The Minister Of Telecommunications, Johnny Corm, said on Thursday that the Lebanese Cabinet has a “last chance” to save the sector while warning of resignation if no action is taken.
During the press conference, Corm stated that if the decree to increase telecom tariffs is not approved, “do not hold me responsible”, as the failure to approve such tariff will greatly affect the telecom.
“Cabinet has the last chance tomorrow to halt the collapse of the sector through hiking the tariffs of the cellular sector, seeing as without internet we will have no schools, hospitals or economy, and without economy, Lebanon cannot exist,” he warned.
During the press conference, Minister Corm commented that “they” told him to cut off the internet connection “for people to accept tariffs increases.”
Posting the video of the minister’s speech on Twitter, Lucien Bou Reeily commented: “He admitted the policy of extortion adopted to complete the economic violence and avoid a reaction from the people. They cut gasoline to increase its price. They cut the bread to increase its price. They cut medicine to increase its price…”
وزير الاتصالات: "قالولي قطاع الانترنت كرمال الناس تتقبل زيادة التعرفة"
يعني اعترف بسياسة الابتزاز والترهيب المعتمدة لاستكمال العنف الاقتصادي وتجنب ردة فعل من قبل الشعب:
قطعوا البنزين ليزيدوا سعره.
قطعوا الخبز ليزيدوا سعره.
قطعوا الادوية ليزيدوا سعرها.
نظام مجرم يبتز الشعب لاخضاعه pic.twitter.com/U8IlDkkOi0— lucien bourjeily (@lucienbourjeily) May 20, 2022
The minister’s comment comes as a flashback to October 17th, 2019, when the Lebanese government tried to impose a $6 Whatsapp fee, triggering an almost instant nationwide uprise.
The uprise fast evolved into the Lebanese Revolution, known as the Thawra, which has now shown its impact on the political scene with the opposition to the regime gaining 13 seats in the parliament.
Related: ‘Touch’ Is Operating At Only 50% Capacity In Beirut.
