In a normal country, an official like Riad Salameh, whom "The Economist" has labeled "the worst central bank governor in the world," would not have ended his tenure as Lebanon's Central Bank governor to the cheers of associates, who met him in the back door. Salameh, whom the French and German courts have issued arrest warrants against and Interpol issued red notices for, should be prosecuted and disgraced.
The Lebanese people have denounced and condemned him, even the Lebanese state prosecution has charged him with crimes that include money laundering, fraud, and embezzlement.
Since the beginning, Salameh has been the shadowy arm of a mafia that has seized the country’s public and private funds. He bankrolled the tyrants, politicians, bankers, and militias responsible for squandering 200 billion dollars in loans and deposits, oversaw a 98 percent devaluation of the Lebanese pound, and destroyed the country's banking sector.
Since the Paris I Conference held over two decades ago, Salameh has been covering for a political elite that refuses to implement the reforms they had pledged to make. He undercut the "Lazard" rescue plan following the country’s financial collapse and engineered an illegal "haircut" of 85% of the funds deposited in Lebanese banks, thereby accelerating their evisceration to shield a thieving and bankrupt banking cartel.
If law were enforced to even a minimal degree, those accused of and aware of the felony of "probable intent" to kill have been wandering freely on the third anniversary of the war crime that was the Beirut port blast would not have been marked on August 4th, 2023. It is as though we are faced with a deliberate effort to commit the crime again and again on a daily basis. The Lebanese security forces were hindered from implementing the arrest warrants, and the judiciary of the sectarian-quota-based spoil-sharing regime subservient to Hezbollah and the nitrate regime, has hampered the investigation, painted the judicial investigator out to be a traitor, and is now prosecuting him!
This relentless drive to govern through fear, by normalizing the crime, concealing the truth, and hindering justice, is a dangerous and major indication that our social values and ethical standards have collapsed.
The first week of August was marked by the accumulation of events and evidence that Lebanon has turned into a rogue state. In this state, ethical, legal, and constitutional standards are absent, leaving no accountability or responsibility, and entrenching the "immunities" and system of "impunity"... leaving "Lebanon at the risk of death," as French deputy Guendal Rouiad wrote. He added: "I found a country where its men and women are anxious and sad, and its streets are dark and inhabited by ghosts. The situation is criminal against the Lebanese citizen; it's time to move out of the state of denial in favor of building a modern, stable state."
To paint a full picture, we must remember that the president’s seat has been vacant for nine months now, and this vacancy is very much linked to Hezbollah’s project of deracinating Lebanon and changing its identity... Meanwhile, the executive authority has been vacant for 14 months as the caretaker Prime Minister happily clings to his seat, his conscience clear despite the European Parliament openly discussing the financial crimes that Monaco's judiciary has accused him of.
Adding the vacancy in the Governorship of the Lebanese Central Bank, a vacancy in the army leadership begins to loom, as commander of the Lebanese Armed Forces’ term ends on the 10th of January. The Internal Security Forces chief’s term shortly after that. Thus, the bitter moment of truth for Lebanon and the Lebanese is imminent.
The political class, both in government and the opposition, has had an exclusive hold on power since the Taif Agreement was signed 33 years ago. During this time, it has formed sectarian groups, partisan factions, and militias, prioritizing its narrow sectarian interests and foreign allegiances over everything else! Thus, it has lost its viability.
It may be shocking to see the country's citizens, who are being trampled on daily, seem to be adapting on the surface, preoccupying themselves with finding medicine and bread rather than the country’s devastating political situation. However, this is a relatively familiar sight.
The circumstances were similar on the eve of October 17, 2019, the day the revolution for dignity erupted and exposed the political regime and its subservience to foreign power. Since then, it has become clear to all that a profound political awareness has begun growing on both sides of the sectarian divide that had split the country between the March 8 and March 14 coalitions.
This rising awareness has laid the foundations for ending artificial divisions by shedding light on the real dividing lines in the country. The country is split between the plundered and the plunderers, a majority of over 80 percent below that live beneath the poverty line and are clinging to the country because it is their homeland. They want to safeguard its national fabric and give it back its standing. On the other side is the minority committed to the bank accounts they have opened in safe havens and their allegiance to foreign powers!
Those who cheered for the suppression of the revolution after making accusations of treachery, and were eager to see it end, were taken back by the magnitude of the punitive “post-October" vote in the general elections of May 2022. They will be disappointed again.
Indeed, Lebanon’s citizens have left the waiting room and decided to become political actors in their own right; they have not returned to their enclaves! Despite the mass migration, or rather displacement, the elites, who understand the country and the breakdown of Lebanese society well, are keenly ensuring that citizens are deprived of access to the tools they need to defend their rights.
They know how to prevent the country from turning into a space of genuine coexistence, whose contours were drawn by the "October Revolution," through which the people achieved deep reconciliation, left their sectarian divisions behind, and demanded an alternative and a modern state. A different Lebanon that is possible. It cannot remain a "paradise" for the bearers of illegal arms, outlaws, fugitives, and those wanted by Interpol!
The need is urgent to allow citizens to regain their security and stability in the face of the tyrants’ plan to annihilate them. Of the $40 billion in assets held by the Central Bank in 2019, less than $9 billion remain today, the mandatory minimum.
Some have made a fortune through the collapse, and the financing of the political-banking-militia cartel did not stop. Indeed, they are planning to legislate this financing, claiming that it is "temporary" and that the bankrupt authority will give the money back, which of course means they will continue to plunder until the last cent. Now our gold reserves and state assets are next in line!
It is the moment of truth that will launch a peaceful mass resistance movement for justice and the restoration of rights. Unity is the only path to alleviating suffering and deprivation, and allow for accountability and justice... thereby ending the country’s dysfunction and putting Lebanon on the path to recovery!
