what should FPM tackle?

[sarhay]

The chronology of events in Lebanon since the declaration of Liberation war reveals that common national causes are not shared nationwide! Opposing occupation was mainly advocated by a small portion of the population; fighting corruption - while agreed on by all - the burden, again, lied on the same group, the call for equality among all groups is verbally supported by some and opposed by others, yet the same group carries the heavy load! Moreover, attempts, initiated by the same group to reconcile among various sections of society is hampered and obstructed by local, regional, and international forces.

Overall, the common initiator of such causes is FPM and the common outcome is unrecognized results by the whole population. Just compare the support for GMA/FPM causes pre- and post-2005 by Lebanese sects and you will have an idea about its current status. In such conditions, Do you believe that FPM priority now is to focus on:

1- Strengthening their inner house through establishing a political party; before extending its mission and ideals nationwide?
2- Combating sectarianism by advocating secularism, which is a dangerous mission given the fact that sectarianism is thriving across the nation?
3- Fighting corruption in the governmental system, knowing that not all citizens nor politicians will give them a supporting hand?
4- Solving local and regional issues rather than stretching their resources into national ones?

[The Jade]

Originally Posted by sarhay

The chronology of events in Lebanon since the declaration of Liberation war reveals that common national causes are not shared nationwide! Opposing occupation was mainly advocated by a small portion of the population; fighting corruption - while agreed on by all - the burden, again, lied on the same group, the call for equality among all groups is verbally supported by some and opposed by others, yet the same group carries the heavy load! Moreover, attempts, initiated by the same group to reconcile among various sections of society is hampered and obstructed by local, regional, and international forces.

Overall, the common initiator of such causes is FPM and the common outcome is unrecognized results by the whole population. Just compare the support for GMA/FPM causes pre- and post-2005 by Lebanese sects and you will have an idea about its current status. In such conditions, Do you believe that FPM priority now is to focus on:

1- Strengthening their inner house through establishing a political party; before extending its mission and ideals nationwide?
2- Combating sectarianism by advocating secularism, which is a dangerous mission given the fact that sectarianism is thriving across the nation?
3- Fighting corruption in the governmental system, knowing that not all citizens nor politicians will give them a supporting hand?
4- Solving local and regional issues rather than stretching their resources into national ones?

Start by cleaning your home before doing so with the others....

1- Strengthening their inner house through establishing a political party; before extending its mission and ideals nationwide?

[December Rain]

Since the Lebanese independence in 1943 no national issue was truly agreed on by all Lebanese factions, mainly because of the way the Lebanese people is divided, this division mainly caused by a mentality rather than by cultural/religious differences, since there are other countries that have the variety we have and yet they do not have our problems.

At the time of the liberation war, GMA and his supporters were in one corner and all the other factions including the Christian ones were in the other. When the Syrians took over the country and GMA was exiled everyone with no exception was hailing to the Syrian regime. Samir geagea and its LF kept on hailing till 1993/1994 when he was thrown in prison. The same applies to the other Lebanese factions. Which shows us that in Lebanon there are no principles. For example, in the case of geagea and Hariri etc… the principle of not hailing to any occupier of your country can simply be overridden by personal interests and a promise to give some form of power, when such a promise is not fulfilled the occupier becomes again an occupier and the collaborator becomes a nationalist and one of the cornerstones of the resistance against the occupation.

In my humble opinion, FPM put aside, no one in Lebanon has a national ideology, an ideology that takes into consideration lebanon’s interests as a whole, the interests of all the Lebanese sects, factions, regions , parties etc….. everyone works for himself because each one considers himself a country.

Equality among everyone you say? Most people even if they publically say it don’t actually mean it again because each group considers himself a country and wants to control everyone else.

I’m sure that many of you, specially non FPMers, think that I am preaching that fake fascist self righteousness that they have always accused us of, so i would like to ask them to look back and see if they can prove me wrong.

The problem of not agreeing on national issues is a mentality not a variety problem, it’s how the Lebanese people have been taught or raised to think even before the independence, but no one can deny that this mentality is worsening instead of improving.

You mentioned the support of GMA pre and post 2005, as a way of proving that the Lebanese people (at least part of it) do not recognize what FPM is trying to do, well apart from the money factor I think our opponents worked on this very wrong mentality to decrease our support so again we go back to the same issue…..

So I think the best way to change our situation is by changing this mentality and way of thinking, this can only be done by having a great deal of power in the state and over a long period of time, which will allow us to introduce radical changes to the school curricula, introduce new regulations to youth clubs, introduce new laws that promote contact between different Lebanese sects and factions, maybe work on a plan with the Lebanese army intelligence to monitor people for any sectarian talk etc…. I know many of u will not agree on this last point but it has worked in other countries. And I do believe that if it is applied for enough time it will be effective.

Concerning your list of priorities I think it should go as follows:

Option 1 is first because u can’t accomplish anything if your own house is not solid enough and might collapse on the long run.

Option 3 comes second because when u fix the wrongs in the state the people’s situation will improve and it will help them go out of their sectarian shells since they will see there’s a better alternative called a true country that can embrace them.

option 2 comes 3rd because it is the true way to a real country after fulfilling option 3

Option 4 comes last because we don’t have the power to fix regional issues since we are a small country, but we should keep in mind to do our best to preserve ourselves from regional storms during our journey.

