Mufti Derian opposes the proposal… and fears sectarian division in the capital
The call for dividing the Beirut municipality into two municipalities is almost overshadowing the other problems surrounding the wounded country, which is waiting for relief to come from abroad to heal its wounds, instead of involving it in a new conflict related to the division of the Beirut municipality that could cause a split between the Beirutis, in light of the escalation of sectarian and sectarian tension that It could take him, says a source close to former prime ministers, to an uncalculated political adventure.
The source close to the heads of government points out that the current circumstances do not allow the country to be plunged into sectarian conflicts, against the background of the insistence of major Christian forces on dividing the Beirut Municipal Council, even though it is divided among itself. In return for a comprehensive Islamic rejection of dividing the capital, especially as it comes in the context of populist bids that did not stop between opponents in the Christian street.
The same source confirms to Asharq Al-Awsat that Lebanon does not need to bring up more contentious items, while priority should be given to saving it and responding to the conditions of the International Monetary Fund to move it to the stage of financial and economic recovery, in addition to creating the atmosphere for the completion of the presidential elections on time by election. A new president.
He warns against playing with fire, and says that the area of the city of Beirut does not require dividing its municipal council to prevent the division of the capital into two parts. Eastern and Western, and keeping it hostage to sectarian lines of contact after the end of the civil war allowed the abolition of the lines of contact, and he says that Beirut is not Paris, and that there is no way to recall the Parisian experience that was behind the division of Paris into municipal districts.
On this occasion, the same source, quoting former Minister Rashid Derbas, recalls the role played by former Prime Minister Rafic Hariri, when he surprised those gathered in the Law Modernization Committee, headed by the then Minister of Justice, Bahij Tabbara, as they were looking into the re-division of administrative districts in Lebanon. , to discuss the issue of maintaining balance within the Beirut Municipal Council.
The source, with testimony from Derbas, quotes Hariri as saying that there is no room for parity in the Beirut Municipal Council, and that he maintains his position, which he had announced after his meeting with the Maronite Patriarch at the time, Nasrallah Sfeir, to stop the count from now on, with a retroactive effect, to confirm that the effects of the parity will apply to all levels.
Derbas reports that Hariri informed the meeting that there is no going back on parity in the Beirut Municipal Council, and he will not, as long as he is alive, allow a coup against it, nor object to its confirmation in a law, provided that it is confined to the capital, and does not apply to other towns and cities, if This invites Christians to be reassured, to dispel their misgivings and fears that the Muslims will prevail in this assembly, given their numerical tyranny over Christians.
He affirms that the commitment of the father Hariri has remained steadfast since the first municipal elections were held in Beirut after the end of the civil war and the abolition of the lines of contact. He says that the former Prime Minister, leader of the “Future Movement” Saad Hariri, adhered to the will of his father, who was assassinated in February 2005, And the municipal elections that took place so far did not record any violation that leads to a breach of the principle of parity between Christians and Muslims in the Municipal Council of Beirut.
He believes that providing protection for parity in the Beirut Municipal Council begins with the souls and not with the texts, in order to prevent the restoration of the orthodox law on parliamentary elections that was present in one way or another, through the electoral law, on the basis of the adoption of proportionality, which allowed Muslims and Christians to grant the preferential vote to candidates on religious and sectarian basis.
He says that national fusion among the Lebanese is not secured by coercion by texts without souls, and this requires addressing the Lebanese of different sects and sects with a discourse dominated by moderation, instead of tickling their sectarian feelings and mobilizing them, which opens the door to extremism as an alternative to achieving true partnership between them, and deviating towards the demands of a particular group The application of numerical democracy, which paves the way for invoking “political barricades” with a divisive flavor, in light of the escalation of calls for expanded federalism under the guise of the need to implement administrative decentralization contained in the National Accord Document produced by the “Taif Agreement.”
The source asks about the timing chosen by those who call for dividing the Beirut municipality, and whether this issue has now become more urgent than getting the country out of its crisis and achieving the presidential elections on time? And where do Christian spiritual references stand regarding the consensus of most Christian leaders on the necessity of dividing the Beirut municipality, which is under the direct guardianship of Beirut Governor Judge Marwan Abboud, unlike other municipal councils in Lebanon?
It is believed that the proposal to divide the Beirut municipality in this way is the latest reaction in the Islamic street that has gone beyond its local leaders and political references to rejecting the Mufti, Sheikh Abdul Latif Derian, dividing the capital, and he asks in return: Did most Christian leaders initiate to declare alert in the interest of perpetuating its division to extract the approval of Muslims for Installing parity in law? And if that is the goal; So why did they choose to escalate rather than put it in closed meetings, away from populist bids? Because consecrating it in light of sectarian tension poses a challenge to Muslims, even if the forces supporting the division of Beirut’s municipality are already afraid that the leader of the “future” will continue to suspend his political work, which will lead to the absence of one of the most prominent Sunni references that guarantee the continuation of equality without consecrating it in a legal text?