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Christian Kingmakers Hold the Key to Lebanese Elections Amid the Saturday morning bustle at the market in Bikfaya, a Christian village high up on the mountainside overlooking Beirut, Georgette Chebly goes about her shopping. She smiles as she runs her fingers across the succulent tomatoes, looking for just the right ones. The scene is tranquil, jovial, almost picturesque.
But all is not well in Lebanese Christendom and behind smiles like Georgette's are concerns about the future of Lebanon and the role its Christians, estimated to number around one third of the country's population, will play in it.
“As Christians we are divided and this is not good,” she tells The Media Line, patting her relaxed bouffant hairdo and gathering together her groceries. “We want to be united like the Sunnis and Shi’ites are in Lebanon. But this has not happened.”
Today, Lebanese politics is dominated by two opposing coalitions: a Western-backed, Sunni-dominated majority camp called March 14, which holds a slight margin over the opposition, a Syrian- and Iranian-backed, Hizbullah-led alliance called March 8.
The gulf between the two camps is deep and wide, yet the Christians of Lebanon straddle it. This position means that they hold the key to the country's general elections this Sunday, a race that decides whether Lebanon maintains its Western-backed government or changes to the Shi’ite-Christian coalition led by Hizbullah.
Bikfaya village is in Metn, which, with eight seats in parliament, is Lebanon's most significant Christian electoral district.
Driving along the mountain roads of Metn, the Christian political division is made clear in the almost schizophrenic sequence of flags, banners and posters, calling on a polarized community to vote divergently, flitting from colors like red and green which connote the Western-backed majority parties to orange, the signature color of the Free Patriotic Movement, the mainly Christian party allied with Hizbullah in the March 8 coalition.
But in Bikfaya, one rarely needs to ask how anyone will vote; here it is an almost a foregone conclusion. The village is the home of the Gemayel clan – arguably the strongest Christian political family in Lebanese history and founders of the Phalange party, one of the key Christian parties in the March 14 majority coalition.
Chebly loudly declares her vote: “I am for March 14 and I am voting for Sami Gemayel,” she says. Sami Gemayel is the latest of the Gemayel clan to enter politics and a much weaker version of his uncle, former Lebanese president Bachir Gemayel, who was assassinated in 1982 but widely considered the last leader to unify the Christians of Lebanon.
In the shadow of the Gemayel mansion in Bikfaya, taxi driver Joseph Bechabar sits in the shade waiting for his next fare. There is a faint sound of car horns down the road and he shakes his head in disgust.
“That's the other side,” he nods. “They are in the process of selling Lebanon to the Iranians,” referring to the Free Patriotic Movement and its alliance with Hizbullah, a militia and political party that is backed by Iran.
The political schism that has split Lebanon and on occasion held it in legislative hiatus also runs right down the middle of the country's Christian community.
“March 8 Christians look at the March 14 Christians as belonging to the old guard, having been co-opted by the Sunni Future Movement , as being totally corrupt, as having no vision for the future and as being part of a system that has basically crippled the country with huge public debt,” says Lebanese political analyst Elias Muhanna.
“The March 14 Christians look at the Free Patriotic Movement Christians basically as traitors, having allied with Hizbullah which is an ally of Syria and Iran.”
The faint car honking down the road from Bikfaya strengthens to a roar as all roads from Metn down to Beirut begin to flow with orange. The Free Patriotic Movement's Metn constituents are out in force with orange T-shirts, flags and headbands, making their way to a rally at a conference hall in the capital.
Once the roads from Metn reach the main coastal highway in Beirut, the colors of the parade broaden to reflect the alliance these Christians are now committed to – the orange becomes punctuated by the black of the Syrian Socialist Nationalist Party (SSNP) and yellow of Hizbullah whose partisans join the fray from the southern Shi’ite suburbs of the capital.
But the event is all about one man: Michel Aoun, head of the Free Patriotic Movement and a man who has created great division among Christians and stepped into the leadership vacuum the community suffers from.
“He's a good man and he is doing the right thing for Lebanon,” screams Joelle Fawwaz from the window of an enormous Hummer decked with orange ribbons and portraits of Aoun.
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http://www.themedialine.org/news/news_detail.asp?NewsID=25323
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