On August 4, 2020, a disastrous blast at the port of Beirut, Lebanon, destroyed everything in a 9.5 kilometre radius – killing 200, injuring thousands, leaving 300,000 homeless and resulting in a loss of over $10 billion. The blast also destroyed the only major port of Lebanon, a country bordered by Syria and Israel, which left the country in an even more disastrous situation. Imports – which were already down to bare essentials due to the economy – were rendered impossible, leaving a shortage of life-saving medicines and basic food grains.
We’ve all seen the jaw-dropping videos of the catastrophic blasts in Beirut in early August, and at some point wondered how any responsible human being would leave the equivalent of 1,100 tonnes of TNT at the country’s only port, unattended for 7 whole years. But behind these blasts is more than just irresponsible governance – there is decades of political instability, civil war, and a disastrous sectarian political system that has been behind Lebanon’s downfall and its dire condition.
A history of infighting and ineffective governance
About a century ago, the Lebanese were divided into sects based on their religious affiliations – the Shias, Sunnis and Maronites. These major sects were always at odds with one another, and easy access to illegal arms in the Middle East sparked off a series of armed escalations which eventually led to civil wars amongst these sects. With unabated firing and infighting amongst the Lebanese, there was practically zero work done for the welfare of the people, and with every passing day they were moving towards worse conditions.
Seeing how the situation had spun out of control, the world took cognizance of this violence and so did the leaders of these sects. They all came together to find a solution to this mess and end decades of violence.
Now, what is better than fighting amongst each other? The assurance and guarantee of retaining power, money and influence perpetually. This was exactly what brought together the leaders of the different sects who saw an opportunity to take advantage of a situation they themselves created at the expense of the common man. Religion was used as an instrumental tool to maintain power.
The leaders formed a sectarian government where the political parties were decided by religion or sect, and each sect controlled a few specific items of governance and had one major position.
The entire government was composed of these religious leaders who mis-used their power to serve their own interest, leaving the public with little to nothing. The government was extremely corrupt and there were multiple scams, including a Ponzi scheme of sorts involving the Central Bank which further hit the crippling economy.
In this sectarian government, there was too much political stability – governments had the same members in the same positions for way too long, and no accountability – no series of protests against corruption made a clunk in the armour of the government since a protest against one corrupt official was seen as a protest against the entire sect which would, in turn, spark a retaliation from the entire sect.
Essentially, the Lebanese leaders duped their citizens using their religion as their shield.
This dysfunctional system of governance and politics is the true reason behind a crippling economy, close to no public welfare, disastrous management, heavy taxation of citizens, zero development, inability to import life saving medicines and equipment, amongst many many other issues.
The Beirut Blast was just the physical manifestation of decades of struggle for the Lebanese and a complete overhaul to a non-sectarian, democratic government is needed for there to be any hope of change.
Conclusion
The entire Lebanon situation also goes to show how bad a political system can get when the entire election is on the basis of religious affiliations, and not about development and social work. Any political win based on religion can entirely remove accountability from the equation, since any words spoken against the government are seen to be against the entire religious group and stark parallels can be drawn to the prevailing situation in India – while not yet as grave.
While we do have a chance to reform ourselves, it is pertinent we normalise questioning of the government and start holding them accountable for things they are supposed to do such as public welfare, economic development, social security, etc regardless of religious affiliations. Just because you share the same religious beliefs, doesn’t mean you cannot question that individual's performance in government.
The entire democratic system is based on accountability, we must not let any situation slide. If we do, we enable mismanagement and corruption. Governments around the world must always be held accountable and answerable to whom they are elected to serve and represent, i.e. the people.
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