Where to go from Here

Let me clarify the post below. It isn't about giving up. It is about needing a way to do things that are more productive then words, whether they are in a speech, a newspaper, or in my case, a blog. It is about the need to figure out what has happened in the Lebanese political structure in the past 6 months, and it is about coming to the real term on why Gebran Tueni was assassinated not much later than when he had returned from France.

As Michael Young wrote:

There is still little courage in Beirut. It took a lesser-known magistrate to sign the judicial order looking into the mass grave found in Anjar, most of his more senior colleagues not daring to do so. One very much suspects that somewhere in Tueni's investigation, someone will get cold feet and just let the matter slide. That's what happened with Marwan Hamadeh, Samir Kassir and George Hawi, lest we forget. Already, some politicians are mouthing banal generalities. Yesterday, for example, Michel Aoun showed remarkable reluctance in expressing his real hunch of who had killed his onetime devotee.

So the question I have is what can we do? Do we have to wait for the political class to take over the helm of action?

The Mehlis Report suggests that the investigation should continue, which means that even if an international court exists (which alone takes time), it will not be the truth that sets us free. We may know who it is, but knowledge doesn't save a country. And neither does moral outrage. Should we fully internationalize the issue? Maybe, but what keeps me from being fully enthusiastic about that are mainly memories of how internationalization affected us in the past. Do we focus on the security mechanism? Definitely. Do we try to continue look for national unity? Not now. Let democracy rule. The issues being contended are not those at the expense of the minority, so for now they shouldn't be taken into consideration. But one thing is for sure. "Talk" should stop being only "talk".

Michael Young ends with

None of this will bring Gibran Tueni back, nor his charm, elegance and perpetual dissent. Nothing will reassure us that the venerable An-Nahar can survive this latest crime. Ghassan Tueni will soon have to bury another child, the most heartbreaking duty of all. But deep down it's another wish we have: that the Tuenis, Ghassan but also Gibran's widow and children, will stick to their guns and demand that the truth come out. At the end of the day, his murderers remain most afraid of one thing: the truth.

None of what we do now will bring him back. But it could prevent someone else from falling to the ground. The mindset of the dictators responsible for this seems to be pointed at taking down all our symbols in the hope that when international pressue dampens, they can once again be kings. We can't accept that, and we have to work in order to shut the currently open coffin.

posted by Lazarus, 7:11 AM