Thousands of Lebanese citizens gathered in downtown Beirut on Saturday to commemorate the 4th anniversary of Rafik Hariri’s assassination. There were a number of speeches at the rally in Martyr’s Square, often highly politicized thanks in large part to the timing – less than four months before crucial parliamentary elections. The headliner was none other than Saad Hariri who is hoping for another victory this summer. He thanked all those present in the name of his father. He also spoke forcefully about the upcoming tribunal, a subject that has sensitive political undertones he is either oblivious to or incapable of handling. A few hours later skirmishes broke out and one man was stabbed to death.
While the late Hariri was a shrewd businessman and a smart politician, there is little good that can be said of his son. He has failed to have any positive impact on the state of the nation. If he was smart he would have used his father’s death to advance meaningful political reconciliation; instead he did the exact opposite. He was thrust into the limelight in typical Lebanese fashion – inexperience and unqualified… but with the right last name.
Rafik Hariri was almost single handedly responsible for breathing new life into his country. Self-made, he was born into a poor family in southern Lebanon. Before turning 40, he was one of the richest men in the world. Hariri made most of his money in construction. His first major success came in 1977 when he built an important hotel on the orders of the Saudi royal family. Not only did the deal make him a billionaire, but it put him in the good graces of the ruling class – he became a citizen of Saudi Arabia the following year.
Hariri immediately began investing his new wealth in charitable projects in Lebanon, which was in the midst of a long and bloody civil war. He contributed to various reconstruction efforts during periods of respite. In 1979, he rebuilt and vamped up a school in his hometown of Saida that had been destroyed by Israeli forces. That same year, he started the Hariri Foundation for Culture and Higher Education, which has paid tuition fees for thousands of Lebanese students in Lebanon, Europe and the US.
His critics point out that he also financed various militias during the war (not surprising). Some accuse him of helping to destroy Beirut just so he could rebuild it and make billions of dollars in the process.
Hariri played an instrumental role in the Taif Accords which brought the war to an ambiguous end. Upon his return home from Saudi Arabia, he thrust himself fully into the realm of Lebanese politics – he presented the president with a lavish mansion and made large donations to various officials and parties. He became a major shareholder in a number of media outlets. As the 1992 parliamentary elections approached, Hariri had cemented his grip on reconstruction planning in Beirut. He was ready to rule.
Understanding the rules of the game back then, he reached out a friendly hand to Syria and became prime minster. He immediately promised to rebuild Beirut, and he made good on that promise. I remember walking around the devastation that year and feeling hopeless. A few years later everything was rebuilt and looking all fancy… but the stores were empty and things looked equally hopeless. It took some time, but soon enough downtown Beirut became a bustling commercial center and a major tourist attraction. Gradually life in the city began to improve.
Unfortunately, this new found success was missing from the poorer areas of the country. In Beirut itself, there were millions of people struggling to make a living. Largely unaffected by Hariri and his wealth (his family inherited over $16 billion dollars) these people have scarce reason to pledge allegiance to his son who bears no likeness to his father whatsoever.
Rafik Hariri was not only a good businessman; he knew how to navigate the turbulent waters of Lebanese politics. He understood the place of resistance in Lebanese society, at least back then. While his death may well have been the result of overconfidence in the face of Syrian control, the late Hariri had always been a master of pragmatism. He brought a certain degree of stability. Saad, on the other hand, has only managed to make matters worse through his divisive politics.
What happened four years ago was a tragedy. Rafik Hariri was not without his flaws, but his death turned Lebanon upside down. It provided the impetus for the expulsion of Syrian troops and intelligence agents who had controlled most aspects of life in Lebanon for over 15 years. But it reignited the flames separating various elements of Lebanese society. The emergence of Saad Hariri was a shameful reminder of everything that is wrong with Lebanese politics. There is no good reason for the man to be in control of the largest political bloc in the country – he is nothing like his father.
Related posts:
- Assassination in Beirut
- Hezbollah Broadens Salafist Split in Lebanon
- A Prelude to Nothing
- BREAKING NEWS!
- Arab Reaches Tennis Final
. . . and the Hariri family is synonymous with corruption on the scale of Bernard Madoff . . .
Posted by pat1425 | February 15, 2009, 7:10 pm…and you said you hate Palestinians, so you’re a raicst on the scale of Hitler.
