I would like to begin by stressing the fact that my love and affection for this small country stands behind this letter. I am taking the liberty of sending out this public plea based on my known relationship with #Lebanon and its people, a relationship founded over the years on warmth and a true partnership. My relationship with this nation is one of respect and an act of faith in the Lebanese people whose belief in their homeland is absolute.
For some of you, my Lebanese brothers and sisters, love of your country drove you to generosity in its service and sacrifice in its defence, sacrifice that is forever inscribed on the country’s plains and its majestic mountains. From your beautiful shores, civilization spread to all corners of the world and the alphabet that you invented was the catalyst that illuminated the darkness that prevailed on all continents.
You represented, for Arabs everywhere, a free press, respected academics and excellent universities. You were the lungs through which many Arabs breathed the air of freedom and the printing press that recorded their history. Dear people, you have achieved a lot which would take many pages for me to list.
Today, I am asking with apprehension: what are you doing? I have never doubted your love for your country and have never feared for the democratic way for which the Lebanese people have proven their commitment. Democracy was, and shall remain one of the cornerstones of Lebanese society. I have also never doubted, even in the difficult years of war, Lebanese society’s high concern for the national security of #Lebanon.
The Lebanese have always shown great affection for their Arab brothers who share the same language, destiny and geography. I am confident that the people of #Lebanon can do without any tutelage in the governance of their country.
However, my care and my love for this precious corner of the Arab world made me write this open letter from the heart, a letter that I address to the consciousness of the people of #Lebanon. Many of you are aware of my deep attachment to your country, which I hold with the same esteem as my own country, the United Arab Emirates.
I hesitated for a long time before starting this letter, because I strongly believed that by the time it reached you, the succession of events in #Lebanon would have made it redundant, because the people of #Lebanon know how to overcome their adversities, how to tolerate their pain and how then to make the crossing from despair to hope and optimism.
I wanted to reveal to some of my Lebanese friends my fears and apprehensions regarding developments in their country. This fear is not for the unity of the Lebanese, nor for #Lebanon, because I trust that the bond that holds the Lebanese together is much stronger than the forces that are trying to tear them apart. This bond is as strong as that that holds the mountains of #Lebanon firmly attached to its plains. God willing, the unity of the people and their country shall remain firm. It is my firm belief that the recent events in #Lebanon are but a manifestation of the democratic process that crowns the political environment there; and despite the apparent chaotic and troubled nature of the process, it is governed by the unity of the people under a common ceiling that is the unity of the country. That process is clear and probably irreversible unless these differences fester and make way for certain forms of foreign intervention that aim to destabilise the unity of the people and their economic and social potential.
Allow me to add that the high-pitched arguments and slogans, in addition to the agitation in your media, shall reflect negatively on the productivity and recovery of the country, when what is needed is cooperation with your Arab environment to increase employment opportunities and improve the performance of the economy.
Economic stagnation will increase corruption, unemployment, crime and, even, terrorism, that has relegated whole societies to pariah status on the international scene. I do not think that any sane person would knowingly and wilfully aim to cause such a catastrophe to his country and relegate it to the lowest rung in the hierarchy of nations.
Now is the moment of honesty when I have to say what I hesitated so much about out of my love for #Lebanon. I have to say it now, in the middle of this storm of declarations and counter-declarations, demonstrations and counter-demonstrations, gatherings and counter-gatherings.
My fear is justified by this political crisis that demonstrates everything except your hidden love for your country, as if you are ashamed to declare it amidst the smoke and dust roused by the impact of these political events.
Who would, for the sake of political profit or a vote here or there or even for the sake of a position of power, sacrifice the economic and social fundamentals of his country? I am sure that there is no person or party in #Lebanon that wishes that to happen. But watching the events from a distance, points to an increasing possibility that some major calamity is about to happen to that dear country. That might not be the right conclusion but it is one that is justified by the ongoing agitation in the media.
It would be naïve to expect that society in #Lebanon would metamorphose one day into a homogenous entity with one political, social and cultural vision. That would also be an oversimplification of the issue. I just want to call my Lebanese brothers and sisters, the generous and good people that I have known, to put the good of their country above every other consideration. I call on them to become a mature political entity similar to the people of the Western world, in particular people in France, the US and Britain. In those countries, political campaigns are sometimes nasty and very hostile, but in the end all differences are set aside and the people unite behind their country when threatened by a foreign danger or when the national security of their respective countries is jeopardised