The Indian Syria and the Lebanese Tamil Tigers
By Shadi Tabbara, Editor-in-Chief

Beirut, Lebanon – The Sri Lankan “Tamil Tigers” is a political militia that was engaged, since the 1970s, in a confrontation with the Sri Lankan government. Adopting a more radical position, their main focus was to fight for their rights, for what they believed in and, 35 years later, they still fight for that same cause. On the other side of the planet, Islamic “Hizbullah”, one of the Lebanese political parties and resistance [military] organization was established in 1982 mainly to relieve the country of the Israeli occupation. However, after the end of the July war of 2006, Hizbullah changed his strategy: Instead of fighting the Israelis, it shifted to the Tamil Tigers’ approach and went to concentrate only on the internal politics.

Lebanon is a cluster of 18 various recognized religious sects with most representing a sort of an independent state with a legislation, a court and administrative entity of its own. What is unique about this country is its composition of many diversified cultures and this, in return, makes it extremely hard for one of the players to control the rest of the country. This is the main reason behind Hizbullah’s discarding of its second broad goal “Transformation of Lebanon's multi-confessional state into an Islamic state,” hopefully.

Mostly controlled by external countries, the Lebanese “mini-states” abide by the different regional and international forces: Iran and Syria, on one hand, and the new American-European alliance and some Arab nations such as Egypt, Jordan and Saudi Arabia...on the other.

The Beirut Central District’s protest is only an example of this particular foreign interference.

Syrindia

Through its alliance with Iran, Syria is trying to become the India of the Middle East, meaning that its main desires are to become the regional power in the area. The only way to control the Middle East is through the ruling of Lebanon. Because of the strategic location Lebanon occupies, it was, is and will always be the skirmish area over which most of the countries fight. This is why we should make a decision.

Forgetting two-thirds of the population

The truth is that the current protest is not the protest of the March 8 coalition, nor the protest of the anti-14 March alliance; it is rather the revolution of the poor Lebanese that the government has left behind all these years.

 It is the government’s role to secure a safe and stable environment for its citizens. This atmosphere enables them to get a high level of education, proper work and progress. The government, including former Hizbullah and Amal ministers never mentioned a single word about that. Not once did the Lebanese political parties think about the people. Not once! They only worked on having the biggest market share and popularity in order for each party leader to reach his personal goals: More Power, to him...

How about the people? Should we leave them in their current miserable conditions? Shouldn’t we fight for their lives; Israel is not the only thing we can fight against. We can combat poverty, lack of education, lack of knowledge, lack of civilization and most importantly, lack of a minimum standard of life. Of course, we can always fight corruption, and this alone can win us some 10 years. This is why we should take that decision.

Solutions?

Tamil Tigers will always fight the Sri Lankan government. The Sri Lankan government will keep its policy as well. As long as international players will remain interfering in any country’s internal politics, these third world countries will never shift forward. While the Seniora government still insists on its [legitimate] remaining, and while the BCD current “festival” prolongs, no opportunity will be available to be captured, leaving all the Lebanese economy at stake.

Where most people see it as a con, Lebanon should seal its borders to the rest of the world and start solving the cumulated quarrels and, instead of focusing on who is right and who is wrong, we should only concentrate on providing a fair solution to all parties. This is the only option we have in building solid infrastructure for the future of our current dissoluted Lebanon. Since this will NOT be the case anytime soon, let us be more realistic and say that no matter who gets the majority, at the end, with the new elections, whether it be the March 8 or the March 14 coalition, as long as everyone is under the Lebanese laws, as long as the constitutional institutions are running smoothly without any corruption, and as long as the standard of living increases, then any government of any party will be welcomed.

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