Beirut: To outsiders it could seem that Hezbollah, a dominant Shiite party in Lebanon that is backed by Iran, is the sole representative of the Lebanese Shiite community. However, Ahmad Al Asa’ad, the scion of a leading family that served the country for three generations, has given Lebanese Shiites an alternative by establishing the Lebanese Option Party (LOP) — which stands out as one of the few secular and economically liberal organisations in the country.
The LOP was established in 2007 when Ahmad, the son of former speaker of the Lebanese parliament, Kamel Al Asa’ad, and the grandson of one of the founding fathers, former Speaker Ahmad Al Asa’ad, decided to regain the hearts and minds of those who fell under the political hegemony of Hezbollah and the Amal Movement.
The LOP decided not to join the March 14 Alliance, even though it opposed its main political rival, the March 8 group. On June 9, 2013, an LOP activist and head of the party’s student wing, Hashem Salman, was shot dead in broad daylight during a protest outside the Iranian Embassy in Beirut.
The protest openly criticised Hezbollah’s involvement in the Syrian Civil War, and while news cameras recorded the tragedy in minute details, Beirut authorities chose to let the killer(s) free. It was after this incident that Ahmad Al Asa’ad called for Lebanon to cut ties with Damascus as well as to expel its ambassador.
Gulf News asked him how he foresaw the future of Lebanon. His ongoing initiatives, including the granting of scholarships to youngsters from underprivileged communities, offered a glimmer of hope that confirmed, once again, that clear alternatives existed in the land of the Cedars.
Gulf News: Long defined through its confessional fabric, Lebanon maintains the pretension of a state while it is little more than a collection of tiny nations, each anxious to preserve illusionary gains. After civil wars, foreign occupations and now genuine political instabilities, what should be done to unshackle the Lebanese from their past, forge a new national covenant and establish the foundations of a modernising society?
Ahmad Al Asa’ad: When any country is lead by men of vision and men of ethics; this is when these kind of statesmen put their country on the right path to become a true modern state governed by the rule of law. All the countries that have become modern and truly democratic have had such leaders at a certain point in time who have put their nation on the right path. A population of any country is not born with these democratic and modern values; they are passed on generation after generation once great visionary statesmen start implementing them. The biggest proof is North and South Korea; here you have one population that in the North went to the dark ages because of the kind of leadership this country has had since the 1950s and on the hand, the other part that lives in South Korea is now part of the modern world because of the different leadership South Korea has had since the 1950s.
Unfortunately such calibre statesmen do not exist in the Lebanon of nowadays. Having said that, still even if these statesmen were to exist, nothing can be done in Lebanon if the problem of Hezbollah is not resolved. After all, Hezbollah is a party that is more powerful than the Lebanese state, at the same it is a party that must be weakened and toppled in order for the Lebanese state to be able to rise.
Gulf News: You have repeatedly called for the rise of a new class of leaders who will put the interests of the country above all else. Under what circumstances could this become reality and how?
Ahmad Al Asa’ad: A society can be called truly democratic when the people in that society hold their leaders and their politicians accountable. Unfortunately this is not the case in Lebanon. That is why we cannot say that Lebanon has true democratic values; all we can say is that there is space for freedom of speech in Lebanon.
In Lebanon and throughout the Middle East, we need politicians and political parties that operate with a modern mentality like we see in the West. We need political parties that compete with each other through their different programmes with figures and not just mere empty slogans that mean nothing at all.
Unfortunately most of the political class in Lebanon is from what I mentioned above. On the contrary they operate the same way things used to happen in the Middle Ages, their popularity is not based on their merits or ideas or hard work; their popularity is simply based on the favouritism that they are able to deliver to the people through the Lebanese institution.
When you look at the political class in any respected country, you see that [it] is somehow the ‘Elite’ of the Civil Society. In Lebanon, things are completely the opposite. The political class in general reflects “the thugs” of Lebanese society. Still no foreseeable change can take place in this political establishment before having the issue of Hezbollah settled.
Gulf News: With significant socio-economic discrepancies within Lebanon, which has the gamut ranging between the highly educated and competent professionals to beholden masses, what can be done to remove existing inequalities that lead many young men and women to either emigrate or drift away?
Ahmad Al Asa’ad: Nothing can be done now. The reason why there is still poverty in Lebanon is because there is hardly any economic growth. And the reason why there is no economic growth in Lebanon is because there are hardly any tangible investments in the Lebanese economy. And the reason why there are no investments is because most of the investors feel that the security in Lebanon is too fragile; which brings us back to Hezbollah.
The only thing Lebanon really needs is security and stability; give us this and I will show you an economical miracle that has not been seen throughout history, not even in China or the golden days of Hong Kong with double-digit economic growth. All the ingredients are there to produce this miracle, the know-how, the successful Diaspora that would be interested to come back, the business know-how of the Lebanese etc... all that is really needed is once again security and stability on the ground.
