Will the FPM survive for the coming years ?

[elias-aj]

FPM is very young political party and it's true that GMA's position is prominent. GMA's personnality and position is, by itself, preventing the other main leaders from imposing themselves.

That's natural though as GMA has always been the symbol and the spearhead of our movement. May be we should try to read and learn from the french "Gaulliste" movement.

One of our major flaws is that FPM was never really in power, something which could have helped us putting our "young guard" in the spotlight, hence making the transition easier. For now, I see only two other prominent figures :

- Gebran Bassil, given his ministerial and quite successful experience ;
- Ibrahim Kenaan, who's been often speaking on behalf of FPM especially during the last four years.

In my opinion, it's time we organize the party's elections, the institutions inside the party and start putting other persons than GMA on the spotlight.

In the mean time, I think we should work on strengthening our political alliance with Tashnag and on building strong ties with the political parties with which we're very close. We have to extend our base, starting on the christian community and going towards the other lebanese communities (I'm thinking about Massoud Achkar movement, even the Jebha movement if possible and Erslan), in order to merge all those parties under the FPM banner.

In other words, it's time to work on building a big lebanese party, including FPM, Tashnag, Massoud Achkar's movement, Erslan and if possible, FAN's Jebha, under the banner of FPM - which implies discussions, negotiations and the adoption of a common charter. Once again, the experience of the "Gaulliste" movement can be a source of inspiration.

That's my personal opinion though and as I'm not "behind the scenes" and not aware of the relation's nature between all those parties, this opinion could be too naive or not really possible. But that's the spirit I guess...

[The Jade]

Originally Posted by elias-aj

FPM is very young political party and it's true that GMA's position is prominent. GMA's personnality and position is, by itself, preventing the other main leaders from imposing themselves.

That's natural though as GMA has always been the symbol and the spearhead of our movement. May be we should try to read and learn from the french "Gaulliste" movement.

One of our major flaws is that FPM was never really in power, something which could have helped us putting our "young guard" in the spotlight, hence making the transition easier. For now, I see only two other prominent figures :

- Gebran Bassil, given his ministerial and quite successful experience ;
- Ibrahim Kenaan, who's been often speaking on behalf of FPM especially during the last four years.

In my opinion, it's time we organize the party's elections, the institutions inside the party and start putting other persons than GMA on the spotlight.

In the mean time, I think we should work on strengthening our political alliance with Tashnag and on building strong ties with the political parties with which we're very close. We have to extend our base, starting on the christian community and going towards the other lebanese communities (I'm thinking about Massoud Achkar movement, even the Jebha movement if possible and Erslan), in order to merge all those parties under the FPM banner.

In other words, it's time to work on building a big lebanese party, including FPM, Tashnag, Massoud Achkar's movement, Erslan and if possible, FAN's Jebha, under the banner of FPM - which implies discussions, negotiations and the adoption of a common charter. Once again, the experience of the "Gaulliste" movement can be a source of inspiration.

That's my personal opinion though and as I'm not "behind the scenes" and not aware of the relation's nature between all those parties, this opinion could be too naive or not really possible. But that's the spirit I guess...

Before building your alliances, start by building yourself.

The Gaulliste movement, is indeed, just a movement.

Where are they now ?
Where as the PS is still here, the RPR became the UMP, etc....

But no movement ever lives for a long time.

It's like the chehabist movement, where are they now ???

[Alexdagreat]

as FPMers me and my family we always debate this issue and most of us including me says we have nice manifesto but we kept it in close doors if we do not practice our manifesto we are going to get tired from one man decisions

[MockingBird]

Originally Posted by John A

dude, i agree that what u have mentioned caused us troubles, but there are several internal malfunctions that should be handled as soon as possible. It's not about GMA's speech all the time. it's about organization

I posted tens of replies on this forum warning of these issues mentioned by Jade and the sensibility of the lebanese christian society towards Syria , SSNP , HA , etc...
I'm really shocked that FPM leadership minimized the effect of these issues....
a visit to syria li tankiyat el zakira wal woujdane 2 weeks before elections is a political suicide
supporting instability and religious militia weapons is a political suicide
running on the same list with SSNP is a political suicide
NEVER TOO LATE TO CHANGE

CHEERS

[Robin Hood]

Originally Posted by MockingBird

I posted tens of replies on this forum warning of these issues mentioned by Jade and the sensibility of the lebanese christian society towards Syria , SSNP , HA , etc...
I'm really shocked that FPM leadership minimized the effect of these issues....
a visit to syria li tankiyat el zakira wal woujdane 2 weeks before elections is a political suicide
supporting instability and religious militia weapons is a political suicide
running on the same list with SSNP is a political suicide
NEVER TOO LATE TO CHANGE

CHEERS

GMA visited Syria in December.

