Jumblat: Dialogue Must Focus on Activating Govt., Meeting Popular Demands

Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat welcomed Monday Speaker Nabih Berri's call for dialogue while stressing that the talks should explore means to activate the government's work and meet the demands of the growing protest movement.

“We welcome this dialogue, which remains the only way to achieve accord among the Lebanese and to overcome the difficult challenges that Lebanon and the region are going through,” said Jumblat in his weekly editorial in the PSP's al-Anbaa newspaper.

Should the parties “fail to reach an agreement on the presidential vote, which remains a pressing need to restore the work of state institutions … and in the event of failure to agree on a new electoral law, it would be necessary to avoid indulging in debate over contentious topics and to focus on activating the work of the government,” Jumblat added.

He said the political parties should exert efforts to turn the government into a productive body that can “meet the legitimate popular demands at all levels.”

Warning that the political parties have underestimated the demands of the street protests, Jumblat noted that some forces are exerting strenuous efforts to “criticize this movement and question the motives of its activists.”

He cautioned that the said political parties might try to “pounce on the legitimate demands” with the aim of thwarting the objectives of this “non-sectarian movement.”

The PSP leader also called on authorities to find solutions to the chronic power and water feed problems and to the garbage crisis “that has started to pose huge health and environmental hazards.”

He also said the parties of the dialogue proposed by Berri must try to reach an agreement over the thorny issue of military appointments and the promotions of top officers.

Jumblat's remarks come two days after tens of thousands of protesters from across Lebanon staged a rare non-sectarian mass rally in downtown Beirut against a political class they accuse of corruption and failing to provide basic services.

It followed demonstrations last weekend that descended into violence when some protesters clashed with police.

The demonstration was organized by the "You Stink" movement, which began in response to a crisis that started with the closure of Lebanon's largest landfill in mid-July, resulting in garbage piling up on the streets of the country.

Since then there have been small protests that have broadened to include demands for a political overhaul of government institutions seen as corrupt and ineffective by many Lebanese.

On Sunday, Speaker Berri said he intends to call for a dialogue conference in September, as he urged anti-corruption protesters to demand a “civil state” and a new electoral law based on the proportional representation system.

The dialogue agenda will tackle “the presidency, the work of the parliament and the government, the electoral law, the law on restoring citizenship (for emigrants of Lebanese origin), the administrative decentralization project, and equipping the army,” Berri explained.

Y.R.

M.T.