Unions, Conferences and Conspiracies
By: Elias Bejjani
30.6.02
My beloved Lebanon has been a victim of oppressing occupation since 1990. Choked by pollution of its land and air. Many Lebanese suffer mind and soul pollution: leaders, clergymen and citizens.  Why is this so? Their leaders are culpable for a fair amount: numerous dignitaries who previously championed patriotism have since revealed the traitor within. There are some
leaders, recognizing the grievous sins they have committed against their country, have currently and publicly repented. Neither is past patriotism a guarantee of absolution. The heart and spirit of a patriot and commitment to freedom and human rights, not family inheritance, are the qualities of a leader. Defeatism is never honorable. It claims no religion. No culture. Its main characteristics include bribery, bargaining, camouflaging, cheating, lack of faith, trojanism and selfishness.

Lebanon's tutelage cannot be propped up by the "Taef Accord": a false document, never consented to by the country. The Syrians would like us to believe that this document has achieved cohesiveness among the Lebanese. Nothing could be further from the truth. This accord is a slogan, whereas wars of others against the Lebanese continue unabated in different
patterns. Did the country reach the afore-acclaimed economic stability? Perhaps through false and empty promises. In truth, the alleged balanced development remains rhetoric. Justice is but a dream. A sad illusion.

Selfishness, hypocrisy, foreign affiliation, and individual interests motivate the advocacy of any leader for Beirut's regime. At the expense of Lebanon and the Lebanese. The tag "let us join the regime and change it from inside" has yielded nothing. It has perpetuated the humiliation suffered by the Lebanese under Syrian hegemony. While claiming patriotism, the regime has
been pursuing criminal policies of corruption, favoritism, injustice, discrimination, and alienation of the Lebanese people.

Does the "Taef Regime" respond to public cries for democratic legislative representation? Lebanon's voice is silenced by an apartheid-like electoral law, masking true representation by the people. This fallacious law divided the Lebanese into losers and winners, oppressors and oppressed, poor and rich, nationalists and collaborators, alienated and favored. The regime is
dedicated to annihilating national unity, dividing people, and aborting all genuine efforts to implement UN Resolution 520, which insists on strict and unconditional respect of Lebanon's sovereignty, borders, independence and the withdrawal of all foreign troops.

Any Lebanese still laboring under the false allusion that Lebanon's independence depends on Syria's occupation, should realize that a civilized national dialogue requires no preset conditions. Such a dialogue necessarily thrives in an atmosphere free from harassment and persecution. Free, independent voice is not only key to a healthy dialogue. It is the only preset condition.
A must for Lebanon's very survival. Focus of the dialogue must be clear. Ethical. Unyielding. Uncompromising. Fully committed to liberation, and national reconciliation. We can afford to wait no more. The time is now. Do we want to prevent an impending inevitable economic disaster that will spare no Lebanese? We must employ all efforts, take advantage of all knowledge and
resources.

For years the sovereignists have called for constructive, national, holistic dialogue to break Syria's vice grip on Lebanon. They challenged obstacles hindering free expression among the country's 19 different communities. They insisted on reinstitution of Lebanon's free decision making process free from foreign interference. Have their calls been respected? Stripped of their actual implications, they have been negated, marginalized, questioned and aborted without serious contemplation on the part of the so-called government. The latest pseudo philosophy of the Syrian-installed Lebanese officials, politicians and clergymen, attempts to control any national dialogue with sovereignists by imposing pre set conditions. They actually stipulate: acceptance of Syria's occupation, Syrian-Lebanese distinguishable relations, Taef Accord and the abandonment for reclaiming independence, sovereignty, democracy and freedoms. Can those advocating Lebanon's freedom ever compromise?! These conditions are illegal and immoral. They serve to isolate and humiliate Lebanon's real resistance. Does this sound like a dialogue? Or a dictatorship? Can Lebanese groups with a genuine interest in a national dialogue and those who love Lebanon stand idly by and accept this? NEVER! We must determine openly and loudlyour own understanding and decry this injustice. Lebanese must stand firm for sovereignty, independence, freedom and complete and unconditional withdrawal of all Syrian troops. We cannot allow this.

Beirut's regime illegal classification of the opposition groups into modernists and extremists aims to divide and weaken their cohesiveness, abort their unity and contain them. If extremism implicates virtues of identity, roots, independence, freedoms, tolerance, dignity, adoration of Lebanon's sacred cause and implementation of the UN Resolution, then it is a great honor for the sovereignists to be tagged so. What are the rest of us waiting for?

It should be clear to Beirut's regime officials, politicians, clergymen and Syrian authorities with the two last lessons of Al- Metn referendum outcome and the fourth Maronite International conference recommendations that the people will not accept foreign rule. We are on the journey of liberation. It is only a matter of time. Lebanese will reclaim Lebanon. For the Lebanese.
All foreign troops will quit Lebanon. They can leave on their own. Or we shall expel them. Enough is enough

We warn any Lebanese in the Diaspora who are jumping the ropes, selling themselves to the devil of occupation, changing their skin to fill their pockets and bank accounts, joining suspicious organizations and Trojan groups. These people are human chips void of any patriotic affiliation. The state of law and institutions cannot be erected on forging peoples' representation, injustice, treason, favoritism, nepotism or infringement on human rights. It is time for those who are betraying Lebanon's sacred cause
of liberation to stop. Repent and take this wisdom from the Bible. "So then, submit yourselves to God, and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners! Purify your hearts, you hypocrites! Be sorrowful, cry and weep; change your laughter into crying, your joy into gloom! Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up. (James 4- 7,8,9)

People of Lebanon, Diaspora, and lovers of Lebanon, sleep no more! Awake. Kick the Trojans out!

Long Live Free Lebanon