[Robin Hood]

The big problem here is Arab mentality, Arabs are naturality dictatorial and like to be ruled by a dictator.

[GeorgeY]

Originally Posted by MockingBird

I posted tens of replies on this forum warning of these issues mentioned by Jade and the sensibility of the lebanese christian society towards Syria , SSNP , HA , etc...
I'm really shocked that FPM leadership minimized the effect of these issues....
a visit to syria li tankiyat el zakira wal woujdane 2 weeks before elections is a political suicide
supporting instability and religious militia weapons is a political suicide
running on the same list with SSNP is a political suicide
NEVER TOO LATE TO CHANGE

CHEERS

if all those u speak about are correct then how come M14 christians didnt take all cazas
omg just to make problems btw ppl u guys would say anything
taiib why now does our beloved prime minister go to syria? and talk with HA? amd etc...
should the christians always be against all surrounding area and fight the wars of the west?

[TTT1]

Originally Posted by joseph_lubnan

In reality, FPM didn't survive the last 4 years. What you have today isn't FPM, it has morphed beyond recognition to something else, and no one has a clue what in fact it is.

The question should be: Can FPM find itself in the coming years?

That's a good one Joe! It just made me laugh a bit after some stressful day at work Thanks. We need such quotes everyday

now to be serious, I will leave the enlightenment to the LF and Kataeb . I am glad for you as you are following visionary leaders with high ethics.
As for me, I will just tell you, sit and watch FPM closely in the next 4 years and if winning 27 MPs and all the mountains + 52% of the chrisitan votes ALONE practically is a fading power then just imagine what will SG do if he got the same ?????
And for all pessimistic people here in the forum, asking questions is surely a valid point but FPM is a very young party supported by great people . It will mature, grow and organize surely very soon and will surely move beyond GMA.
Those who doubt it all either do not know the background of FPM or are just making some philosophy analysis
Lebanon was in turmoil for 4 years and barely left the time for a good restructuring and internal elections/Democratic process .
Let us reopen this thread exactly in one year. In July 2010 and then see who was wrong and who was right

[elias-aj]

Originally Posted by The Jade

Before building your alliances, start by building yourself.

The Gaulliste movement, is indeed, just a movement.

Where are they now ?
Where as the PS is still here, the RPR became the UMP, etc....

But no movement ever lives for a long time.

It's like the chehabist movement, where are they now ???

Forget about the "party" thing. FPM is practically and for now a movement, it's in its very name, because it's a gathering of people who want to change and reform the country.

We can build ourselves by extending our alliances and creating a common plateform with the policital parties I cited, under the FPM banner. I personnally feel the need to open up to this possibility like the Gaulliste movement did, gathering people from the left-wing and the right-wing in France. I want a lebanese party, that's FPM spirit.

We can compare our aims which are to change and reform. We must rally as many people as we can in order to become stronger and be able to impose our view.

By the way, the late Gaulliste movement's offspring was the RPR who became the UMP. But the thing is that the Gaulliste movement achieved its primary goals between 1958 and 1969 and as you can witness, only minor changes occur since then.

The difference with the chehabist movement is that we killed it while it was slowly trying to achieve its primary goals. And this is what I fear for FPM.

Now regarding FPM's internal issues, I don't know if we have all the clues to discuss about them seriously. All we can say is that it's become urgent to promote other people than GMA and to organize internal elections indeed.

Though, what about merging with Tashnag and the other political parties under the FPM banner, in order to become even stronger. Isn't this principle - without bringing up the internal organizations issues - interesting within the scope of a large lebanese party's building, the first step towards a non confessional party ?

It's a difficult task, given the questions of "ego". But isn't the situation of our country critical enough to justify this step which seems necessary ?

This question is adressed to the base and to the supporters of FPM and the political parties with which we are allied.

[elias-aj]

Originally Posted by Robin Hood

The big problem here is Arab mentality, Arabs are naturality dictatorial and like to be ruled by a dictator.

Forget about it in Lebanon. You can't have a dictator in Lebanon because each lebanese is himself (somehow) a dictator