EDITORIAL: Lebanon's capital Beirut was known in better times as the Paris of the East. That description beggars belief today when the devastation wrought by the huge explosion of some 3,000 tons of ammonium nitrate in the port area that killed 171 people, injured 6,000 and wrecked homes and businesses worth $ 15 billion is taken into account. The saga of how the highly dangerous chemical used in making explosives and fertiliser came to be stored at the port for seven years without any safeguards is worthy of the raciest international crisis thriller. Reportedly, in 2013 the cargo was on board a ship captained by a Russian citizen on its way to deliver the ammonium nitrate when it was diverted to Beirut to pick up some other goods. A dispute over port dues led to the confiscation of the ship and its cargo. The ammonium nitrate was stored in a warehouse and all but forgotten. The ship, old and leaking, sank in the harbour. Since then, with the exception of a warning to the US some four years ago about the risks entailed in storing the chemical without adequate safeguards, which too was ignored, the volatile cargo was all but forgotten. Reportedly, a fire unleashed the explosion that in videos appeared to resemble the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima, an anniversary that ironically fell around the same time. International humanitarian aid of some $ 300 million has been pledged, with the proviso that the corrupt ruling elite and government of Lebanon will not be able to get their dirty, grubby fingers on it. Instead, it will be routed through the UN, development agencies and NGOs. This insult after injury reflects the poor opinion about the Lebanese ruling elite both within the country and without.

Lebanon's period of peace and prosperity in the past was predicated on a delicate but awkward power-sharing arrangement on denominational-sectarian lines. The main power sharers were Shia and Sunni Muslims, the Druze, and Maronite Christians, reflecting the makeup of a religiously fractured society. The top political posts, i.e. president, prime minister and speaker of the Assembly, were distributed amongst these factions. The real turning point for this cosy power sharing arrangement that encouraged the country's living beyond its means for years and in the process enriched the ruling elite came when the Palestinian resistance movement's presence in the country, both refugees and fighters, swelled after Jordan expelled them by force in 1970 into neighbouring countries, particularly Lebanon. This enhanced Palestinian presence became the tinder that lit the fuse of the Lebanese civil war, which only ended after 17 years in 1990, along the way suffering an Israeli invasion in 1982 that allowed the massacre of Palestinian refugees in the Shatila and Sabra camps and the occupation of southern Lebanon. Had it not been for the Iranian and Syrian-backed Hezbollah militia's determined resistance, Israel might well have still had a foothold in Lebanon. The end of the civil war saw the Palestinian leadership evacuated to Tunisia. Lebanon once more became the receiver of foreign flow of funds that once again made the rich richer. But all good (and some bad) things must come to an end. In 2019, Lebanon's profligate economic ways finally produced a crisis. The country's credibility was so low that even the international financial institutions refused to bail out the country. The economic crunch produced mass protests. Attempts to enhance taxation further fuelled the protests that morphed into demands for the corrupt ruling elite to be stripped of power, a demand bordering on a revolutionary change. The Beirut explosion has proved the icing on the cake. In its aftermath, and amidst continuing protests, the government has resigned. But the protestors have now escalated their demands to include the president's resignation. The inherited from the past freewheeling and corrupt system of a denominationally sectarian ruling elite appears to be all but over. The risk is that as the previous system crumbles, unless a democratic solution is soon found, the religious-sectarian divide could easily rear its ugly head and lead to even worse outcomes.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2020