Gulf News: Although the nearly three-decade old Syrian occupation resulted in the withdrawal of that country’s army from Lebanon, local proxies, especially Hezbollah, remained indebted to Damascus. Hezbollah was equally obligated to Tehran, where the mullahs committed Iran to an indirect occupation of Lebanon, believing that their borders were now on the Mediterranean. What do these blatant interferences tell us about Lebanon’s future? Can Beirut maintain its independence when a significant indigenous force places the interests of foreign powers ahead of those of the state?
Ahmad Al Asa’ad: It can only tell us one thing: Lebanon could never become what it deserves to become the shining star of the Middle East as long as it is controlled by Hezbollah.
Gulf News: Hezbollah is a force to reckon, as it seems to be properly motivated and, by universal acknowledgement, is disciplined and organised. Yet, by acting as fodder for Tehran and Damascus in the Syrian Civil War, the party surrendered most of the sovereignty it presumably required to expand on the local political scene. What is one to make of Hezbollah’s strengths? Can it add value to Lebanon over the long-term?
Ahmad Al Asa’ad: Hezbollah has no added value to Lebanon. On the contrary, it is a huge burden on the shoulders of Lebanon.
However Hezbollah has an added value to the regime in Tehran as it considers it its “export success” or “its joy and pride” exactly like the former Soviet Union used to consider Cuba. [It’s] amazing how history repeats itself, people in the old Soviet Union were hungry, still the state’s money was going left and right to export communism as was the case with Cuba. The same applies to Iran today. Iran is a poor country. However, instead of putting all the money in the economy [to] help it as much as possible, this regime is spending money on groups like Hezbollah thinking that it will be flexing its muscles that way while not able to understand that in the 21st century the real way for a country to flex its muscle is through economical and technological accomplishments.
Gulf News: Although Hezbollah plays down sectarianism, and highlights its alliance with General Michel Aoun’s Free Patriotic Movement, its rhetoric is highly sectarian. In fact, it first justified its presence in Syria as a religious duty to protect sacred sites, although there were few such spots in Qusayr, Homs or Aleppo. What is one to make of the party’s sectarian penchants?
Ahmad Al Asa’ad: Hezbollah will do whatever the Iranian regime asks it to do. All their justifications why they had to get in and fight in Syria are just excuses in order not to show the real truth which is that they have to obey the orders coming from Tehran. If one day the Iranian regime finds that it is in their interest to bring back the Taliban in Afghanistan; Hezbollah will have to go and fight in Afghanistan if it was asked to do so from the Iranian patron.
Gulf News: How do you assess current concerns over the dormant Sunni-Shiite rivalries? Are we heading towards a 100-year-long war in the Muslim world? What can be done to prevent such a development?
Ahmad Al Asa’ad: Leaders of the Middle East must be courageous today more than ever. We have to stop making grey statements. We have to stop befriending some Islamists while taking on others. We must declare war on all these so called radical Islamists and take courageous measures in schools and in mosques in order to fight them. If we do not do that now, if we keep postponing things as we always like to do in the Arab world, if we do not have a middle and long-term plan, we might wake up one day 30 years from now and find out that we have lost our region to these fanatics.
Gulf News: You are involved in a new programmeme, ‘Saving the Next Generation’. What is it and what are its goals?
Ahmad Al Asa’ad: Saving the Next Generation or SNG goes to the poor neighbourhoods of Lebanon, where extremism can grow.
We offer these kids starting at the age of 10 years old a different path; one that is based on fun and education. These kids do a monthly day trip to one Lebanon’s most exclusive destinations. They also go twice a year to our camp which we have built in Tanourine. The reason we chose Tanourine was not only because it is high in the mountains and therefore they can do winter activities like skiing in the winter and complete different activities in the summer as well, but also because it is a Catholic village. We want our kids to come face to face with other kids from other backgrounds and find out for themselves that all what they have been told by the radicals around them at home is false. They will see that the Christian kids are not their enemy, they will see that they all are the same, they are all kids that want the same toys and laugh and play with the same game. Each time they stay in the camp three days doing a lot of fun activities as well as taking a basic computer course and a basic English course.
All along we encourage them to do well in school, and some we sponsor in top Lebanese Universities. We have started sending the kids with excellent grades to the US not only because of the great level of education American universities have to offer but also in order to come face to face with the so-called ‘Great Satan’ and find out for themselves who the ‘Great Satan’ really is.
The whole vision behind SNG is to offer these desperate kids a viable option. At the end of the day, a young man with very little education, with no job and no hope in life will easily join any radical movement if he is offered a few hundred dollars a month. However, the same young man, given a good education with a degree from a respected university, which allows him to find a decent job, one that can make him afford to live and raise a family, and if they are approached by any radical group they can tell them, “the hell with you and with your wars, I have better things to do with my life”.
The world need more foundations like SNG that can get to these kids before it is too late, before the radicals get to them. We started SNG in 2011; so far we have 1,560 kids, 157 University students in Lebanon and three university students in the US.
