“Have you read Al Ebra2 el Mousta7il?” One of my FPM relatives asked me a few days ago, a smile spreading across her face like a three year old on Christmas Eve.
“Nope. Have you?” I replied.
“Not yet. But man, I can’t believe how anyone would fathom being with Hariri after it!”
“Yeah, yeah, yeah. I’ll read it when part 2 is released.”
Part 2 is currently in the works as a reply to part 1.
FPMers are having a field day with a recently released book from their MPs, mainly Ibrahim Kenaan which revealed “for the first time ever” some secrets about the Hariri era in Lebanese politics. You can buy the book for $8 at any bookstore. It has more tables in it than a Certified Public Accountant would like to handle and its purpose is more than clear: serve as pre-electoral political propaganda, as is their right.
They have begun to use the term “ebra2ihom al mousta7il” to categorize the Future Movement on their Facebook pages and political websites.
My premise isn’t about the book’s content. It’s about the point behind the book. Who among us does not know that the Hariri era of politics was riddled with corruption? Well, if you don’t now you do. And if you don’t think it did, then your conviction borders on the delusional.
Let’s pretend for a moment that Hariri was the only person running the show from the 1990 to 2005, his government not having any other participant, and ask the following: don’t FPM ministers have their own “ebra2 l mousta7il” from 2005 onwards?
A Western company is suing Gebran Bassil for the way he handled one of the many bids that pass under his ministry. Isn’t that corruption?
The following link portrays severe transgressions of Minister Bassil and Layoun (minister of culture) in Batroun, which MTV is currently investigating, whereby the ministry of culture takes over old Lebanese houses for a very cheap amount of money, gets Gebran to renovate them and sell them for massive amounts. Or how about the diesel scandal that took place last year?
We can also talk about minister Layoun’s disgusting practices in the minister of culture, from allowing the demolishing of the Roman hippodrome to the Phoenician port to many of Beirut’s old houses, including Amin Maalouf’s. How about we look at Layoun’s wealth before and after him taking on the mantle of the ministry?
The aforementioned transgressions are based on a few minutes of research here and there that I, a blogger who doesn’t register on our politicians’ radar, was able to pull off.
FPMers will dismiss this previous link immediately based on its source, as will those who are against the FPM will dismiss their book because their source is very political.
Al Ebra2 Al Mousta7il is not a book for the Lebanese masses because you can’t offer one side of the corruption story in Lebanese politics and expect people who differ from you politically to take you seriously. I will not read Al Ebra2 Al Mousta7il because, despite keeping an open mind (most of the time) to different scenarios in the country, I know for a fact that the other side which the book doesn’t portray, obviously, committed transgressions that may or may not be as severe as the side the book does, in fact, portray. But that’s not the point.
The point is that every single political party in this country has, upon reaching power committed corrupt acts. The point is that blaming the entire country’s financial and economic problems, through a book such as Al Ebra2 Al Mousta7il on one single politician and his party, however corrupt that politician was, is illogical and non-sensical.
Al Ebra2 Al Mousta7il is a book that will get those who support the FPM to support the party even further without even reading the book. Let’s be honest, most FPMers won’t read it and will count on their politicians telling them what the book contains. Those who are against the FPM will dismiss it as nonsense. And come election time, no one will really remember it.
And the merry goes round.
Hariri was corrupt, sure. But Hariri was not the only one who’s corrupt. People with glass houses should not throw stones. Everyone has their own ebra2 al mousta7il.
A Separate State of Mind | A Blog by Elie Fares 
Precisely, I don’t mind the book existing. I think we should talk about what the book contains but the story of corruption doesn’t end where the book says it does.
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Yeah I don’t mind the book existing as well. But there are other sides of the story that also should be told – thanks for reading.
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I fully agree to that as well, especially that many of those involved in the corruption back then are now against Hariri and co. are in fact allies with FPM…..somehow they fail to mention these people…. and this may be a different issue (doubt it though), but let’s not forget a certain someone who has been head of parliament for more than twenty years now….i’ll bet that story’s corruption free….
in the end, killon adrab min ba3don… I just can’t stand the hypocrisy of it all…..
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100%
This is what I alluded to. The only politicians arguably who are in power (or have their party in power) today who weren’t during the 1990s are Geagea and Aoun.
Everyone else was not only there but was more than active in whatever took place during the day.
