Saturday, March 12, 2011

EDITORIAL

Caretaker Prime Minister Saad Hariri exhorted all the partisans of his March 14 coalition yet again Friday to attend the mammoth demonstration called for Sunday, but the timing of the rally means that attendees, speakers and the security forces must be especially vigilant in keeping their words and deeds within the bounds of democracy.

The mass display of support for the March 14 bloc has been planned for weeks; in nearly every year since 2005, the arrival of the date on calendar served as notification that a large-scale public rally would be forthcoming. Lebanese citizens should indeed cherish their unfettered right to peaceful assembly; their full-throated airing of their side’s slogans represents a healthy and welcome display of democracy.

However, in 2011 the situation demands extraordinary care, as the March 14 General Secretariat rightly pointed out Friday. The exceptional openness of Lebanese society in the regional context means that basically anyone could turn up on Sunday. An infiltrator could utter the wrong words or otherwise provoke the demonstrators, and the peaceful gathering of citizens – perhaps hundreds of thousands of them – could mutate into something tragically undemocratic.

Lebanon, alas, finds itself once more in the midst of volatile political circumstances. The country is split nearly in half, with their polarized positions hardened and seemingly irreconcilable. The government has collapsed. The entire Arab region is undergoing turmoil. Under these conditions one word, one misunderstanding could ignite civil strife difficult to extinguish.

Sunday’s event requires the most prudent planning and supervision by the country’s security forces. Those attending with even the best of intentions must make sure they limit themselves to the slogans and goals outlined by the March 14 faction and Hariri.

If the March 8 alliance has arguments that it wishes to raise, then it can well arrange a sweeping rally of its own. Martyrs Square is not the exclusive province of the March 14 camp. Lebanon offers the opportunity for freedom of expression and assembly that so many throughout this region evidently crave.

Indeed, it is only natural that the competitors in the democratic arena would seek the most direct means to persuade the citizenry and the most enormous display of their support among the electorate. What Lebanon needs is that political rivals, however disparate their perspectives, resort solely to legal and democratic means to settle their differences and determine control of the country’s elected bodies. The future direction of Lebanon should be decided by its voters, in this case in the general elections due in 2013. In the meantime, let the democratic race unfold, and let all participants exercise extreme caution to keep their striving within the limits of peace and the law.