Suleiman Says Personal Interests Should be Turned into Public Good

President Michel Suleiman said Tuesday that the state should from now on work for the public good and recruit competent civil servants rather than be governed by the politicians’ personal interests.

“The efforts in the next stage should focus on turning the state from a state of personal benefits and sectarian and regional division of shares into a state (that works for the) public good and whose doors are open for all competencies in state institutions seeking to achieve sustainable development,” Suleiman told his visitors at Baabda palace.

The president also hoped that the Lebanese would preserve stability in their country and would draw lessons from the developments in the region to “improve their performance and the democratic practice.”

He was hinting at the crisis in Syria where rights groups say more than 6,000 people have been killed in the regime's crackdown on protests against President Bashar Assad's regime that first erupted in March last year.

Suleiman held talks with several officials on Tuesday, including ministers Nazem al-Khoury and Nicolas Nahhas, and the head of the parliamentary foreign affairs committee, MP Abdullatif Zein.