Seperating the Myth From Realities V.1: Bashir Gemayel's platform: One Lebanon - 5 States

I was watching TV and I heard the clown S. Frangieh Jr. saying that his family was a decent family that never robbed anything. The US administration have been claiming that they were helping the Lebanese to kick out the Syrians for 30 years, but again, is it true?

So I decided to track the myth of every figure and will place the not so popular facts. I will start with Bashir Gemayel Platform (and not the whole story), which was revealed three years later when Annahar published his Presidential Oath Speech which he never lived to see it come through. Afterwards, later publications and diplomatic archives were published as well.

Bashir’s platform did indeed demand a 10452 Lebanon for Muslims and Christians but it is under the most illogical perspectives and not a “Lebanon for all” as the current 14th of March argued.

Bashir, influenced by the Phalangist (and only) ideologue Antoine Najm, he proceeded with this program. It is important to note that Najm resigned the Phalange Party because its leader Pierre Gemayel Sr. refuted to accept his extreme ideas, unlike his son Bashir.

Bashir for starters declared, once approved to be President Sarkis’ successor, that Lebanon is eternal, for Christians and Muslims alike, but without an Arab identity. He gave it an Oriental identity with “Arab connections”. To be exact, Oriental is a historical era that existed prior to the Islamic Conquests to the region that should give you an idea that Lebanon’s identity agreed on by the National Pact of 1943 was demolished. Actually, the National Pact got demolished by the start of the Lebanese Civil war in 1975.

Second, Bashir Gemayel wanted to open a new vacancy on the executive level. The title was Vice-President. A person would suspect that the position is wonderful, but the problem is that the title is not merit oriented, rather it is also Sect oriented, and sadly the only people who qualified to be the Vice-President of the Nation were the Maronites.

Third, Bashir’s unified Lebanon meant only three things in common between the different Sects, Parties, and movements. To Bashir and his crew, Lebanon meant having a common army, Lebanese Lira as a currency, and the borders, nothing more and nothing less.

Fourth, and here is the disastrous part of the platform, Lebanon is to be divided into 5 independent regions living in a federation. This means Lebanon is divided into 5 segments (Seems his mentor Najm did not learn from history whatever happened between 1845-1860). Each segment has its own government but the Phalangists were given a priority of 2 other segments. This is not to forget that the President in the Pre-Ta’ef Agreement meant that the president controlled everything. Each segment has its own autonomy and has its own budget. Actually, each segment can do its own economical alliances and so on, and since the Bashiristan Lebanon is segmented, there is no governmental budget except for the Army, CONTROLLED directly by the President. There is no proper distribution of wealth through out this “unified” Lebanon, rather each area has to depend on its own to last.

Fifth, the richest locations were to be allocated to the Christian segments.

Sixth, this point is a major breach in the government and the constitution. To zero into that point, the President has no check-point on him. The Parliament has no authority to impeach the President, and worse, the Government and the Parliament can be dissolved by the commands of the President, which is ironic, that the elected President is stronger than his voters.

Seventh, he demanded the evacuation of all foreign forces. Yet, later documents were published that exposed Bashir Gemayel demanding the Israelis to kick out all the Syrians and the remaining armed Palestinians from Lebanon. Afterwards, a common defensive treaty is to be done with to face Israel to face the Syrians’ threats. Bashir, smart and determined, already visited Saudi Arabia to establish good will ties with them rather alienate Lebanon from its surroundings. He already got the support of Egypt since Egypt and Syria were in conflict after Egypt signed Camp David agreement with Israel for peace.

Eighth, Bashir stated that the Favoritism would be demolished, but how logical that can be if Bashir’s Lebanon is divided into five nations within a common border while his party has the richest areas in Lebanon (without being responsible on other Areas).

This is not just an attack to insult the parties who support Bashir Gemayel, rather this is setting history straight. Bashir Gemayel did demand a single common border Lebanon, but INSIDE Lebanon things differed.

MFL

PS: More would come on those politicians’ backgrounds, and surely this is not the last topic on Bashir Gemayel’s investigation in the series of dividing the Myth from Reality. Point is: History has to be reported as it is by all means possible.