Beirut Has to Wait....

Beirut and Lebanon have been on pakdokter's radar and travel plans for many years. Pakdokter has always been interested in its history and enjoyed reading works of its talented writers and thinkers like Kahlil Gibran, Amin Maalouf and Edward Said.

Pakdokter almost went there some 5 or 6 years ago if not for Rastam's concern about safety issues and true enough not too long after that cancelled trip, Rafik Hariri was assassinated and Beirut went into a period of political instability. The past 5 years saw a period of relative calm and pakdokter had booked to travel to Beirut this coming Chinese New Year week. Unfortunately this was not to be again......

Beirut has again gone into a state of political unrest with street demonstrations that could easily deteriorate into another civil strife like the one which had destroyed Beirut many years ago.

It is with much regret that pakdokter had to postpone this planned holiday again. Luckily for pakdokter, the tour company in Beirut will not penalise pakdokter for the cancellation and will be refunding the payment already made. And the airline has allowed pakdokter to cancel the booking and hold the ticket for up to 6 months should pakdokter decide it will be safe again to visit Beirut and Lebanon.

Mr Najib Mikati, the newly democratically elected PM of Lebanon..

An Independent Sunni MP, Mr Najib Mikati, a telecommunication billionaire from Tripoli, a Sunni stronghold in northern Lebanon, won the support of Hezbollah and the Socialist Christian Party of Walid Jumblatt and their coalition partners to become the new Prime Minister of Lebanon.

Saad Hariri (left) and Hassan Nasrallah of the Hezbollah (right)....

Mr Saad Hariri, came into power after his late father, Mr Rafik Hariri, was assassinated while in office as Prime Minister. Saad Hariri is the leader of the Future Party, a party of Sunni Muslims, who formed a majority of the Muslim population.

The Hezbollah is a militant Shia group believed to be armed and supported by Syria and Iran. The Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL) set up by the UN and supported by the US and EU is in the final stage of concluding their investigations into the assassination of Rafik Hariri and leaked information revealed that some Hezbollah leaders were implicated and risked being arrested and charged. This caused a protest and rejection of the STL by the Hezbollah who accused Israeli-US designs in the murder of Rafik Hariri in order to destabilise Lebanon and put the blame on Syria, which after the assassination, was forced to withdraw its troops out of Lebanon. The Hezbollah wanted Saad Hariri to denounce the STL and his refusal forced the Hezbollah to withdraw from the coalition government which caused Saad Hariri's government to collapse.

street rally in support of Saad Hariri..

threatening to deteriorate into civil strife.....

Lebanon politics have some similarities to Malaysia. It has many political parties representing different religious sects and communities ( and with a history of bloody civil wars which destroyed the once beautiful and prosperous state). The last 5 years they have prevailed with a coalition government represented by all the opposing factions and parties. The constitution provides that the PM has to come form the Sunni majority( Saad Hariri and now Najib Mikati), the President from the Christian block( Michel Sleiman) and the House Speaker form the Shia Hezbollah ( Mr Nabih Berri). It worked well until the STL dispute and the withdrawal of the Hezbollah MP's from the government which technically brought down Saad Hariri's government. The President called for a re-election of a new PM by the elected MP's of the House ( as provided for in their Constitution) and the Socialist Christian Party of Walid Jumblatt who 5 years ago supported Saad Hariri endorsed another Sunni MP,Mr Najib Mikati, with the support of Hezbollah and their allies.

The reluctance of supporters of Saad Hariri to accept this development is threatening to bring the country into civil strife. Perhaps Saad Hariri should accept the offer by Mikati and Hezbollah to participate in the new government and avoid the country from going to ashes. After all the Hezbollah had accepted their inclusion into his government 5 years ago - didn't they?

The chaos taking place in Lebanon reminded pakdokter of the chaos that took place in Perak two years ago.

If only sane mind prevails, time and energy would have been better channeled towards development and making life better for the people.