Aoun: Rule Today is Based on Bypassing Laws, Abusing Powers

Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Michel Aoun said on Saturday that the rule in the country is based on “bypassing the laws and abusing powers to cover corruption,” calling the current situation in the country a “tragedy of rule.”

"Society has became acquainted with corruption in the public sector and has acquiesced to it,” Aoun said in a speech during a FPM event marking the October 13, 1990 memory.

He remarked: “We cannot go forward with any plans of reform if the situation remained as it is.”

"Oppressed voices and those willing and capable of change must work together to remove the obstacles that are limiting the people's capabilities and that are keeping them hostages to political and sectarian feudalism.”

Aoun continued: “Today, and as reform has started, we pledge to continue our struggle to establish a state whose leaders respect the constitution and the laws, and who feel the people's pain.”

Aoun said the “land was freed but the minds remained occupied,”

He added: “These occupied minds have helped in making the political decision in the country under foreign control, which made independence lose its significance.”

"Today we will in a tragedy of rule. The leaders came from feuding militias to power. They are allied now and work taking into consideration foreign commands. They are unable to free themselves of these orders,” he said.

“The militia mentality that we thought had disappeared, still persists in the spirits of the leaders, controlling the country and its institutions.”

Aoun pointed out: “From here, we drew our spirit of reform.”

The FPM leader had started his speech by recalling the memory of October 13, 1990, noting that the people who forget their history “have no future and will repeat the same mistakes.”

Aoun served as the PM of the legal faction of the two rival governments contending for power in Lebanon from 1988 to October 1990.

He declared the “Liberation War” against the Syrian occupation on March 14 1989. On the October 13, 1990, the Syrian forces invaded Beirut killing hundreds of unarmed soldiers and civilians.

Aoun, then-prime minister, left the Presidential Palace and sought refuge in the French Embassy and he was later allowed to travel to France.

He returned to Lebanon on May 7, 2005, eleven days after the withdrawal of Syrian troops.

In 2006, as head of the FPM, he signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Hizbullah. He visited Syria in 2009.