Posted by Yasser | February 15, 2009, 7:17 pmArabs do not constitute a race; an Arab is anyone who is a native speaker of Arabic. I am merely another ethno-linguophobe among millions of anti-Arabists in the United States and around the world.
Posted by pat1425 | February 15, 2009, 7:27 pmpat1425,
No, you’re a racist who is using the rhetoric of complexity and nuanced nonesense to defend your Hitler-like ways…you are the moral equivalent of a racist.
Posted by Yasser | February 15, 2009, 7:48 pmWhat happened four years ago was a tragedy.
Kalash, why is it that in this entire piece you fail to mention that Hariri was murdered? You realize he did not slip on a banana peel, right?
Or is divulging the fact that Hariri was liquidated lead to an uncomfortable discussion? If he was murdered, then we need to ask, who murdered him? Why did they murder him? Who else have they murdered?
But I guess that’s the kind of “divisive” rhetoric you deplore. Let’s just call him a martyr and bury the ashes?
Posted by Anonymous | February 15, 2009, 7:48 pmYasser, since when do anti-Semites like you care about confronting racism? You’ve said before you only live to murder Jews. Please explain it to me, I’d really like to understand how someone who wants to exterminate the Jews can be so defensive about racism.
Posted by Anonymous | February 15, 2009, 8:02 pmI’m glad you had the courage to write this article Kalash.
Its a shame people are using Hariris murder to further their political ambitions. His son could have taken a lesson from his father and tried to unite Lebanon instead of further divide it.
Posted by Arayus | February 15, 2009, 9:01 pmUh, Saad’s division is the RIGHT KIND OF DIVISION for Lebanon’s future. If Lebanon is going to move forward as a worthwhile, secular nation, there’s no place for Hezbollah in Lebanese society.
Posted by Joe | February 15, 2009, 9:01 pmNo question Rafik Hariri was corrupt… but the point is that his country benefitted from him… sadly the same can’t be said of his son
Posted by Kalash | February 15, 2009, 9:12 pmUh… I’m an idiot
Posted by Joe | February 15, 2009, 9:15 pmHis son could have taken a lesson from his father and tried to unite Lebanon instead of further divide it.
His father is dead… murdered by his political adversaries. Is that the lesson he should learn? Work hard at trying to get along with killers, until they get tired of you and do what they do best? Why are Arabs so comfortable with spending all their time whining about the injustices they suffer, while never actually doing what they need to do, to see justice done? The story just repeats, over and over and over again.
Posted by programmer craig | February 16, 2009, 12:01 amYasser, since when do anti-Semites like you care about confronting racism?
How can a Semite be anti-Semite???
Don’t be hypocrite, anonymous coward.
… someone who wants to exterminate the Jews…
Nobody wants to exterminate the Jews, just destroy Israel as apartheid regime.
We are just sooo bored of the Zionist Victimist Rethoric full of falsehoods. The only Nazis in this story are the Zionists who are comitting a mass genocide with the complicity of the all big powers (and most small ones).
You want to exterminate the Palestinians: you are the real anti-Semite here. >:-(
…
His father is dead… murdered by his political adversaries.
We still don’t know for sure who killed Hariri. Western-Zionist propaganda says that were the Syrians but I’m much more inclined to think he was killed by the Mossad.
In these cases one has to ask: “cui bono?”, to whom did this benefit?
Syrian presence in Lebanon was a stabilizing protecting factor, even with all its shortcomings. As soon as the Syrians retired, the Zionists launched another murderous attack on it, something they would not have done with Syrian military presence.
The Zionists comitted a series of political murders in the context of US invasion of Iraq and growing tensions with Iran in order to be able to intervene in Lebanon at whim, something that may benefit the Hariri construction industries but certainly does not help the least the people of Lebanon as a whole.
The whole issue did not benefit Syria at all, so I strongly doubt they were the real perpetrators.
Why are Arabs so comfortable with spending all their time whining about the injustices they suffer, while never actually doing what they need to do, to see justice done?
Yah, they should get together and attack Israel, right. But the Islamo-Arab culture has never really recovered from the destruction of Baghdad by the Mongols. Since then their politics have been dictated by other countries: Turkey and Iran for long, and then by the imperalist Western powers.
