The huge explosion in August in Beirut should have been a wake-up call for Lebanon’s leaders, but there’s little or no sign that a corrupt, sectarian political elite will make the social and economic reforms so badly needed.
The great powers have intervened in Lebanon since the 19th century, and its nominal sovereignty has often been compromised by its status as a buffer state.
Lebanon is governed by a political system that is regarded as a parliamentary democratic republic based on respect for public freedoms, with freedom of opinion and belief at the forefront of the Constitution.
The country is characterised by the adoption of a free economic system that guarantees individual initiative and private ownership.
Since Lebanon grew up it was suffering from political crises caused by the imbalance between its political system and its constituent society. The political system reflects the conditions of society, including class, religion, ethnic and even linguistic contradictions, regional or international disparities or loyalties, or external interventions.
For a society to be stable, it is essential that the political system reflects its interests, objectives, cultural and social values, so that the political elite becomes a mirror of social forces, and represents them.
When State institutions are unable to do so, the state is faced with a crisis resulting from a lack of existence.
The Lebanese political system is unique in a complex format; it is a democratic republican system in terms of form, but by contrast, it is a consensual inter-communal system in which basic positions are distributed under constitutional custom.
The Taif Agreement is the name known as the Lebanese National Reconciliation Document drawn up between the parties to the conflict in Lebanon and approved by law on 22 December 1989, ending the civil war in Lebanon.
Corruption of the Lebanese leaders
The “imperfect” application of the Taif Agreement has contributed to strengthening the concept of division rather than national unity. The deterioration of the economic situation has led to the poverty of Lebanese citizens and the spread of unemployment, while the wealth of some of the people increased.
When the sectarian system switches from hegemony to conflagration, and corruption became part of the system’s governance, distribution was made on the doctrinal basis in the state’s substrates and public institutions, which deepened the sectarian redistribution with which the class distribution was replaced.
The general financial crisis became a reality on the ground when power poles share in the benefits of the economy, and leaders wasted the resources of the service ministries they control to be used for political clients away from development goals, and the costs and benefits of the security services and military and security commanders that have been growing year after year.
Given the fragility of the Lebanese economy, which is based primarily on the service sector, tourism, deposit flow and external capital and is predominantly consumer-driven, successive political crises, wars, internal divisions and regional differences have played a major role in its upward and downward growth in the past decades.
Corruption cases against the Lebanon Central Bank governor in France and Switzerland
The Lebanese economy is now at risk of being carved up. The de facto freezing of bank deposits, a completely unconstitutional measure, is evidence of a ‘bank critic’ regime like no other in the world and contrary to human rights. This is the result of poor management of the banking sector and of a central bank that has been run by the same man for almost 30 years.
Since the outbreak of the financial crisis in 2019, the Governor of the Central Bank and the godfather of Lebanon’s fiscal policies since 1993 has been the bearer of the crisis, despite the judicial suspicions raised against him in Switzerland and France, and Lebanon’s discriminatory public defender.
Since January 2020, Switzerland’s Federal Prosecutor has raised doubts about his possible involvement in “the commission of serious money-laundering operations, in connection with the possible embezzlement of funds at the expense of the Bank of Lebanon,” which opened the door for the discriminatory public defender, Judge Jean Tnus, to question Salama on 5 July 2021.
In France, which Salama carries its nationality, in June 2021 two complaints emerged about the wealth of safety, including criminal conspiracy and money-laundering, and the French Public Prosecutor’s Office asked its financial police to conduct investigations into these charges.
There is an international and regional dimension to the Lebanese economic and political crisis that is reflected in the positions of the influential countries in Lebanon, first and foremost the United States and France.
