Rule of law – and the election

One aspect of any form of capitalist culture — a culture of openness, cosmopolitanism, free minds and free markets — is the rule of law. With September 25 set as the date for parliament to meet and elect a new president, the rule of law, as embodied in Lebanon’s supreme legal document, the Constitution, is again under pressure. The Lebanese never learn, it seems. Remember that the political crisis that Lebanon is still going through today, and which led to the assassination of the former prime minister, Rafik Hariri, in February 2004, began as a constitutional crisis. Syria decided that Emile Lahoud should have his presidential mandate extended by three years, and an amendment to this effect was forced through parliament. The episode prompted action at the United Nations, where the Security Council passed Resolution 1559 demanding that Syrian withdraw from Lebanon. The rest, as they say, is history —