From: 9999sc01@uhdvx3.dt.uh.edu (Alexandre Khalil)
Subject: Re: Elections end with sweeping victory for pro-Syrian candidates
Summary: Elections, feudality and buying votes 
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Organization: University of Houston-Downtown
X-Lunar-Date: 6 days, 11 hours, 31 minutes since the first quarter of the moon
Date: Sat, 12 Sep 1992 20:54:00 GMT

In article <1992Sep11.043617.26161@m.cs.uiuc.edu>, soufi@m.cs.uiuc.edu (Khaled S. Soufi) writes...
>sion@apache.ctr.columbia.edu (Boudi Sahyoun) writes:
>>In article <1992Sep10.102905.1@cubldr.colorado.edu> fardoun_a@cubldr.colorado.edu writes:
>>> Since the largest percentage of population that voted was in the south about
> 
>>>body knows that the lebanese parliment is not worth it.  However it is natural
>>>for people to vote for her as a show of appreciation for what her brother Mr.
>>>Hariri has done for the whole lebanon and all lebanese when lebanon needed it
>>[...]
> 
>>Do you really think that is a good enough reason to vote for her?
>>I am very happy to see a woman as a member of parliament, I am just concerned
>>about the reasons why people voted for her.
> 
>If the reasons above are not good enough for any politician to be
>elected anywhere in the world, I don't know what is!

  Khaled, you are not going to like this. Placing the instruments of government 
in the hands of families is the feudalism.

>Isn't it a fact that the Hariri people have kept Lebanon's vital
                         ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
>institutions functioning at a time where almost everybody else was
>busy destroying them!?  If nothing, Mrs. Hariri will be a refreshing
>symbol of construction and prosperity, to say the least.  We all need
>that.  You know, it is fairly straightforward for an average person
>to know that the best candidate for any position in any government is
>the one who would WORK FOR THE PEOPLE and NOT ONESELF!  The Hariris
                                                           ^^^^^^^^^^
>have been diligently working to better the lives of so many Lebanese
>*before* Mrs. Hariri even became a candidate. 

  With all due respect to the Hariri family, generalising the virtues and
generosity of some of them to all who bear that name is exagerated.
  Our country's history abunds with example this sort turned sour.
  Without going very far, look at the "currently ruling/on the way out"
families that are ruling in the South, the North, Mount Lebanon...
I will not cite names to avoid a flame war: as an scl-er was saying

        Ya Allah, how easily things go wrong in this group.

>                                                   Isn't that a "good
>enough reason" for you?  Besides, she won.  I guess this clearly means
>it was a good enough reason for the wise people back home.

  Many politicians have been elected and reelected, appointed and reappointed
even after having given ample proofs of very dubious moral standards. 
A name: is Mr Elie Hobeika still minister in the current government. But
he might not be a member of parliament (?), so just make your pick among the
warlords who were elected/reelected.

  Once again, this is said with all due respect to the Hariri family, and 
especifically to Mrs Hariri whom I do not know. It is just that her family
name should not be the reason for us to vote for her.

>Reflecting back on these recent elections, I think it is great that
>people finally had the chance to decide their future by voting.  I
>think this process of democracy will be addictive and people will ask

Cross my fingers. I'll touch wood on that.

>for more.  Let's try to remember that we are still not out of the blue
>yet and to expect a perfect election at this point is a little too
>ambitious (unrealistic).  In fact, I am very surprised that we are at
>this stage so soon!

Let's hope we do get better.

Regards  :)

>+-----------Khaled Soufi-------------+--------------------------+
>|   Department of Computer Science   | email: soufi@cs.uiuc.edu |
>| U. of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign | phone: (217)244-2274 (W) |
>+------------------------------------+--------------------------+

alex 
Newsgroups: soc.culture.lebanon