How to Revive a Dead Nation: 3 Steps
Lebanon desperately needs CPR.
This article is the third part of a series about Lebanon. Click here to read part 1. Click here to read part 2.
Lifeless and limp. Lebanon is the shadow of what it once was. 80% of its people under the poverty line and the currency tanking. It is a country in desperate need of a revival.
I’m so not qualified to do this (I’m just a teen stuck in this mess), but if I could condense all the research into 3 pillars, they would be:
1. Calm the Investors
The first step to reviving an economy is restoring the confidence of foreign investors. This can be done by restoring order and the rule of law… Dear readers it sounds straightforward but it really isn’t (in Lebanon, that is). The Beirut Blast investigation has stalled and been crippled by politicians avoiding justice.
The leader of an Iran-backed militia, Hezbollah, has repeatedly demanded Judge Tarek Bitar’s removal from the case since July 2, 2021, when the prosecutor requested parliament to lift immunity off the former minister Ali Hassan Khalil (affiliated with the Shi’ite Amal Movement).
Although Bitar hasn’t been dismissed from the case, he has sporadically faced lawsuits stalling the investigation.
Leaders might as well say justice is at the end of the rainbow.
Investors will never have confidence in a political establishment subverting the rule of law. Period. And calls for an international investigation have not been heeded by the Lebanese government. (That isn’t suspicious… at all)
2. Thin the Public Sector
By all metrics, Lebanon’s government is huge…ly ineffective, and bloated. Combine this with the scandalous continued subsidies to Electricité du Liban (EDL) and voilà. Burnt toast.
Let me contextualize. According to a report by the local Lebanese Broadcasting Corporation , International (LBCI), Lebanon’s railroad system went out of service in 1989 due to economic reasons.
And yet… the Lebanese government still funds a railway administration that employs 300 employees. And yes, they all get paid upwards of 2 million LBP. And yes, none of them work. And yes… the country’s in debt.
Some analysts have dubbed them “ghost” employees (spooky!), and they bloat government institutions that in turn serve as breeding grounds for corruption.
If it isn’t clear yet, almost comic shenanigans like this leeches off the government’s scarce resources. In fact, the aforementioned railway administration is allocated a whopping $8.64 million budget (Reuters). These expenses should be cut down and optimized. MEI recommends,
“… a re-assessment of the bloated number of government agencies, a freeze on some of the costly services and the widespread introduction of digital services…”
These steps could help — trim the fat so to speak — and battle corruption in Lebanon’s government.
3. Free and Fair Elections
In the end, none of the above applies if the current outdated establishment remains.
The outcome of this election will lay out a path for the future. If the establishment remains unopposed, it’s certain the Lebanese ship will sink deeper into the abyss.
But there’s hope! New independent and secular parties have risen to oppose the establishment. A countrywide uprising of secularism and progressive values stemming from the October 17 Revolution. The wave is sure to shake the halls of parliament.
A united wave.
In November 2020, the united opposition including independents and seculars won 14 out of 30 seats in the Lebanese American University elections.
The following year, in October 2021, the opposition split and fractured into 2 camps; independents and seculars. The results were disappointing. The divided opposition had won only 8 out of 30 seats on the council.
If the student elections are any indicator, Lebanese (especially young Lebanese) are done with old, senile politicians cowering to the whims of foreign powers. And although independents and seculars may not garner a plurality in the Lebanese Parliament, the mere presence of fierce opposition to the establishment is a humble step towards supplanting it entirely.
Conclusion
Lebanon’s leadership dug it into a ditch and are now struggling to apply tangible solutions, preferring instead to war with words and angry tweets (yeah right, we have those too).
It is a pivotal moment in Lebanon’s history and Parliamentary Elections in May will give us a glimpse of what is to come.
Hi! you made it! Thank you for reading this article till the very end. If you liked it, don’t forget to leave a clap (or many claps) and follow me for more articles like this. Sharing also helps me reach more people with my work!
For additional reading on this topic I highly recommend… https://www.mei.edu/publications/it-time-save-lebanon
https://www.hrw.org/world-report/2021/country-chapters/lebanon
https://www.lbcgroup.tv/news/d/breaking-news/440237/lebanons-railway-administration-has-300-employees/en
