With no government, Lebanon will sink like the Titanic. This is how Lebanon’s Speaker of Parliament Nabih Berri opened a parliamentary meeting on Monday.
Berri‘s statement mirrors the words of French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian who compared Lebanon’s collapse to the sinking Titanic only without the orchestra.
The difference is that Le Drian had said this back in December after having already predicted that the country was a hopeless case.
Le Drian could foretell that Lebanon will inevitably drown and take everyone down with it like the ill-fated passenger liner.
Three months later and still no urgency for action felt by the political leadership of the collapsing country. Berri, in his opening speech, gave Lebanon around two more months to form a government before it meets its demise.
“The country is in danger if a government isn’t formed in two months. The country as a whole is a Titanic and no one will remain as everyone will sink and the country will sink with us all,” he warned, although Lebanon gives no indication that it can afford such time.
Unlike the infamous legendary ship, there seems to be no one at the helm of the Lebanese Titanic as no one claims responsibility other than issuing speeches blaming others.
That idleness was reflected in the words of MP Jamil Al-Sayyed who, after the parliamentary meeting, blasted the MPs saying that the whole meeting was a sham and a show aimed at lying to the people and fool the population to believe they were doing something.
Fact is, the fate of the country is in the hands of the same political elite who brought it to this dangerous state and now refuses to take the proper patriotic action to save it before it is too late.
Panic is now being expressed among some of them. However, it remains to see if it would be enough for them to act when, for over a year, the outcries of the people haven’t been enough to shake them out of their lethargy.