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FPMers are corrupt in SOME things yes we all agree with that but what hariri and co (and yes he was the ONLY one running she show till 2005 even if he wasnt PM in 2000 for a year or 2 i think everything was in his hands) have done was MUCH MUCH worse like sukleen solidere 40-50 BILLION $ debt for what ?
we dont need THAT amount of money to build the country (if they have built anything) and the list endless they F***ed up the country forever
MOST of the country’s problems come from hariri’s debt why do you think taxes r raising since 1990’s ? because of the debt
yet again im NOT saying FPMers r not corrupt but they didnt ruin the country forever as hariri did
“A Western company is suing Gebran Bassil for the way he handled one of the many bids that pass under his ministry. Isn’t that corruption?” <<< i DIDNT hear that at all not on the news or any other person talking abt it, any link for that ? not march14 ofcourse they r going to bash each other and make stories
so if there is non 8-14 link ill be glad to read it thanks
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All governments that existed from 1990 until 2005 did not only include Mr. Hariri alone, which is what I alluded to halfway through this piece.
I didn’t say what Hariri did is acceptable. But saying that it’s acceptable for others to do less in comparison is unacceptable to me and I consider it as one of those attempts to delude people.
We can go on and on about the worth of Lebanon’s debt and its causes, the point is this book is not the definite answer.
Here’s the link you requested: http://www.alankabout.com/lebanon_news/23478.html
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Elie i think the book is a good start. Yes it is only attacking Future so I believe there should be another book about everyone including FPM but I don’t get your point about not reading it.
Regarding “A Western company is suing Gebran Bassil .. The spanish company Abener won the bid to build a new power plant in Deir Amar. Younes is the company representative in Lebanon. You probably know him cuz he ran for elections in Batroun. 14 March accused bassil of awarding the project to his friend.Since their price of 660M $ was 2 high knowing that the budget is only 502M$ , the ministry asked for a reduction which came down only to 564M$.
failing to reduce their price to 502M$, the ministry had to re-do the bid which took only 2 months to accomplish. The scope remained the same except for a cpl of optional spare parts which may or may not be needed in the next 20 years .14 March started threatening with “tahkim douwali” which never happened and they started a propaganda abt european companies losing their trust in lebanon…..And they started defending Younes. Don’t really understand y since he was accused at the first place of paying commissions to Bassil. Legally the government has no obligation to award them the project since there are no contracts signed yet. i can further explain to u the legal aspect but the point is the spanish company didn’t file a lawsuit cuz they know they will lose. But Younes did at “shoura al dawla” and he will probably lose this one.
Results of the the second tender : JP Avax won which is a greek company for the price of 490M$ with an increase of 20MW in generation . So looking at the results the ministry managed to save few millions and get a better deal.
The chinese company which by the way is under the umbrella of GE as for the greek company presented their offer but for some reasons during the clarification process decided to change their numbers which is not allowed since both offers were opened. The whole process takes place in “iidarat al mounaqassat” with the presence of the international consultant.Idarat al mounakassat refused to accept a change in the offer because it is illegal and the chinese company decided to pull back for that reason and mainly because they know they lost. I am sure they will never file a lawsuit and I hope they do.
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Hariri sucked but he wasn’t the only one who did. That’s all.
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That’s my point. He may have sucked the most but that doesn’t mean his sickness – lol at the term – is the only one we should talk about.
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“My premise isn’t about the book’s content. It’s about the point behind the book”. A book containing such facts about the corruption that took place for 2 decades in your country does not worth discussing its content?!
When talking about Hariri’s corruption, you confirm it in 2 words and that’s it, but when you hear about a story regarding FPM ministers and MPs, all resources are available blog posts, links, news…
Maybe people will forget during the election day all the corruption made by Hariri era, but I pretty sure that History won’t forget or forgive…
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I didn’t say the content is worthless. I didn’t say the book is useless. I don’t even need to enumerate Hariri’s failings in order to pinpoint his corruption because it’s as clear and sure as the sun rising every morning. Unless you live in Sweden.
The point of this is the following: yes, ebra2 is a book that should be available. But it shouldn’t be a book with an underlying political motive to get votes and it shouldn’t only target ONE politician of an era in which every single politician present today (minus Aoun and Geagea) were active and building fortunes.
PS: I can google Hariri’s corruption as I did for Bassil and Layoun but I googled them to illustrate the point that no one is a saint.
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You are comparing a general theft that happened for 15 years to some personal investments. Hariri did the MUCH horrible things to Beirut and yet you thank him for “Solidere”. This book should have been issued a long time ago.
“Who among us does not know that the Hariri era of politics was riddled with corruption?” Since everybody knows, why do people keep on voting for his successors ?
Why did you wait until Kalam Ennas episode to talk about this book ?
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1) the alternative being offered to Hariri isn’t better. I’d rather vote for him than Hezbollah and Amal.
2) Corruption is corruption no matter how you spin it.
3) Because the discussion with which this post began took place recently.
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It is very clear that you vote for Hariri. if the alternative is not better, then you vote for a corrupted movement?? you can always vote by a blank paper…
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I do not vote for Hariri in my region. I vote for two Maronite MPs who happen not to be part of the future movement.
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I also did NOT thank Hariri for Solidere. You should read again.
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