I was re-reading yesterday an old debate we had once on the LF forums, and the opening statement my team wrote.
I gathered ideas from all members and put them into a 2 pages text, ideas for the Lebanon we aspire to, the Lebanon we the young generations want.

I thought i share it with you guys, let me know what you think. You will see a lot of quotes from the 300 movie, its mainly cause our team was named the Spartans

“The greatest thing about any civilization is the human person…” , Dr.Charles Malek.

On December 10, 1948 the General Assembly of the United Nations adopted and proclaimed the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. A Lebanese philosopher and diplomat, named Dr.Charles Malek was the biggest contributor in writing that draft.

His thinking was an inspiration to many western countries, and will be the backbone of our ideology throughout the debate. From 1948 till today, we have violated every single point on that Human Rights draft, killing each others during 25 years of civil war, building sectarian walls and feeding our youth with hatred and paving the way for fanatic and extremist parties to rise.

The Declaration of Greater Lebanon in 1920, The National Pact in 1943, The first independance in 1945 and finally the 14th of March 2005 Cedars Revolution, all are meaningless and empty dates if The Lebanese still label others based on their religion or region and do not claim their rights and freedoms as individuals and as citizens towards their government and their leaders.
Our aim throughout the debate will be to promote this thought through political, social and academic means, while taking into consideration the current situation of the country and our society. After all, we are not here to propose utopic ideas, but pragmatic ones based on the needs of the Lebanese and the chronic problems in Lebanon throughout the past 80 years and more.

We need to reach a point where a Lebanese would be asking himself the same question Queen Gorgo told her king Leonidas.

Queen Gorgo : It is not a question of what a Spartan citizen should do, nor a husband, nor a king. Instead, ask yourself, my dearest love, what should a free man do?

Our political agenda will be based on three major pillars:

I- “Youth is our strengh”

III- Reforming and Democratizing the Political parties and Governmental institutions.

I- “Youth is our strengh”
The Lebanese youth is our future, the great majority of our educated young men are considering leaving, if they didnt leave yet. We need to give our youth more freedom, give them reasons to stay, and most importantly have a national education strategy for all of Lebanon.

First of all, Spartans agreed that lowering the voting age to 18 is currently inappropriate, since we do not have a solid ground ready for such a change.

Why so ? The largest group of Lebanese nowadays falls within the 18-21 years range and due to the dominance of ideological and sectarian parties, this category will be exploited and brainwashed for elections purposes, and therefore lowering the voting age nowadays will only serve the current political parties’s goals and not the youth, so it is wiser to have a 5 to 10 years to implement the changes we are asking for and then consider lowering the voting age.

What are the changes we are asking for ?

a- Emphasizing a national education strategy for all of Lebanon, teaching students to love their country and not Hezbollah or the LF, organizing events joining Christian and Muslim schools, planning for diverse social activities that will include interaction between the different Lebanese sects ( for ex organize camps for students from different religions to help a local population). Added to that, giving the Civic education a high importance in School Curriculum and finally supporting ideas such as the Youth parliament ( By Gebran Tueni) or Nahar Al Shabab to let the youngsters be involved in think-tanks and constructive dialogues.

b- Banning all political elections in school, and orienting the youth towards academical work. This would be profitable for both the students and the academic institutions. The student body had a crucial role during the Syrian hegemony since most of the Anti-Syrian leaders were jailed or exiled or persecuted, but now that the Syrians are out and the leaders are back, i dont see the point of LFers and FPmers killing each others for a seat or two in a university. These elections just divide students,creates unhealthy competition that may lead to discrimination and actual resentment,they distract students from their studies,and they just lead to more division and alienation between students!

c- Orientating the parents to incite their sons to focus on their studies rather than work politically and waste his time in a school or university. This is crucial because many parents encourage their sons to get involved politically for self satisfaction or to settle old scores.

II- The needs of our people cannot be ignored at any price regardless of the political circumstances.
“Greatness itself is laughed to scorn. You should not be great today- you should sink yourself into the herd, you should not be distinguished from the crowd, you should simply be one of the many” Dr.Charles Malek

Most of our political leaders, if not all, claim to care for the people, yet they put all priorities before their supporters and their people.

Whether we are at war, facing political tensions, the government is responsible for its people and must provide its most basic needs at any time. Added to that, despite our economical difficulties, we should work on improving the people’s conditions and not make the poor poorer under lame pretextes.

Here are the proposed economical and social reforms that must be applied by our government under any circumstances:

a-Introducing income tax on business and individuals with an $8000 annual tax free threshold for low income earners. Thus giving relief to the needy, and preventing major corporations and individuals from making billions tax free .

b- Lowering the phone & internet rates and other unbelievebly high rates and offering decent transportation means for the low income people.

c-Paying the displaced from the South and the Mountain War and encouraging them to come back asap.

d- Giving more powers to local authorities and organizing fund-raising events to enhance the infrastructure in each region. Many local businessmen and rich individuals will donate in large amounts for simple electoral purposes.

e-Finally, introducing fast reforms in the ICT (Infomation & Communication Technologies) sector as another vehicle of growth for the economy at large, a sector that the Lebanese could tap upon as they have the required human resources and a prime location as well.

f- Focusing on developing Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) as a vehicle for growth within the economy, and here the banking sector in Lebanon has a very important role in giving low-rate loans to develop those small businesses.

III- Reforming and Democratizing the Political parties and Governmental institutions.

Spartan King Leonidas: Immortals… we’ll put their name to the test.

Most of the political parties and independant politicians inside and outside the government consider themselves clean and democratic and non-corrupted, I suppose none of them will stand against the points we are proposing to prove their credibility and transparency.

a_Lifting immunity and financial record secrecy on politicians and defence personnel.
b_Opening an inquest into the spent billions forming lebanon’s current 41 billion dollar deficit.
c-Imposing a ban on foreign donations to political parties. Any donations shall be through the government and no other channels.
d- Banning all weapons licences except for personal bodyguards or security companies and organizing a large disarming campaign all over the country with NO exception.
e-Organizing a referundum to vote for a peace treaty with Israel and for disarming HA based on a defensive strategy whereas HA fighters are joined to the army and emphasizing on the importance of the UNIFIL troops in maintaining the South a peaceful region and asking for similar troops to monitor the Syrian borders.
f- Asking all parties to do a mea culpa and open a complaints office for all people who suffered from them, and offer compensations accordingly… that way justice will prevail for all ..
g- Juridical sector should be given more power and should be totally independant, similar to the American model whereas a judge can put a president on trial if he wishes to ..
e- Impose on all political parties to hold democratic elections and ban any party that does not recognize Lebanon as a finite entity or threatens its pluralistic nature.

That will be all for now.