It is often said that Lebanon makes no sense. It is the kind of line that we like to throw out when the chaos overflows, but in reality there is no mystery or enigma to Lebanon. It is a crude entity; a mini-state controlled by local chiefs whose grip — either religious or geographic — more often than not defines national allegiances.
The government is a shell. To get things done in Lebanon, you don’t go to your member of Parliament or the ministry; you go to your chief, who milks the public sector in his area and then has the gall to complain that government isn’t doing enough. But in reality, there is no desire to see a strong government; this would mean a level of accountability and this would not work for the chiefs.
And yet we have economic growth. Lebanon has a private sector that has learned to adapt to, and in many ways circumvent, the national drain game. It creates jobs and fills the state coffers, because, at the highest level at least, it pays its taxes and it seeks to operate according to best practice. The private sector employs 20,000 in the banking industry and thousands more in finance, insurance, real estate, retail, hospitality and tourism. It even owns the vast majority of the Lebanese debt. The private sector is the keel that keeps the country afloat in an ocean that would have sank the government’s ship years ago.
So you would you think that the private sector would have some pretty hefty leverage in this seedy system that is Lebanon. But strangely enough it doesn’t, or to put it better, it hasn’t exploited it… yet.
The voice of the private sector, as an entity that wields so much influence, should make its presence felt and object to the economic injustices – the corruption, the waste, the lack of transparency – that happen every day and which are so ingrained they are considered the norm. Quite simply the private sector has an obligation, a moral duty, to audit the ethical behavior of the state in the same way a company is answerable to its shareholders.
Are we dreaming? Maybe. But until this happens we cannot say we have a state.
