The Daily Star Editorial
 

To corrupt the cliché, four months is a hell of a long time in politics. Four months has seen the overthrow of two formerly unbreakable Arab regimes and paroxysms of popular protest sweep many more.
In four months, Arab people have lost their fear. And in four months, those concerned with the formation of Lebanon’s “salvation” government have achieved precisely nothing.

Politicians would have one believe this is not for want of trying. Blame is passed casually from one camp to the other, supposed lawmakers mired in the misconception that a) anyone actually believes their excuses and b) voters care more about political squabbling than a new and functioning administration. The lack of government is affecting every facet of society and affecting it badly.

Perhaps some clemency is required. From what has been said, the formation of Lebanon’s government is patently not in Lebanon’s hands. The Cabinet is awaiting the all-clear from – depending on whom you believe – Syria, Saudi Arabia, Iran, the United States or Turkey. Or France. The plethora of foreign officials arriving to a country without a functioning legislative branch should provide some clues as to how internationalized an issue that is supposed to be purely domestic has become. It is no longer anything less than crystal clear: Lebanon’s Cabinet is not decided here.
But four months erodes an electorate’s willingness to give those ensconced in futile internal negotiations the benefit of the doubt.

Whoever is trying (or not trying) to form the government owes the country some honesty. If one individual or party is deliberately fudging the entire process, then say so. If there really are credible reasons behind the power vacuum, then the electorate – the same body that got most of these lawmakers their jobs in the first place – has a right to know.
To continue to allow people to suffer in ignorance would be the ultimate insult, worse even than the four months of fecklessness that got them here.

Lebanon is not an island. As the government continues to vacillate, changes affecting its regional interests are occurring at an alarming rate. Failure to form something approaching an administration, in the middle of the region’s rapid transformation, would be nothing less than political and economic suicide.
The time has come to admit that, for all the hot air of Lebanese politicians, the real Cabinet decisions are being made outside the country. Far from absolving those involved internally from failure, such an admission should admonish them further; they are willing pawns in a game whose only losers are the Lebanese people.