Government sets loss at 83 billion dollars without blame on political leadership
The Lebanese National Bloc Party asserted that the leaked version of the government bailout plan can be summed up in three points: the amount, the absence of political liability for bankruptcy, and the recovery of the stolen funds.
In statement, the Bloc stated that the government set the total accumulated losses for Lebanon at 83.2 billion dollars, saying that: “we have always warned against a system led by sectarian parties that have killed the economy, bankrupted the government, and wasted public money.” In response to those warnings the answer was always that the Lebanese Pound was in good shape, depositors’ funds were secure, the banking system was fortified, and the economy was improving. However the result was that the Lebanese lost their capital, and the regime lost its credibility.
The Bloc stressed that the lack of political liability and responsibility of this loss is a shameful matter: it’s as if the funds disappeared on their own or through operations that the government was unaware of. The Bloc clarified that all internal and external borrowing operations as well as spending of the public funds happened with the approval of, and under the supervision of successive governments and parliaments.
The Bloc asserted that there is no need for any debate since the main liability is a political one. The Central Bank may have been mistaken with its policies, and commercial banks may have become greedy and failed to safeguard their depositors funds, yet the main guilty party of this premeditated crime remains the parties in power that have successively overseen this robbery of national wealth. It is worth noting that some of those parties have been in power for 30 years, and some for only 15 years but contributed, participated in, and condoned this crime.
Pertaining to the slogan of “recovering the looted funds”: In the 34 page long government bailout plan it was never clarified or specified who the looters were, nor the amount of looted funds, nor the mechanism of recovering those funds. This only proves that the government has submitted to the will of the parties in power, and has freed those parties from any liability or guilt from this crime, consequently it will not ask those parties to return any of the looted funds.
The Bloc also noted that this proposed plan reveals that this political system that lost in legitimacy on “October 17”, is still hostage to its craving of power: it is a system that is attacking citizens’ savings without distinguishing between opponents and partisans.
The Bloc concluded its statement by saying that the will of the Lebanese people to affect change will overthrow the parties in power, and these parties will in the end have to return what they have stolen from the Lebanese people.