The largest Arab (Arabized) country is Egypt, a country that had not been truly independent since the time of the Pharaohs. Egypt did have a pan-Arabist leadership role some decades ago but, since then, it has been kneeling to the USA and Israel. The other powerful Arab power was Iraq, that ambitioned to be “the Prussia”, or at least “the Savoy”, of the Arab World, but the US-Zionist Empire made sure that this was not possible and now it’s nothing but a weak protectorate.
With Panarabism virtually destroyed, Saudi-sponsored Islamism has taken its place. This is the ideal enemy for the US-Zionist Empire becuase, unlike modern secularist Panarabism, cannot really gain a hold in the hearts of anyone who is not already a convinced Muslim. It’s a ghetto ideology, worth only to be demonized by the media and smashed without contemplations at whim, especially as the US-Zionist-controlled Al-Qaeda ha made sure that they are hated even by most Muslims by comitting attrocious crimes against the people, notably in Iraq.
Hamas, who are pretty moderate in fact for an Islamist party, has wisely distanciated itself from Al Qaeda and their murderous tactics, as well as their dependence from Saudia (and therefore from Tel Aviv and Washington). Hence Saudia has financed the recent Israeli genocidal aggression against the Gaza Concentration Camp.
Posted by Maju | February 16, 2009, 5:45 amI’m guessing if the Syrians murdered my family – G-d forbid – and their allies in Hezbollah supported it, I would spend the rest of my life trying to kill every single one of them too.
Kalash is torn.
On the one hand, he loves Hezbollah and Assad’s Syria. On the other, he knows they murdered Hariri and continue to murder Western-leaning Lebanese leaders.
So, instead of addressing the issue head on, he has to bloviate about “unity” and bemoan “division”.
Kalash is a tool of the Syrian occupation.
Posted by Anonymous | February 16, 2009, 10:30 amIn these cases one has to ask: “cui bono?”, to whom did this benefit?
That should be obvious, no? It benefited Iran, and Lebanese Shia(or at least Hezbollah). They now control Lebanon.
Posted by programmer craig | February 16, 2009, 11:25 amMaju, I noted your conspiracy theory, but I’m not going to reply to it because it was irrelevant. My observation was about Arabs, and how they never actually seem to get the justice they say they want, from Arab regimes. Those who can get revenge, do, and those who can’t move to the US and start complaining about America. As an outside observer, it seems a bit sad, and a bit silly.
Posted by programmer craig | February 16, 2009, 11:29 amThat is a significant insight.
Posted by Anonymous | February 16, 2009, 3:30 pm“”Syrian presence in Lebanon was a stabilizing protecting factor, even with all its shortcomings.”"
No it wasn’t. It made Lebanon little better than a slave state.
Posted by Joe | February 16, 2009, 5:09 pmThat should be obvious, no? It benefited Iran, and Lebanese Shia(or at least Hezbollah). They now control Lebanon.
Hizbollah has benefitted from Israel’s existence and its agressions against the Lebanese people but is not more powerful now than before.
But Iran had a better grasp on lebanon earlier, when Syria’s presence was routine. Syria is a secularist regime (the only one in the region, since Turkey converted to Islamism) but the geopolitics of the area have pushed them in the orbit of Iran. Would we have supported Syria instead of Israel, maybe we would not have now this awful situation, neither in Lebanon nor in Palestine.
And no, don’t tell me Israel is “democratic”: it’s not when more than half of the population is dumped in bantustans or the exile without right to vote.
But Syria is distrusted by all western allies in the region (Turkey and Israel basically) on historical rivalries. Nevertheless it wuould be the natural ally of the Western powers if these would not be corrupted by a mesianic imaginary, if these would be loyal to the principles of the Illustration and Humanism and not guided by the Vatican and AIPAC mercilessly.
Posted by Maju | February 16, 2009, 7:03 pmPro-Syrian, pro-Hezbollah, and pro-Hamas assholes! Fuck you all.
Posted by Lebanese Nationalist | February 21, 2009, 12:55 amLebanese National – you are the epitome of everything that is wrong with our country (Lebanon). You have no idea what you are talking about…You are clearly on one side of the fence, so you see anyone who disagrees with your simplistic perspective as being on the other side. Sadly there are millions more like you.
Posted by Kalash | February 21, 2009, 9:45 am