In 1952, then head of the army, General Fouad Chehab was tasked by recently elected President Chamoun to assert sovereignty in the Bekaa region after security incidents that took the life of some Lebanese soldiers. Chehab took his army there and soon met with the clans (ashayer) to resolve the crisis. They informed him that crime was high in the region because the people there had no schools, hospitals, public services, or jobs. The General came back to Chamoun and reported that he could not establish sovereignty by force when these people had no rights to speak of. “Give them their rights; and I will assure you sovereignty,” he said.
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When Lebanon supposedly should have had absolute sovereignty in the 40's, 50's, and 60's, large portions of the Lebanese population did not have equal rights. As a result, our country entered conflict in repeated bouts and eventually imploded, demolishing its sovereignty, with armies from different parts of the world trespassing its land, sea, and air. Based on Lebanese history, one finds that the lack of Lebanese sovereignty has paralleled the lack of equal rights and protection of the state to its citizens. Meaning, when the Lebanese people could not get their due rights from their state, they searched and found it elsewhere, seizing it at times and asking for others’ help at others, either of which undermined the nation’s sovereignty.In the Lebanon of today, the people are missing many rights and unsurprisingly sovereignty is also missing across the board and at all levels. Sovereignty in this regard is not limited to a militia but to the entire makeup of the Lebanese state and it's Constitution, which has become disconnected from the needs of the people. Citizens have established their own sovereignty even in micro issues such as electric power generation, water provisioning, and banking, let alone armed militias for the defense at the community level. Within this context, one has to ask, how can there be any sovereignty if rights continue to be unequal or missing due to an inattentive and callous state whose very design mistreats citizens and where the buck stops nowhere? Can someone genuinely demand sovereignty while holding on to expired privileges over a carcass of a state?
It is not hard to conclude, therefore, that in Lebanon the issue of sovereignty is inextricably linked to that of citizen rights. Their concurrent necessity implies one without the other is untenable. When sovereignty is lost, one's rights are lost; but the opposite is also true: One cannot demand sustainable sovereignty while political, economic, social, and judicial rights are unequal or being abused by the privileged few. Sovereignty and rights are together necessary and sufficient conditions for a viable democratic Lebanon. Each by itself is not enough; and when schisms appear, they need to be resolved holistically and not piecemeal.
In the seminal speech delivered by the Patriarch Boutros Ra’i this last February, he called on the Lebanese people, “Do not be silent about the plurality of loyalties; do not be silent about corruption; do not remain silent about the embezzlement of your money; do not remain silent about uncontrolled borders; do not remain silent about the violation of our airspace; do not be silent about the failures of the political class; do not remain silent about the wrong choices and alignment; do not be silent about the chaotic investigations of the crimes of the seaport explosion; do not be silent about the politicization of the judiciary; do not remain silent about illegal weapons ... do not be silent about the Palestinian naturalization and the integration of the displaced Syrians; do not remain silent about the confiscation of the national decision; do not remain silent about the coup against the State and the regime; do not be silent about not forming a government; do not remain silent about the failure to implement reforms …”
The Patriarch is clearly urging the Lebanese people not to cherry pick their demand for sovereignty but rather for it to accompany demands for a host of grievances due to usurped economic, social, and judicial rights. This is not only a matter of rhetoric for the pontific but rather a notable strategic shift that could pave the way for Lebanon to go in the direction of equal citizenry based on a set of equal rights, which apply to the entire population and not only the Christian communities. The Patriarch’s speech was soon after backed up by Pope Francis’ own visit to Iraq, in particular the holy city of Najaf, where he met with Grand Ayatollah Sistani, declaring that all communities in the Middle East move away from the notion of communal rights to that of equal and inclusive citizenry. In yet another signal, some Lebanese politicians who are known for their divisive sectarian rhetoric and who had requested the Pope’s audience, were shunned.
Could this seismic shift carry implications for Lebanon? Could the basis of the Lebanese future society be heading towards equal citizenry based on principals that transcend religious communities? If so, this will have a direct impact of how rights are demanded and how sovereignty is asserted. In other words, no longer would sovereignty depend on divisive communities, but rather the rights and duties of united citizens, each individually assured of their inclusivity and diversity, while committing their state to standards of honesty, consistency, transparency, and accountability in serving all its citizens equally.
In conclusion, those contemplating that the topic of sovereignty should overarch or precede citizen rights and be targeted against a single community only need to look at Lebanon's own history to see it’s inevitable failure. If the Lebanese wish to have a pluralistic and democratic society, the two issues of sovereignty and citizen rights will need to go hand in hand. The day Lebanon affords all its citizens the same rights will be the same day that full sovereignty can be sustainably attained with much less opposition. Indeed, the epitome of sovereignty will be when the Lebanese citizen is raised on the shoulders of a rightful state through a constitutional instrument such as a Citizen Bill of Rights. Until that day comes, sovereignty in Lebanon may very well remain elusive.
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