[sarhay]

[quote]

Originally Posted by December Rain

Since the Lebanese independence in 1943 no national issue was truly agreed on by all Lebanese factions, mainly because of the way the Lebanese people is divided, this division mainly caused by a mentality rather than by cultural/religious differences, since there are other countries that have the variety we have and yet they do not have our problems.

DR, do not you think that mentality is an ammalgated filling of religious,cultural and surrounding conditions for a person? other countries might have the same mosaic like Lebanon yet the level and natur of their priorities toward their country could be different than that of the Lebanese.

At the time of the liberation war, GMA and his supporters were in one corner and all the other factions including the Christian ones were in the other. When the Syrians took over the country and GMA was exiled everyone with no exception was hailing to the Syrian regime. Samir geagea and its LF kept on hailing till 1993/1994 when he was thrown in prison. The same applies to the other Lebanese factions. Which shows us that in Lebanon there are no principles. For example, in the case of geagea and Hariri etc… the principle of not hailing to any occupier of your country can simply be overridden by personal interests and a promise to give some form of power, when such a promise is not fulfilled the occupier becomes again an occupier and the collaborator becomes a nationalist and one of the cornerstones of the resistance against the occupation.

This is exactly the point, paying your own share for you and others while they have different priority for the country. should not then be more realistic to work on solidifying your inner house and its foundation before you vent out your ideals to your neighbors?

In my humble opinion, FPM put aside, no one in Lebanon has a national ideology, an ideology that takes into consideration lebanon’s interests as a whole, the interests of all the Lebanese sects, factions, regions , parties etc….. everyone works for himself because each one considers himself a country.

Agreed!

The problem of not agreeing on national issues is a mentality not a variety problem, it’s how the Lebanese people have been taught or raised to think even before the independence, but no one can deny that this mentality is worsening instead of improving.

unfortunately true! this is because most Lebanese put their individual interest prior to that of national one simply because the inherited social structure from the nineteenth century.

You mentioned the support of GMA pre and post 2005, as a way of proving that the Lebanese people (at least part of it) do not recognize what FPM is trying to do, well apart from the money factor I think our opponents worked on this very wrong mentality to decrease our support so again we go back to the same issue…..

mentioning the variability in support for FPM ideas is to highlight the reason behind it and money is a factor not a major one. The worst part is the success of FPM's oponents, from various sects, in reducing, and sometimes eroding, the importance of these idea to the nation!

So I think the best way to change our situation is by changing this mentality and way of thinking, this can only be done by having a great deal of power in the state and over a long period of time, which will allow us to introduce radical changes to the school curricula, introduce new regulations to youth clubs, introduce new laws that promote contact between different Lebanese sects and factions, maybe work on a plan with the Lebanese army intelligence to monitor people for any sectarian talk etc…. I know many of u will not agree on this last point but it has worked in other countries. And I do believe that if it is applied for enough time it will be effective.

from the end, Attaturk tried in Turkey and eventually did not work that well. Iraq and Syria did and are doing so and eventually it will fail, suprression rather than providing alternative is not effective approach especially with religious beliefs manipulated to entice sectarian rift. I will agree with you education "overhaul" through introducing curricula that impliment national identity rather than individual religion. And since FPM does not have full power to introduce such educational reforms i suggest to work on my own house and educate them to achieve conviction and work with other groups who have the common goals on national level.

Concerning your list of priorities I think it should go as follows:

Option 1 is first because u can’t accomplish anything if your own house is not solid enough and might collapse on the long run.

Option 3 comes second because when u fix the wrongs in the state the people’s situation will improve and it will help them go out of their sectarian shells since they will see there’s a better alternative called a true country that can embrace them.

option 2 comes 3rd because it is the true way to a real country after fulfilling option 3

Option 4 comes last because we don’t have the power to fix regional issues since we are a small country, but we should keep in mind to do our best to preserve ourselves from regional storms during our journey.

I believe that FPM should work on their own house, strengthen its foundation by solidifying its leadership through structured charters that is applied. Convince the closest ones with its ideas before tackling national issues until more support start to appears from other groups. fight corruption by asking others to join forces regardless of their political color in order to have an effective governance system that its citizen trust and help them develop a sense of belonging to the nation.

[Venom]

FPM should tackle the lebanese citizens and work on improving the economical situation in the country, other things are secondary............

other things are minor... ma 7adan fer2eneh ma3o religion , secularism or balootasim....

[Lebanesegirl]

I voted "Strengthening their inner house/establishing a political party"

Because when your party is strong u can do the other things u mentioned but if ur party is weak no one will care about ur opinion and they see u as another small party!

[arman-i]

i hate to see LF organizing itself from the bottom (although this organization isn't as clear as it seems) where i see FPM shows no intentions of real work , as an ordinary lebanese i MUST see fpmers work like bees , especially on the youth (universities ...).

someone might pop-up and argue with me that fpm is doing something about it. if it's for real, excuse me but you are not doing enough effort cause we are witnessing nothing as a base and as ordinary people . and if nothing has been done yet, it will be a shame, the time is running , as far as i know (el shatef bi ballish min a3la el daraj).

my post is just for showing that i REALLY care for FPM to be alive again and again, for its values and its sacrifices.

[hannaalsayssa]

FPM needs to tackle the public relation issue better.
altough i have seen a lot of improvements lately, still i would like the party to set up

A MEDIA ROOM just to be on top of every issue that concerns us and to answer all the lies and propaganda directed against us.
finally we need to put our detractors on the defense media wise.

[supersonichadi]

Fpm should fight sectrianism, and thus changing step by step this current system, because as events showed, it is a tension and crisis birth system.