More than 25,000 protestors flooded the streets in front of government offices in Beirut last week. On Monday, pro-Syrian Prime Minister Omar Karami resigned peacefully, opening the door for the establishment of an independent Lebanese government when parliamentary elections roll around in May. Could it be that democracy has finally arrived in Lebanon?
The rhetoric that the American media bombards us with on a daily basis is saturated with references to democracy. This should come as no surprise; the word comes wrapped in a such a compact little bundle of justice, free speech and liberty for all that it’s easy to see why the politicians use it with such affection. After all, the power of the people is an appealing concept in today’s world, where human rights are the yardstick by which we determine a state’s right to exist.
In the Middle East, a region peppered with kings, military dictators and presidents-for-life, the power of the people is rarely realized, and true democracies rarer still. Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak just announced that, for the first time in the 24 years of his reign, the presidential elections will feature more than one political party-a surprising, and welcome, change. Needless to say, Mubarak will probably still win re-election, since his party controls the newspapers, the televisions stations and the salaries of the majority of Egyptian citizens. Although the reforms are undoubtedly a step in the right direction, a legitimately democratic system for Egypt is still a long way off.
But in Lebanon, the prospects are a bit rosier. With Karami’s resignation, the first of the popular opposition’s demands has been met. The opposition is also calling for an in-depth investigation of the February bombing and removal of the 14,000 Syrian soldiers who have been cooling their boots in Lebanon since the onset of civil war in the 1970s. If these requests are realized, the people will have definitively asserted their authority over the country. The regime has heard the people’s voice and it has already listened-a happy reminder of Ukraine’s own popular success in ensuring their own democracy. Hopefully the same thing is right around the corner in Lebanon.
