Leaked Lebanon cabinet names cause uproar

Beirut: Notwithstanding anticipated difficulties due to vastly divergent demands made by opposing March 14 and March 8 coalitions, Prime minister-designate Tammam Salam was optimistic, as he foresaw a professional cabinet within 10-days. Following customary consultations with each of the country’s major political parties, the week ended at the Ba’abda Presidential Palace on a high-note, as Salam and President Michel Suleiman exchanged notes and coordinated various choices.

Both men hoped that Salam’s vision for a cabinet of “national interests” would mature before long. More important, and unlike all of his predecessors, Salam stuck to his guns, threatened to resign if he was prevented from proceeding, and contended that his government would oversee upcoming parliamentary elections. Although determined to act as a leader, the prime minister-designate faced the combined wrath of opposing camps, each with insurmountable stipulations.

March 14 insisted on a neutral, non-partisan cabinet, while March 8 stipulated its preference for a partisan “national unity” cabinet that recognised all parties in proportion to their share of the current parliament. As an added twist, March 8’s General Michel Aoun, who led the Free Patriotic Movement (FPM), specifically sought to retain control over the energy and telecom ministries, both of which were ideal cash cows that delivered beyond anyone’s expectations.

It remained to be determined whether the FPM would hold on to the two lucrative portfolios especially after Progressive Socialist Party (PSP) leader Walid Junblatt contented that a rotation was in order. In the event, a carefully leaked report over the identities of potential ministers dismayed pro-March 8 news outlets, since it revealed non-partisan names. Al Manar television quoted FPM sources that verbalized the party’s fears: “Given the leaked information and the non-neutral candidates,” the report hammered, “this cabinet can be described as a ‘cabinet of ghosts.’” It further declared that during talks with President Michel Suleiman, the later allegedly said that “it was too early to approve a de facto cabinet line-up, and the call for (national) dialogue [ought to] happen” simultaneously.

An FPM deputy, Nabil Nicola, was not as diplomatic. He criticised the leaked lineup during an interview on OTV, as he stressed that “if technocrat means that the minister should be totally neutral, I think the political affiliation of some of the published names is very well-known.” He was especially incensed by one name on the alleged list, that of Bahij Abou Hamzah, who was close to PSP leader Walid Jumblatt. Others on the unverified list, which was leaked to several media outlets, included caretaker Interior Minister Marwan Charbel, former-ministers Jean Obeid, Ziad Baroud, Raed Sharafeddine, as well as former deputies Nasser Nasrallah, Bahij Abou Hamzah, Nicolas Nahhas and Mohammad Al Mashnouq, all of whom were apparently under consideration by Salam. As each bloc expressed its narrow vision for a new cabinet, Salam confronted a serious roadblock to his “national interests” proposal, even if rejection of a “national unity” government was technically valid given past performances. His challenge was to accommodate all without catering to narrow constituents that demanded a cut of the pie. Consequently, Salam’s desire to form a smaller cabinet with a six-month lifespan to oversee parliamentary elections, was too good to be true.

The wrangle over portfolios reflected poor political habits and prevented a felicitous outcome, although the far more important concern was the über “obstacle” in his way, namely the linkage between a government with the very nature of a contemplated electoral law under which citizens would be called upon to cast their votes in a few months. Lebanese observers raised the hypothesis that March 8 conceded and accepted Tammam Salam as Prime Minister designate in exchange for concessions regarding the longstanding dispute over the next electoral law, which meant that the new cabinet could only be formed after an electoral law was agreed to. Wary Lebanese waited to see which would come first—a cabinet or an electoral law—hoping that politicians would finally agree to let the country gradually recover from its deep crises.