Open message to all fellow free activists!

[Joumana Gebara]

Originally Posted by Comrade Bassam

After many years of a general "down" feeling among good active citizens in Lebanon, most of which USED TO believe in FPM as their home and safe heaven, it's time to retrieve the flames of leadership!

Before initiating I can tell you one thing: I had goosebumps... and thought: How many will really understand what the guy wrote? How many will really want to understand what he wrote?
What a great sense of analysis the guy has and only few possess? Why is he writing on forum instead of addressing the issues in a FPM meeting?

I also thought that you are completely right and eventhough I am not an FPMer, we share the same values and principles. I remembered what I wrote only few years ago: From your haven of peace, your harbor of dreams
Farewell FPM
I know how you feel very well and I understand your source of frustration, disappointment and "rage". But all what I would say will not help you, the disease lies in what I wrote few years ago and had already warned from happening: The Orange Light Disease (When True Oranges get infected by Orange Lights who are not TRUE but are only LIGHT like Cola Diet or Lemonade without lemons or adopt the attitude "ba3d 7mare ma yenbot 7ashish" ...)

Some NGO-like organizations tried to inherit FPM's spirit that dropped down due to many factors such as:
1) Emigration of excellent leaders and cultured ground masters.
2) Huge negative political occurrences such as the assassination of Rafic Hariri and all the waves of absurdity that followed.
3) Bad visionless expansion plan by
4) Terrible behavior of some corrupt opportunistic FPM activists parachuted to perform critical tasks that cannot tolerate mediocrity!
5) The loss of direction in matter of purpose of existence, which definitely lead to spontaneous political strategies never interconnected upon any kind of clear vision.
6) The rise of "real-politics" as a hollow coverage of corrupt behavior.
7) The rise of the ugliest forms of cheap partisan behavior, especially at the level of youth.
8) The dangerous successful conspiracy against the FREE youth and universities sector in FPM.
9) The bad economic situation... NOT!
etc...

However, most of those movement were nothing but failed trials to gain appearance by some idiots who wanted to feel like having a role in political and/or social life. The maximum they could get was a few pages in some prestige lousy magazines, but never really succeeded in creating any living spirit in civil society despite the massive funding they attract from international governmental and non-governmental institutions.

Kindly name some NGOs. On the other hand you indirectly investigated the reason behind the rise of such NGOs -----> the political parties do not represent their aspirations "anymore".

Many great people, most of which I have known from this forum, failed to find any sincere channeling of their active talents. Society fell in absurdity and FPM, as a mass, didn't survive that wave. Only few preserved their IQ and quality and always kept thinking outside the box and witnessed with great sorrow the dangerous drop in all virtues and principles of their societies.

Allow me, but you are one of the FEW great people around however you did not fail because you continued developing and shaping yourself into a better citizen and actually this is what is required: people who work on their inner-portfolio in order to be able to build a better country. People who do not work on themselves induce the abnormality in a country's structure and are the obstacle for the whole society.
Definition of a person who worked on himself/herself:
A person who developed a great sense of responsibility toward others, who developed a great sense of human sensibilization, who respects people's dignity, who is freed from hate, who can think rationaly about things he/she emotionally cares about.

To be continued.

[Comrade Bassam]

Originally Posted by freedom4ever

these days no body is in this mentality anymore

You're very much mistaken... Very much :)
Otherwise, I wouldn't have opened a thread starting by the words "It's time!"
Cheers comrade...

[Comrade Bassam]

Originally Posted by Joumana Gebara

Before initiating I can tell you one thing: I had goosebumps... and thought: How many will really understand what the guy wrote? How many will really want to understand what he wrote?
What a great sense of analysis the guy has and only few possess? Why is he writing on forum instead of addressing the issues in a FPM meeting?

