The Lebanese National Bloc Party blamed the establishment for the state of “hunger and humiliation” that led to the “suicide of two citizens” today, reminding that similar incidents ignited the Arab Spring. It indicated, in a statement, that a national unity government will only be a “government of unity against all Lebanese.”
Read the full statement below:
The ruling establishment is responsible for the state of hunger and humiliation that led two citizens to commit suicide in broad daylight. Similar serious incidents had ignited the Arab Spring uprisings, and overthrew governments and regimes around the world.
Today, Lebanese undeniably agree that this government, and those pulling its strings, totally failed to make any reforms. Rather, it is generally admitted that the government is pushing the country towards disaster.
This government failed to fix the price of the flat bread bundle at 1,500 pounds. The leaders of the sects’ parties hurried to humiliate the citizen again by distributing bread and subsidies, while hundreds of millions of dollars are still being spent on the Bisri dam, wasted, or smuggled without any accountability. Meanwhile, the fiery speeches of Prime Minister Hassan Diab accusing of betrayal, are not concealing anymore the dissensions of those in power.
The detachment from reality at its worst; admitting failure and hanging on to the quota distribution system, down to the last resource of the state.
Now, they are intrigued by the idea of a national unity government, and the return of former PM Saad Hariri to the Grand Serail. Again, the disarray between Hariri’s conditions and their rejection, and the conditions of others on him. Similarly, there are those who apparently refuse even the idea of a government change, although they wish it could happen to rid themselves of responsibility, and those who are clinging to the government even at the risk of ruining Lebanon.
The ultimate, gravest, and immoral disassociation of this establishment is between itself and those it is ignoring or treating with indifference, the Lebanese people.
These people are the citizens who lost everything; those who are unaware if food will still be available to them. They will soon lack medications. They reverted to candles and deplore the power outages, after their fridges became empty and schools out of reach.
In the end, do not think you are fooling people with your manipulations, in particular regarding the national unity government, because it will only be a government of unity against all Lebanese. Just step down.