His Excellency, the President of the Republic ….the opportunity

Written by Nasser Kandil,

With the entry of his Excellency, the President the General Michael Aoun to Babda Palace a stage of full of anticipations, dreams, sufferings, sacrifices, and battles on one hand, and full of disputes, conspiracies, altercations, and small and big battles on the other hand has ended. An unequivocal battle has finished. For the first time an example that is contrary to the familiar has triumphed in the Lebanese presidential competitions, the President will grant Lebanon an opportunity as Lebanon will do, this opportunity is to test the ability of Lebanon and the Lebanese people to achieve progress in the heart of the regional and international battles and their deep divisions around, so starting from this day the testing of the opportunities by the President and his team is stopped. This president arrived to presidency according to the equation that the complicated circumstances are known and there is no excuse for the failure, the meaning of the circumstances is the Lebanese sectarian and self-interest complexities on one hand, and the interrelated international and regional complexities on the other hand. The opportunity which Aoun wanted is inseparable from the dream of achievement and the promise of achieving in these circumstances.

What is applying on the President regarding the opportunity is applied on the one who fought to provide it and to impose it as a compulsory way on the others. Hezbollah which embraced to spend the revenues of its battles and its related victories since the war of July in 2006 and those escalating in Syria says practically that this is its recipe which it presents to the Lebanese in making the project of the country which all the allies and the friends are asking him to spend its surplus force to impose it. This opportunity is for Hezbollah to present the example of how can the country make the project of forming a strong country in cooperation with the resistance, as how can the project of forming a civil country that based on law and promises of justice, services, and development be achieved in the heart of the regional battles waged by Hezbollah which is accused of embroiling Lebanon of them, and linking the fate of its stability with their end. Hezbollah does not have the plea of losing this opportunity later by linking it with circumstances which it already knew; and on the basis of their understanding and knowing it built its choice. The most important political test of Hezbollah starts today after it had occupied the position of the first victor by making the first sovereign position in Lebanon, after a long phase of abstinence in approaching the equation of the Lebanese country, along with an approach of Hezbollah for its Lebanese opportunity which it built by its sacrifices and victories that will be reflected by the General the President.

According to the political team which does not belong to the major options represented by the General the President, and which he stuck to affirm in the oration which will be the speech of the Republic through the sticking to the resistance, the preemptive war on terrorism and the fair election law that has the implication of relativity, the President the General is the last available opportunity to prove that the Taif Accord is still valid and viable. According to them the election of the General as a President was as a bitter medicine to treat the illness of the new balances which they said that Hezbollah has insisted on nominating the General as a presidential candidate to disable the presidency and to prepare for the Founding Conference which will remain present whenever the regime faltered and shown its inability to make stability, or to outdo crises or to possess the ability of containing the entitlements. The pretention of being clever in the election session cannot form the method for how to deal with the new era, as the hostile speech of the Prime Minister Saad Al-Hariri against Syria and the resistance, he is the representative of the team which adopted the presidential choice by force to avoid the worst, which its continuation means the prevention of the formation of a government or at least its exposing to failure at every test.

The most important is what is represented by the General the President of an opportunity of the idea of the partisan work in a sectarian regime, he is as a person, ideas, history, biography, system of values, ethics, and visions that forms an unprecedented condition for many options which have through him an exceptional opportunity, he is a Christian leader but secular, from military descent and history but civilian, a leader of a large  popular party from a dominant sectarian color, but he is surrounded by trans-sects partnerships, and understandings. The project of forming a country indicates to him strongly as he symbolizes the project of forming a country, a reliable ally of the resistance, a legitimate father of the foundation of the army, a reformer, and a warrior against the corruption, headed a regime that is based on the sectarian quotes that legitimates the corruption, a serious seeker to build the country of institutions where there is no place for the discrimination, a leader who seeks for the Christians  in the East for a tranquility of the belonging to the homeland and to the country in which they feel of a distinguished role outside the consideration of the numbers, which means unlike the democracy, an opportunity and a challenge, he is the President the General. According to him the presidency is an opportunity and a challenge at the same time. If the opportunity is clear then the challenge stems from the ability of making something higher than the small policies which the government and its formations summarize, the duties which it will handle, and the work plans which answer how to proceed among these contradictions, the election law, the concept of the national security, the economic visions in the war, and how will be the answers for these challenges, all of these are possible settlements projects and an expression of a project of promising change at once.

Mr. President, we trust you, and we see you an opportunity that deserves the bet and the hope.

Translated by Lina Shehadeh,