Lebanon's new cabinet, formed after a compromise among top leaders, held its first meeting Friday, amid criticism that it lacked proper Christian representation and showed strong Syrian intervention.
The government of Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri underwent its first test when Youth and Sports Minister Sebouh Hovnanian boycotted the first cabinet session to protest that the Armenian community was not granted two ministries.
Hovnanian was expressing displeasure at his community's share in the government, which, according to the country's tradition, was appointed along religious lines after strenuous give-and-takes.
During the meeting, a committee made up of Hariri and eight ministers was formed to write the government policy statement, which is to be submitted to parliament for a vote of confidence next week.
If some criticized Hariri's cabinet line-up, most Lebanese hoped the business tycoon's political comeback would help Lebanon overcome its economic crisis, with a spiraling national debt expected to reach 25 billion dollars at year's end.
Hariri is widely considered to be the architect of Lebanon's post-war reconstruction plan, but his critics say he is a spendthrift who led a corrupt administration and pushed an already feeble economy deeper into debt.
The new minister of economy and trade, Bassel Fleihan, said in reports published Friday that "we have to revise all the legislation that might hamper investments. The main priority is to promote economic growth."
The French-language L'Orient-Le Jour newspaper said in an editorial that the cabinet formed by Hariri showed that "equilibrium was respected in the shares granted to the poles of power."
However, it regretted "the exclusion of Christian parties and movements. It is an imbalance which proves that the 'decision-makers' (the Lebanese but mainly the Syrians) still do not have the will (for) national reconciliation."
MP Pierre Gemayel, son of former president Amin Gemayel, denounced the new cabinet "as a political disaster" because it excluded Christian parties.
Similar reactions appeared in the press by the Christian parties that regularly anger Syria by calling for it to pull its troops out of Lebanon.
The English-language Daily Star said the "noticeable effort to improve Christian representation was evident. But some of the political factions essential to the consolidation of national consensus were left out, including the Phalange party (Kataeb)."
The paper's editorial wondered if "maybe someday Lebanon will choose its leaders independently of another country's myopic appreciation of its own priorities, and perhaps both will be healthier for it."
Hariri's relatively large government allowed the comeback of two of his main allies. Bahij Tabbarah had been his justice minister and Fouad Siniora was his state minister for financial affairs.
Tabbarah becomes a minister of state without portfolio, while Siniora moves up to the finance ministry's top spot from his previous position as minister of state.
Siniora is still under investigation for allegations of squandering public funds during the previous Hariri government.
The Ad Diyar newspaper editorial, under a screaming title of "taking the Lebanese people for fools," said "this is shocking because in any other country, when a minister is under investigation, he resigns immediately and until the verdict is issued.
"But Lebanon has created a new situation, a historical precedent when a minister facing judicial charges is appointed to the most important ministry in the government."
"This means that either those who put him on trial were crushed politically or that they had put him on trial unjustly," he said.
The pro-Syrian As Safir daily said "Siniora's appointment asserts the decision to close the chapter of judicial prosecutions and with the curtain lowered on one of the most important elements of discord between Lahoud and Hariri."
When Lahoud first came to power in 1998, he backed an anti-corruption campaign that quickly led to the jailing of several Hariri allies – BEIRUT (AFP)
© 2000 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
