Lebanon’s tyrants have not grasped the gravity of what happened in Beirut. They did not feel the blast that blew through bedrooms and livelihoods of thousands of Lebanese, nor the avalanche of broken glass, debris and pieces of wood that rained down on the Lebanese and their children, who had been oblivious to the crime of mythical proportions that had been prepared for them.
They did not care about the hundreds who had been killed, not that the victims are not numbers, but fathers, mothers, sons, daughters, and loved ones to people who are not of lesser importance than the corrupt officials. A child no older than three years of age was amongst the victims. They did not care about the thousands who were injured in the blast, and who will carry these injuries with them for the rest of their lives or their suffering at the gates of the overcrowded hospitals that had been damaged by the blast, with hundreds bleeding heavily for hours before they could receive the care they needed.
They dealt with the victims with criminal carelessness, leaving dozens of those who had still been alive under the rubble, without rushing to deploy cranes and heavy machinery to save them, as any authorities with a minimal degree of moral fortitude, sense of responsibility or merit. Because of politicians’ neglect and the withering away of the institutions that are meant to deal with such situations, dozens of those who had been missing died before the rescue teams arrived. Many firefighters and civil defense personnel, who had not been informed of the dangers of the mission they had tasked with, were added to the list of casualties as they tried to contain the fire that caused the massive explosion.
Alternatively, perhaps this oligarchy grasped and felt but nonetheless approached the calamity exclusively from the standpoint of its direct interests: How can I benefit from reconstruction? How do we share the aid that might arrive? Who will rebuild the wheat silo? Who will renovate the apartments? What profits will each of us reap after the bodies of the victims are collected and the widows and orphans stop wailing? It is no secret that Lebanese politicians, without exception, control the contracting and construction sectors, and they can steal everything that may come from international or Arab donors unless the aid goes directly to the victims, without going through the cave of the corrupt state.
A similar approach is being taken on the political front; the group that controls the Lebanese, hurried, as soon as Hassan Diab’s government resigned on the evening of Monday, August 10, to search for an alternative cabinet. The names and stances that were announced and leaked indicate an exact replication of the old methods that this group has been following to stamp its authority for decades: representation of the main sectarian factions and blocs in Parliament, taking the regional and international balance into account, in the hope of “convincing” the world that the disasters that these people brought down on the majority of the Lebanese population are being dealt with.
In fact, the plan of the "political class", which has taken a step up, going from corruption to outright criminality, is merely to reproduce its hegemony over the state. For they believe that Western countries will agree to this approach, based on what French President Emmanuel Macron said as he visited Beirut and during the international conference of assistance and support for Beirut on August 9. The fact is, French and European positions lean toward keeping the political scene as it is, without serious change that may lead - if they failed - to the collapse of the last remaining pillars of state authority.
This poses a major problem: do Lebanese politicians still represent the majority of citizens? Do they, then, still have the representative legitimacy that allows them to speak for the people, and form the next government, in the same shape and form that the Lebanese have already tried and suffered from?
The Lebanese political system, it seems, lacks any mechanisms that would allow for accountability. It is but an amalgamation of small dictatorships, each of which monopolizes it group’s representation, speaking for it and supposedly advancing its interests. They persist in doing so, without any sensitivity to the changes that have been taking place on the streets since October 17. This is especially true for the illegitimately-armed faction that supports this regime and has repeatedly reiterated, leaving no room for doubt or hesitation, that it will prevent peaceful democratic change by force, even if further loss of life and destruction are required.
Accordingly, Lebanon is home to two forms of legitimacy that have no links between them: popular legitimacy, which the October 17 uprising speaks for and which was reiterated in the most recent demonstrations mourning for the victims of the explosion on Saturday, August 8. It also demonstrated that its deep crisis persists amid its failure to formulate a program and produce real leadership that challenges the corrupt junta and the representative legitimacy it claims. The representatives sit comfortably in their seats, deeply reassured by the absence of an alternative that could hold them accountable, drag them to the courts and prisons, and rightfully hang them on the gallows.
Two forms of legitimacy in crisis coexist, with the second not recognizing the legitimacy of the first and unable to become a serious and weighty political force capable of negotiating and imposing its conditions, on territory that is shrinking and between corpses that are multiplying and houses that are collapsing.
There is nothing in this scene but the taste of bitterness, a rotten smell and the sound of owls.