I also thought that you are completely right and eventhough I am not an FPMer, we share the same values and principles. I remembered what I wrote only few years ago: From your haven of peace, your harbor of dreams
Farewell FPM
I know how you feel very well and I understand your source of frustration, disappointment and "rage". But all what I would say will not help you, the disease lies in what I wrote few years ago and had already warned from happening: The Orange Light Disease (When True Oranges get infected by Orange Lights who are not TRUE but are only LIGHT like Cola Diet or Lemonade without lemons or adopt the attitude "ba3d 7mare ma yenbot 7ashish" ...)



Kindly name some NGOs. On the other hand you indirectly investigated the reason behind the rise of such NGOs -----> the political parties do not represent their aspirations "anymore".



Allow me, but you are one of the FEW great people around however you did not fail because you continued developing and shaping yourself into a better citizen and actually this is what is required: people who work on their inner-portfolio in order to be able to build a better country. People who do not work on themselves induce the abnormality in a country's structure and are the obstacle for the whole society.
Definition of a person who worked on himself/herself:
A person who developed a great sense of responsibility toward others, who developed a great sense of human sensibilization, who respects people's dignity, who is freed from hate, who can think rationaly about things he/she emotionally cares about.

To be continued.

Hats off my fellow free citizen!
It is indeed so great and refreshing to find back all those great thoughts in those threads.
And it's indeed... to be continued!

[Positive Balance]

Originally Posted by shadow1

I personally think the major problem with FPM happened in 2005 election when it won comprehensively in the christian heartland. That propelled it into a major status party and somehow forced it to cater to its christian street at the expense of the secularist philosophy it was advocating.



Since then it has been shrinking. Had it started out with humble winning it could have pursued its philosophy more freely and recruited people to a ceratin line of thinking rather than becoming just another party. So it peaked way too early and when it was in an amorphous stage. Therefore each person had ( and still has) his/her idea of the party irrespective of whether the party is what these people believe it is.

The dissatisfaction in directly related to unfulfilled expectations which the party did nothing to hose down and hence disappointment.

I suggest you guys wait another 5 years because in all likelihood in the next election the FPM will lose most of its seats and maybe then it can go back to its philosophical roots and grow again.

I wrote a post maybe 2 years ago with some very similar points; unfortunately I can't find it anymore. Basically, I was arguing that FPM has struggled to make the transition from a movement to a political party. There is the conflict of idealism vs. realism, and the blurry line between them at present means that expectations and results haven't been as well balanced as they should have been. FPM made a choice to enter politics decisively by entering into an alliance; this was a difficult decision. In fact, back in those days mentioning the word alliance on this forum was sure to result in many many offensive posts reminding that it is not an alliance, just an understanding. If you think back to those days, you will realize how big the shift has become. Now going from outside the establishment into the political establishment is always going to lead to big changes; in Lebanon this is even worse as what we call democratic politics hardly even deserves the name. When you are forced by circumstances to enter into alliances with religious parties/figures, (ex-)corrupt political figures, feudal lineages, etc. etc. this chips away at the idealistic identity of FPM.

Anyway, I digress. I just think that overall FPM is internally unsure of whether it should go back to its principles or should accept that being a political party means moving a little bit away from idealism and accepting realism. Neither of the two is necessarily more valid than the other; in fact although I probably support the former, I think people like Abou Sandal make great arguments for why it should be the latter. The only problem is that this was just never really resolved.

One more thought: to an extent, this outcome is partially because of campaigns against FPM AND how FPM has allowed subsequently the discussion to move away from substantive issues into the more acrimonious, mud-slinging kind of Lebanese politics, in which neither party comes out convincing anyone who wasn't already convinced. GMA feeling the need to answer every ridiculous charge against him and FPM personally detracted from the message, and eventually came to dominate the substantive reform agenda of FPM.

That is my humble opinion.

[Shuyu3i]

There are many things wrong with FPM.

1) They have one leader and are unsure about the future and that is why they have not had internal elections as of yet. It is only normal that GMA wants Bassil but other's don't want him.

2) They used to attack everyone who is corrupt, NOW they select who they want to attack as some of their allies who were once known pro-syrians as also corrupt.

