POST NO. 4

Public order and Private interest

It is rare to find nowadays in Lebanon much respect and attachment to the concept of public order. Since 1993, that notion has been insidiously replaced by a blind and unrestrained admiration and devotion to private enterprise. In all the domains of our daily life it grew and became strongly encrusted in the conscience and in the mind of the citizens and brought them to disdain and even reject anything related to public service, while inordinately praising and admiring the performance of the private entrepreneur. We shall have to follow a diametrically opposed path during the next twenty years if we wish to “rebuild” the notion of Nation and State that has kept eroding from the public mind in order to serve the interests of a small minority of “profiteers”.

In any case, I believe that this false culture of the “I” that is impressed upon the minds of its adepts has contributed to bring about such events as the recent open assassination of an Yves Naufal or the unacceptable behavior of a Nicolas Fattouch. On the other hand, and in the domain of politics, it has contributed, in some ways, to bring about the recent kamikaze events in Jabal Mohsen in Tripoli. The perpetrators were probably told to do away with all the people who did not believe in their false culture.

To further illustrate my contentions about the ill effects of that exaggerated culture of the “I”, I would cite the fast multiplication in Lebanon of cartels and monopolies, the shady dealings to get rid of the competition, the unlawful acquisitions of certain businesses and the appropriation of entire market shares. But the most dangerous and foolhardy policy currently considered is a recommendation to privatize some public sectors under the pretext that the government is unable to run them efficiently. Let us keep in mind that the same individuals who now seek, through such arguments, to lay their hands on some parts of the public sector, are the ones who contributed to introduce and cultivate corruption through these same sectors. They argue now that only the private sector can run efficiently these departments, ignoring that corruption is just as evil and widespread in the private sector.  

The birth and the subsequent relentless growth of the Lebanese Public Debt vividly illustrate the strong hold exercised by private interests on our public sector. The seven billion dollars that were initially needed in 1993 to reconstruct Lebanon, following 15 years of Civil War, were, in a large part, procured to the government by a group of Lebanese investors. That initial amount was transformed during the following two decades into a gigantic public debt of $75 billion through the accumulation of annual compound interest charges that were never repaid. We currently need twenty more years of hard work and sacrifice if we wish to repay that debt. No one has questioned the odd fact that, at no time, during these twenty years, the matter of repaying at least the interest on that debt was ever brought up.

The current state of mind ought to be reversed and replaced by a new “culture of citizenship”.  Civic sense and the respect of public institutions ought to be taught in private and public schools from the early days, without decrying or underestimating the benefits of private initiative. Civil Society should be allowed and encouraged to monitor the usage of public funds. It is such a positive equilibrium that we ought to tend to reach through careful planning of public governance to replace the current anarchic and ill considered improvisations that are the norm within our public Administration.

This, in turn, requires a complete revision and an overhaul of our public and private system of education. Educators in our public and private schools, please take note.