The Lebanese government is no longer presiding over a financial collapse; it is attempting to codify a permanent state of decline. The proposed “Gap Law”, short for Financial Gap Resolution Law, testifies to a governmental masterclass in legislative dissembling. By adopting a rhetoric of “protecting small depositors,” the political class is quietly insulating itself from accountability while stripping citizens of their wealth and their future.
For decades, the Lebanese economy siphoned private capital to finance an inept state that prioritized the enrichment of dishonest politicians over the building of a productive nation. Today, the government’s response to the wreckage is an “ad hoc” remedy that betrays a backward, defensive mindset and de-facto powers the survival of the corrupt at the expense of strategy.
We must look to the regional vanguard for achievable alternatives. In 2024, the UAE’s non-oil economy generated approximately $365 billion. For its population of roughly 10 million, this translates to a non-oil GDP per capita of $36,500. Applied to Lebanon’s population of nearly 5.8 million, this benchmark translates to a $211 billion economy.
Such transformation is achievable with $100 billion in investment over the next decade. These investments could even produce much larger fruits by being leveraged into Arab economic integration at the historic inflection point witnessed by the region’s development-minded countries. However, only a trustworthy sovereign state – one that respects property rights – can domestically attract and regionally leverage such capital on the foundation of revitalizing state-owned enterprises, modernizing infrastructure, and funding reconstruction.
Instead, the country is being strangled by a proposed law that aims for nothing more than the managed evaporation of the people’s assets. This strategy is a blatant violation of Article 113 of the Code of Money and Credit, which explicitly mandates that the state is liable for the losses of the central bank. By attempting to legislatively disappear the burden of long-squandered billions, the government is executing a sovereign default against its own citizens. A political class that did not spare the lives of more than 100,000 citizens during Civil War years of militia rule will not blink before squandering their money. Accountability is a moral imperative.
The solution remains a matter of political will. By using Lebanon’s gold reserves as a strategic shield and its state-owned assets – from failed utilities to prime real estate – as an engine for growth, the government could recapitalize banking sector and begin making the people whole.
Starting with the Gap Law, the state must decide whether it serves the people and the law of the land or is simply the legal department for the warlords who broke the nation?
