With continuous crises quaking the country, and the massive failure of the ruling body in what has come to be dubbed by the people as the worst era of Lebanon, the president was just celebrated with a garden in his name.
The said garden, located in the Marj Rima of Akoura, is an initiative by the Old Guard in cooperation with the Akoura municipality.
The newly formed group called The Old Guard, according to the website of the Free Patriotic Movement (FPM), started its activities due to the “vicious” campaign against President Aoun and the FPM and its people.
The Old Guard claims itself to be an independent group that functions within the constants set by the president, and cites its members to be from “the Aoun Generation.” They classify themselves as FPM leaders, which rationally disclaims their statement of being independent.
The FPM is a political party, founded by Aoun, and led by Gebran Bassil, a politician allied with Hezbollah and who is under US sanctions. So, how independent this group of FPM leaders could possibly be?
Interestingly enough, the launching of that group and its garden for Aoun emerged right after the U.N. warned that Lebanon is heading to a “social catastrophe”, a responsibility that logically falls on those in charge, starting from the top and including all the ruling leaders.
In fact, the ruling body has remarkably failed its responsibilities towards the people, their safety, and their well-being.
Lebanon is living under the toughest crisis ever, due to misgovernance of the country’s affairs, all while the ruling politicians haggle over “who gets what” in a new government which they have been even incapable of forming for months.
Meanwhile, Lebanon has been without a government since August 10th, when then-Prime Minister Hassan Diab’s government resigned only six days after the deadly port explosion occurred.
Alike the long-compounding crises in the country, that disastrous blast was caused by the absolute carelessness of successive governments, while the current presidency also knew about the existence of the lethal and highly hazardous substance. It resulted in the death of over 200 people, injuring thousands, and wiping out a huge portion of the city.
Ever since then, more neglect from the ruling body continues to unravel, with the city restoration being handled by the people and the NGOs, the living victims uncared for by the state, and an investigation that seems to turn around the bushes with no results and no justice.
Who from the ruling body is there to celebrate? One could wonder. Would a garden named after the president dismiss the truth of the agonizing status quo of the country, or even erase from the memory of this nation the Beirut Blast and the massive failure of the rulers?
Some are certainly living still in past glorious promises no one has seen materialized.
There is no “vicious” campaign, as FPM claims. There is a massive awakening to a harsh reality that can’t be possibly denied, nor those who caused it can go unblamed.
This is not a past episode in which facts could be twisted to fit a self-serving narrative. The Lebanese are living it today and on a daily basis.
And it continues to unravel… with the crisis-ridden country about to lose any chance of receiving the promised international aid because of the ruling politicians.
Foreign Office Minister for the Middle East James Cleverly said on Thursday that Lebanon is on the verge of not being able to feed itself.
A garden…. a street… a plaque… What would their names mean when Beirut is still destroyed, its streets in shambles, its homes shattered, victims are still uncared for, some are still missing, and justice has yet to see the light?
