Junblatt hopes only to benefit Druze

Lebanese Druze leader Walid Junblatt has suggested a new political system for Lebanon. It would replace the widely debated yet generally observed National Pact, a gentleman's agreement reached in 1943 between then Maronite president Bishara Al Khoury and his Sunni prime minister Riyad Al Sulh. The original arrangement famously gave the presidential seat to a Christian Maronite and the premiership to a Sunni Muslim.

Junblatt has now called for rotation of the presidency, the premiership and speakership of parliament between the country's Sunnis, Shiites, Maronites and Druze. The proposal — which has surfaced on and off since 1943 — aroused more than a stir in Lebanon, dividing the already fragmented political class between supporters and opponents of the Druze leader's suggestion. Christian heavyweights were frantic, seeing in Junblatt's words a hidden call to make him a future president of Lebanon.

One of the loudest critics has been the country's Mufti, Shaikh Mohammad Rashid Qabbani, who said that the status quo should not be changed under any circumstances. Qabbani noted: "Discussion of controversial political issues should be postponed, particularly under the current circumstances, in order to preserve the atmosphere of consensus and avoid instigating a schism among the Lebanese." Christian figures among the March 14 Coalition — fearful that their hereditary post would be threatened — also flatly rejected the proposal. The Maronite Patriarch Mar Nasrallah Boutros Sfeir responded by saying that sectarianism should be abolished.from "people's hearts, before legal texts".

The debate comes shortly after Hezbollah issued a new manifesto calling for pragmatic changes to the organisation's dealings with the state, while maintaining the right to bear arms and fight the Israelis. Nasrallah answered talk in the West and among his opponents in Lebanon, who had accused him of wanting the Shiites to take control of the state in Beirut. "People evolve," he said. "The whole world has changed over the past 24 years. Lebanon has changed. The world order has changed." Hezbollah, after all, started out in the early 1980s wanting to establish an Iran-style theocracy in Lebanon. Nasrallah seemed to be saying: To all those who still have doubts, they should now be a thing of the past.

Recurring theme

The desire to do away with the National Pact of 1943 is widespread in Lebanese politics. During the early stages of the Civil War, Rashid Karameh said that he wanted to run for the presidency, and would welcome any Maronite eager to become prime minister. In 1976, Syrian president Hafez Al Assad encouraged Lebanese president Sulaiman Franjieh to issue a constitutional document giving the Muslims some key concessions they had been demanding since the 1940s: equal representation in parliament, more power and autonomy for the Sunni prime minister, who should be chosen by parliament, and not by the Maronite president, and equal access to top civil-service jobs. The proposal was turned down by many politicians who wanted more — much more — than what the Syrians had offered. When Assad met with Kamal Junblatt for 12 stormy hours on March 27, 1976, he asked: "Why are you escalating the fighting? The constitutional document gives you 95 per cent of what you want. What else are you after?" Kamal Junblatt angrily replied that he wanted to get rid of the Christians "who have been on top of us for 140 years."

Nasrallah's comments have helped to assuage the fears of those alarmed by Junblatt's words. Hezbollah is trying to assure its opponents that it has no intention of seizing control. Had it wanted to, Nasrallah has often said, it could have done so on many occasions, the latest being May 2008, when it fought a mini civil war with Sa'ad Hariri's March 14 troops. Instead, what it wants is to continue protecting, empowering and marketing the Shiites of Lebanon.

Many are wondering, however, why this controversial debate has resurfaced shortly after Hariri fulfilled the Herculean task of creating a Cabinet of national unity that includes all of Lebanon's sects and political parties. Surely such a utopian system is practically unachievable, although many non-Maronites would love to assume control of the Baabda Palace. Junblatt's words express a completely different ambition — a long-held one bequeathed from father to son — which, crazy as it may sound, would give the Druze (who are no more than five per cent of the population) control of Lebanon, if only temporarily.

The best way to make that happen would be to get other groups that are deprived of the premiership or presidency, such as the Shiites, involved in his new campaign. It comes after the Druze leader made a series of overtures towards Hezbollah, which include supporting its right to bear arms, cosying up to the Syrians and, recently, appearing on Al Manar TV and praising the resistance against Israel. Junblatt has even been trying to contact the UN to reassure it that Hezbollah has been disarmed — which, of course, is not the case.

Junblatt realises that eliminating the opposition is an option that no longer exists in Lebanon. If sharing power is the key to improving the position of the Druze of Lebanon, then this is the path he will take.

Sami Moubayed is editor-in-chief of Forward Magazine in Syria.