Shiites think the 43 system kept them down. Why are they still in the suburbs? And they’ve been powerful for 40 years now, are they satisfied now?
The truth is, in 1943 Christians had been having ties with the west for centuries and were leaving there and making money and trading. Even under ottoman rule Christians sometimes had more success because of those cultural ties that facilitated their trade
Sunnis were favored by ottomans and had the Arab countries.
Shiites didn’t have that. Now that they started going to Africa and other places they’re starting to catch up.
It wasn’t the system keeping them down. And the system wasn’t ruled by Christians. When Muslims had a problem with something they would bring down the government or even the president.
The Muslims simply couldn’t accept the image of the system even though the reality was actually as good as it gets for a country like Lebanon.
Even now the best solution would be to be ruled by Christians because the Sunnis and Shiites are totally subordinated to Iran and Saudi while Christians don’t have any country now supervising them.
Listen my friend, first this thread isnt the right place to for you to vent and launch a tirade against another sect out of whatever grudges, motivations or mood you are experiencing.
Secondly, that National Pact is a piece of shitty document by shitty and backward @$$holes of men whose aim was to institutionalize discrimination and apartheid through the infamous and shameful congressional system. This system was the source of civil war, poverty, marginalisation, oppression and deprivation. If such a document is proposed today, many would protest against it or even take up arms to reject it. Such a document should have been subjected to a
referendum. How about we hold a referendum on the way forward. How about we conduct a census and count every Lebanese that holds a hawiyyeh and every foreign, using modern technology based on finger prints in a computer system that is centralized and can detect duplicate counting or cheating?
Some or maybe many (when they dont get their way to suck money from the state) are calling for federalism and it is their right to even call for suicide to be legalized. I have no problem with their calls. How about our leaders get used to the concept or idea of resorting to the people to legitimize their rule and their governance and their decisions in the state? How about we subject federalism to a referendum? Why are the people absent from deciding what should be the way forward? Scotland held a referendum to decide whether it should leave the UK or stay after centuries of being under a monarchy. Why cant I determine the future of my own country? Do I really belong to this country? Is it really a country we have? Which side or which party refuses the concept of evolving into statehood with one state for all under the rule of law and is imposing its ill conceived sectarian preferential treatment for itself through sectarian cantons and discrimination on the rest of the population? The same side that wakes up and chooses an apartheid confessional system yesterday, which led to the destruction of our future collectively and today wants federalism. You want federalism? Be my guest. Hold a referendum and let us really know what people want. Simple.
As a Lebanese citizen, I find my voice almost completely absent in the grand scheme of affairs. Every four years, I am asked to give mandate to some men who would rule on my behalf as they please and share the country's resources among themselves and levy high taxes on me and make policies to further enslave the rest of the population. These men have immunity from prosecution even if or when they tamper with my hard earned deposits in banks or deny me my rights. The people dont have any immunity from their misrule and illegalities. They have twice extended their mandate for a total of nine years without elections or going back to the people. It is time to go back to the people.
Of course, Shiite Lebanese do have a major problem with the 1943 National Pact. And you shouldn't be surprised when the largest sect in the country makes it today an undeclared rule that they must have a say on which monkey is president and which baboon is prime minister! You cant exclude a major segment of the population from the executive arm and think you have a silly document, based on a charade of a 1932 census to legitimize an apartheid like system. That is rubbish. Use your National Racist Pact and shove it!
You should be thankful we have, for decades being distracted with the fight against occupation. The major party representing my community cant even suggest that we should hold a sovereign conference to determine the future of the country and how it should be governed and how to fully implement the Taef Accord, improve the system, abolish it or transform it. If that party makes a slight suggest, hell would break loose and others would blackmail it that it wants to impose change through its arms. So, they feel compelled to shut up and accept the mess and not be seen as imposing anything on others. Imagine there was no Israehell, no threat of ocuaption/invasion. Do you think anyone of us Shiite Lebanese would be happy to be excluded by law from the helm of affairs? Do you think we would have maintained silence and not uproot the entire system and trample on with our feet? The Taef Accord was reached and it sets a road map to transition into a civil state. To this day, we stil have a confessional system. Why? If you want to accuse me that I am calling for a secular state or a civil state because the numbers are on my side, well, I can also accuse you that you want to subjugate me and that is what you have always done. You dont want a fair system and you dont want to give birth. Who's to blame? Why is it my problem if you are impotent? In which country on earth are citizens legally excluded from major posts in government because they belong to this or that sect or ethnicity or race? The concept in and of itself is archaic, retrogressive and based on discrimination or I should describe it as racist.
We have not only been excluded from government, but even our history as a country has been falsified. Our history as Lebanon has been falsified because the other Lebanese have chosen to unwrite the history of this land. We only recount history from the crusaders, the Mamluks, the Ottomans and the French rule; or the post Shia era up till independence. Even those periods are misrepresented. We are not taught that before the Crusades, there were Shia Emirates in Tripoli, in Keserwan, in Batroon, in Jbeil, in Chouf, in the Beqaa and on every spot of this country, from Tripoli to Tyr, there were Shiite dynasties ruling, and those periods were the first form and emergence of administrative rule by any modern indigenous Lebanese group of today. That period is totally blanked out and I blame my people for keeping quiet on that ancient past. We need to start teaching our history in schools. The first community, among the modern Lebanese to form government in the land. It was not a mere presence of pastoral settlements we had or agrarian communities or feudal dynasties paying homemmage to foreign empires. These were indigenous and self ruled Emirates. They were undone by foreign invaders (the crusades and Mamluks), who kept subjugating an indigenous people in the land. It was centralized administrations. That past is Lebanese history and must be taught, shared and embraced. You must embrace it. Our history didnt start with Fakhreddine and his emirate in Mount Lebanon becaude there were Shia emirates that preceded his from Tripoli to Mount Lebanon to the South. And our history didnt start with the Ottomans or with the French or with the Maronites. We as Shiites are a part of this country and our history and activities and governance through independent governing entities dates back to before the crusades. When you want to narrate the history of modern Lebanon, our presence on this land and the presence of our ancestors, from the Banu Amilah in the 4th century to the Hamadanis in the 7th century to the Harsfoush, Banu Ammar and others in later centuries must be recounted. Our presence and governance launched what became modern Lebanon. And the history of modern Lebanon must thus be narrated and embraced.
I have no problem with having a Christian become president with full executive power and in a presidential system with the president voted for by the people. But if a Christian or an atheist or a Druze or a Buddhist must become president, that president cant function properly or feel empowered and strong if his mandate is not from the people. If I didnt vote for you, you are a ruler and not a leader. Even if the party or the MP I chose voted for you. Indirect voting and relegating the people to the back seat produce rulers and not leaders. The people of Lebanon should feel free, empowered and respected in their country. And all of them should be able to live together as one nation and to determine their destiny. You cant expect foreign powers not to cause divisions and create enmity among us when those we surrender our future and mandate to every four years have absolute powers and these same men can be bought over by foreign countries and sold. Let power return to the people. In fact, it isnt returning because the Lebanese have never had power in their hands to decide the future of their country collectively. Let the people take over their power. Power should belong to the people, not to the sects or the blocs or the parties or the feudal lords or even the MPs, but to the people. The people should have the power to decide on everything. We can start with a census under strict guidelines using technology (let's count Lebanese within and outside Lebanon who hold IDs and let's know who do not hold IDs), so we do not have cheating and we can start with a referendum to determine the future.
