September was a silent month. For days on end the Lebanese sat glued to their televisions waiting for the seemingly inevitable American strike against Syria. Daily life hardly seemed relevant in the face of the impending threat and fear of how such a move could turn the region upside down.
The worst part was knowing that the decision that would so deeply affect us was not ours to make. As those in Moscow, Washington, London and Beijing debated our future, we were powerless to do anything but sit silently and wait.
In the end a deal was reached to allow all sides to walk away claiming victory, but this sense of helplessness has permeated Lebanese society in so many ways. Take the country’s offshore oil and gas, which is likely to fundamentally transform the country. Whether it brings about the healthy, wealthy society we want to see or leads us further down the road to being a failed state depends so much on our politicians.
Many of the signs are worrying. Politics is creeping in — the delays of the last month are the result of political interests being put before those of the nation. All sides appear to be jostling for position, seeking to get their share.
This is potentially catastrophic. Our economy is already so deeply politicized that it fails to function. If this were to spill over to oil and gas the cumulative result would be the waste of the country’s underground wealth. This is not mere conjecture, but based on decades of evidence from across the world.
Yet we are not on the streets demanding our politicians put aside their interests and think of the country. We are not campaigning for true transparency and honesty in this most important of sector.
Worse still, part of us has already accepted that there is nothing we can do — the politicians will negotiate a deal in which everyone gets their cut, apart from the people. We feel totally powerless.
This is not good enough. We must work together to ensure that politicians stop trying to get their sliver of the pie, their own little kickback. We must make them so scared of us they can’t help but be honest. And most of all, we must demand that they recognize that these resources are ours, not theirs.
