The death of national policy making

ENAR

Let’s be honest about it: policy politics in Lebanon was already all but non-existent. Whether politicians had the desire or the wherewithal to deliver policies that addressed fundamental issues — such as the nation’s corroded infrastructure and bloated public debt — was never of much importance. Loyalty to the major confessional leaders, their parties and their interests has always been the factor of consequence come polling day. But when the joint parliamentary committees last week adopted the proposed Orthodox Law, they may have stolen the last breath from the lungs of national Lebanese policy-making. The law, if passed in parliament, will mean that voters can only vote for candidates from within their sect. To its proponents the Orthodox Law protects the ability of Lebanon’s many smaller communities to choose their own representatives, rather than having the votes of the larger sects determine the outcome of the vote. For its detractors,