laments that the only organized political forces in many 
countries are either those of dictators or Islamists. But a very 
different picture of civil society's peaceful participation in political 
life was on display in Beirut this week, when close to a million 
Lebanese went into the streets to commemorate the one-year anniversary 
of the car-bomb assassination of former prime minister Rafik Hariri.

The event brought together the country's disparate religious and ethnic 
groups. Christians, Druze, Sunni, and Shi'ite Muslims -- all poured into 
the streets to affirm a national unity that transcends communal 
differences. When viewed against the backdrop of Lebanon's many-sided, 
gruesome civil war (1975-1991), this grass-roots manifestation of a 
common Lebanese identity suggests that where it is possible for the 
public to engage in political life, even deadly intercommunal vendettas 
can be transcended.

This is a lesson applicable to Iraq. There today, as in Lebanon 30 years 
ago, sectarian militias and terrorists are killing each other while 
foreign interlopers keep the pot boiling. Much of Lebanon's civil 
society, if not all the country's politicians, has learned through 
painful experience that the horrors of civil war can best be overcome by 
encouraging the free exchange of ideas and resolving conflicts of 
interest in the political realm, peacefully.

This parallel is particularly germane because the Feb. 14 gathering in 
Beirut was a thoroughly political event. Speakers called for the removal 
of the Syrian-imposed President Emile Lahoud, at times with fiery 
oratory. The anti-Syrian majority in Parliament is seeking some 
nonviolent, constitutional means to replace Lahoud, who received a 
three-year extension of his term in office after President Bashar Assad 
of Syria forced the previous Parliament to pass a constitutional 
amendment granting the extension.

The unifying theme of the extraordinary coalescing of Lebanese on 
Valentine's Day was the common desire of the different factions and 
communities finally to be free of Syrian influence, to get rid of 
Syria's security services, and to replace a president who represents not 
the will of the Lebanese but the dictates of Assad's police state.

This rally of nearly a quarter of Lebanon's population radiated 
democratic qualities that are commonly said to be absent from Middle 
Eastern societies. Lebanese civil society is creating a model for 
popular sovereignty worth emulating among its neighbors.

http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/editorials/articles/2006/02/18/the_lebanese_lesson/
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