Mlipuko mkubwa wa mwezi Agosti huko Beirut ulipaswa kuwa wito wa kuamsha viongozi wa Lebanon, lakini kuna ishara ndogo au hakuna ishara kwamba wasomi wa kisiasa wa ufisadi na madhehebu watafanya mageuzi ya kijamii na kiuchumi yanayohitajika sana. Mataifa makubwa yamekuwa yakihusika katika vita vya Lebanon tangu karne ya 19, na uhuru wake wa jina umekuwa ukidhoofishwa mara nyingi na hadhi yake kama serikali ya buffer. Lebanon ina mfumo wa kisiasa unaojulikana kama Jamhuri ya Kidemokrasia ya Bunge, ambayo inategemea heshima ya uhuru wa umma, na uhuru wa maoni na imani katika mstari wa mbele wa Katiba. Nchi hiyo ina sifa ya kupitishwa kwa mfumo wa kiuchumi huru ambayo inahakikisha mpango wa mtu binafsi na umiliki wa kibinafsi. Tangu Lebanon ilipokua, imekuwa ikiteseka kutokana na mgogoro wa kisiasa uliosababishwa na ukosefu wa usawa kati ya mfumo wake wa kisiasa na jamii yake. Mfumo wa kisiasa huonyesha hali za jamii, ikiwa ni pamoja na darasa, dini, makabila na hata utata wa lugha, tofauti za kikanda au kimataifa au uaminifu, au uingiliaji wa nje. Ili jamii iwe imara, ni muhimu kwamba mfumo wa kisiasa uonyeshe maslahi yake, malengo, maadili ya kitamaduni na kijamii, ili wasomi wa kisiasa wawe kioo cha nguvu za kijamii na kuwakilisha. Wakati taasisi za serikali hazina uwezo wa kufanya hivyo, serikali inakabiliwa na mgogoro unaotokana na ukosefu wa kuwepo. Mfumo wa kisiasa wa Lebanon ni wa kipekee katika muundo tata; ni mfumo wa kidemokrasia wa jamhuri kwa suala la fomu, lakini kwa kulinganisha, ni mfumo wa makubaliano ya kati ya jamii ambapo nafasi za msingi zinagawanywa chini ya desturi ya kikatiba. Mkataba wa Taif ni mkataba wa amani wa taifa la Lebanon ulioanzishwa na nchi mbili zilizoshiriki katika mapigano ya mwaka 1989 na uliokamilika tarehe 22 Desemba 1989. Ufisadi wa viongozi wa Lebanon Utekelezaji "usio kamili" wa Mkataba wa Taif umechangia kuimarisha dhana ya mgawanyiko badala ya umoja wa kitaifa. Madhara ya hali ya kiuchumi yamesababisha umaskini wa raia wa Lebanon na kuenea kwa ukosefu wa ajira, wakati utajiri wa baadhi ya watu umeongezeka. Wakati mfumo wa madhehebu unabadilika kutoka kwa utawala wa kidini hadi kwa moto, na ufisadi unakuwa sehemu ya utawala wa mfumo, usambazaji ulifanywa kwa msingi wa mafundisho katika misingi ya serikali na taasisi za umma, ambayo ilifanya usambazaji wa madhehebu kuwa mkubwa zaidi na kubadilisha usambazaji wa darasa. "Mashambulizi hayo yametokea wakati makundi ya nguvu yanashiriki faida za uchumi, na viongozi wanapoteza rasilimali za wizara za huduma wanazodhibitiwa kwa ajili ya wateja wa kisiasa mbali na malengo ya maendeleo, na gharama na faida za huduma za usalama na maafisa wa jeshi na usalama ambazo zimekuwa zikiongezeka mwaka baada ya mwaka.""" Kwa kuzingatia udhaifu wa uchumi wa Lebanon, ambao unategemea hasa sekta ya huduma, utalii, mtiririko wa amana na mtaji wa nje na unaongozwa na watumiaji, mgogoro wa kisiasa, vita, mgawanyiko wa ndani na tofauti za kikanda zimekuwa na jukumu kubwa katika ukuaji wake wa juu na chini katika miongo iliyopita. Mahakama ya Ufaransa imemshtaki gavana wa Benki Kuu ya Lebanon kwa udanganyifu na kumshtaki kwa makosa ya ufisadi nchini Ufaransa na Uswisi, huku ikisema kuwa serikali ya Lebanon imekubaliana na uamuzi wa mahakama hiyo. "Kufungwa kwa amana za benki, hatua isiyo ya kikatiba kabisa, ni ushahidi wa ""mfumo wa kukosoa benki"" kama hakuna mwingine ulimwenguni na kinyume na haki za binadamu." Hii ni matokeo ya usimamizi mbaya wa sekta ya benki na benki kuu ambayo imekuwa ikiendeshwa na mtu mmoja kwa karibu miaka 30. Tangu kuzuka kwa mgogoro wa kifedha mwaka 2019, Gavana wa Benki Kuu na baba wa kibinadamu wa sera za kifedha za Lebanon tangu mwaka 1993 amekuwa mtoaji wa mgogoro huo, licha ya mashaka ya kisheria yaliyowekwa dhidi yake nchini Uswisi na Ufaransa, na mlinzi wa umma wa ubaguzi wa rangi. Tangu Januari 2020, Mwendesha Mashtaka wa Shirikisho la Uswisi ameweka shaka juu ya uwezekano wake wa kuhusika katika "kufanya shughuli mbaya za uvujaji wa pesa, kuhusiana na uwezekano wa udanganyifu wa fedha kwa gharama ya Benki ya Lebanon", ambayo ilifungua mlango kwa mtetezi wa umma, Jaji Jean Tunus, kumhoji Salama mnamo Julai 5, 2021. Katika Ufaransa, ambayo Salama ana utaifa wake, mnamo Juni 2021, malalamiko mawili yalijitokeza kuhusu utajiri wa usalama, pamoja na njama ya uhalifu na ujasusi wa fedha, na Ofisi ya Mwendesha Mashtaka wa Umma wa Ufaransa iliomba polisi wake wa kifedha kufanya uchunguzi juu ya mashtaka haya. "Mashambulizi ya kisiasa na kiuchumi ya Lebanon yana athari za kimataifa na za kikanda, na yanaonekana katika msimamo wa nchi zenye ushawishi nchini Lebanon, hasa Marekani na Ufaransa."""