3) They used to support the LAF NO MATTER WHAT, Now they ask what is the army doing here and there.

I still think FPM is a good party but it need to return to its days as movement. It being a sectarian party has damaged its image.

[Red Phoenix]

this seems like open orange duck hunting season

so i dont know what to exactly make of anything given my observer only status

is gma at fault here? is the party ? is society? is it really surprising ? and how on earth can u change things if most fpmers now are not activists while many partisans seem to excel at not being good at their positions..

not that i care that much to be honest, then again i never claimed to be a activisit/partisan/hero, i'm just a outside man with a pen who admires gma and fpmers with their flaws included although these days i have no love to spare for the party

but as i always said, party business is none of my business

but who i vote for is my business, but that is a private for my brain matter

so how does the active critics here propose to fix the probs their eyes and minds picked up ?

if u ask me i dont see a way out, but i must admit at some point i was more of an idealist until i rediscovered that i was living in lebanon..

[supersonichadi]

Originally Posted by Red Phoenix

this seems like open orange duck hunting season

so i dont know what to exactly make of anything given my observer only status

is gma at fault here? is the party ? is society? is it really surprising ? and how on earth can u change things if most fpmers now are not activists while many partisans seem to excel at not being good at their positions..

not that i care that must to be honest, then again i never claimed to be a activisit/partisan/hero, i'm just a outside man with a pen who admires gma and fpmers with their flaws included although these days i have no love to spare for the party

Minor faults from all you mentioned lead us to this.

[Shuyu3i]

If you have reservations on how the party is working it does not mean that you dont like the party. Constructive criticism does every party good as it will change its ways. As a party wants the people to vote for them, they also have to LISTEN to what the people want. As GMA once said that the people should not be sheep, we should question our leaders decisions ?

As I see it FPM as a movement was so much more popular as it was fighting for a cause which was back then to restore lebanon's indepedence. Now after Syria withdrawel people do not know what they are fighting for as he has now allied with the pro syrians that WERE once in charge WITH hariri and walid jumblatt.

I hope it reforms its way and kicked out those who want to use FPM for their own personal gains.

[Comrade Bassam]

Originally Posted by Shuyu3i

Now after Syria withdrawel people do not know what they are fighting for as he has now allied with the pro syrians that WERE once in charge WITH hariri and walid jumblatt.

People? and what makes you eligible to speak in the name of people?
And if there are still any human beings that still did not understand this issue, we have many excellent mental rehabilitation centers that can take care of their understanding capabilities.

[Comrade Bassam]

Originally Posted by Shuyu3i

There are many things wrong with FPM.

1) They have one leader and are unsure about the future and that is why they have not had internal elections as of yet. It is only normal that GMA wants Bassil but other's don't want him.

Wrong! FPM is a living database of hundreds of top leaders, not on paper or positions, but in character and effectiveness.
And the occurrence of internal elections in the party has nothing to do with the leadership thing. There's nothing called "leader" in the party's organizational structure. So I advise you to do some research in that regard before making such a judgment.

Originally Posted by Shuyu3i

2) They used to attack everyone who is corrupt, NOW they select who they want to attack as some of their allies who were once known pro-syrians as also corrupt.

How is that? Name me one single corrupt person that a court called for accountability and FPM interfered to protect him (or her).
Bass ba2a la22 7akeh bala ta3meh!

Originally Posted by Shuyu3i

3) They used to support the LAF NO MATTER WHAT, Now they ask what is the army doing here and there.

Wrong! This is not the way it happened. The questioning was upon doubts in bad intentions behind sending the poor guy to a hot region while they know the circumstances of it, without any prior coordination. The intentions were to create such an incident to strike upon Hezballah's and FPM's vision.

Originally Posted by Shuyu3i

I still think FPM is a good party but it need to return to its days as movement. It being a sectarian party has damaged its image.

It's not FPM that needs to get back to a certain behavior. It's up to FPMers to rebuild their active spirits in society, and this is exactly the purpose of this thread.


So all the flaws you have cited are not accurate. Ghayro!