New nominee for president of Lebanon
Lebanon, Editorial, 10/30/2007

The Lebanese political groups are trying to find a new president for the country that is agreeable to the many parties, the ruling parties and the opposition. They want to do so before the soon upcoming expiration of the term of the president.

Supposedly, the ruling parties, supported by the west and the USA, and are opposed to Syrian influence in Lebanon, are in conflict with the opposition which includes Shiite groups such as Hizbullah. The opposition in part wants a position that is not hostile to Syria and are opposed to USA influence and policy in Lebanon, especially since the USA considers Hizbullah a terrorist organization.

Also, there are differences on the Rafic al-Hariri assassination and the holding of the trial for it. Some see Syria as always meddling in Lebanese affairs and trying to corrupt its democratic practice and institutions and terrorize its politicians and those opposing it, and trying to establish military leaders as presidents in order to get Lebanon away from the ideals of civilian control of government.

And, the USA, while promoting leaders who oppose Syria and claims to want greater democracy, is also trying to weaken and incapacitate Hizbullah. The USA can be seen as aligned with the Saudi Arabia and other so-called moderate Arab regimes who have in common demonstrated animosity toward the other Arab regimes, such as Syria, that espouse Arab nationalism and a stronger position in opposition to Israel.

There is also the issue of control the political atmosphere in Lebanon, as to whether it will be Hizbullah and those who admired what it did for Lebanon in terms of giving Lebanon military and moral backbone, after past military subjugation from Israel that Hizbullah ended, or an atmosphere dominated by pro-western forces who shy from Arabism and feel Lebanon should be more allied with the West in order to create a healthier country.

Christians have been the greater portion of the population in the past that wanted close western attachment, while Muslims, and especially the Shiites, opposed this. But now, and after the assassination of Rafic Hariri, the Sunni Muslims have changed sentiment much more than they had in the past into becoming more interested in connections with Western or moderate Arab regimes and started looking at Syria with a negative attitude.

Supposedly, a Lebanese president, by tradition, had to be Christian and Maronite. Also, Christians, who by some estimates are about 40% of the population, have had historic fear of a non-Christian becoming president. This attitude may have served them well in the past, but may have become very short sighted. I consider this attitude short sighted because, if Christians seek to promote democracy, then choosing a president based on his religion or sect is a most undemocratic for of government and promotes and plays to their disadvantage in the long term in weakening the underlying fundamentals of democratic practice. Of course, the Christians, with legitimate fears have had no other answer to protect them from being imposed upon, by some zealot president, where Muslims are the majority, by such a president changing the laws to change the nature of Lebanon's democracy and law-engrained religious tolerance and freedom. As such, the Christians are in a bind as to how a they can try to promote greater democracy, without destroying the democracy they have, by allowing the elections of a president who may destroy the freedoms they enjoy.

But this problem is not exclusive to Lebanon. Many groups in many countries face similar dilemmas, in that they the first free election they hold would be the last election, where during the first election of a new government is elected democratically, the majority gets in power, and then they change the system to destroy the democracy that got them into power, so that they can impose their will on others and on minorities.

This is a major problem that my first book addressed the solution to. Democracy as practiced today in the world is extremely flawed in that it accepts the 51% simple majority rule as something good and fair. I argued in the book that this is a very poor system, where in essence 1% of the population (or 2% which is the difference between 51% who win and 49% who loose) is determining the fate of the rest of the population. You may call this democracy, but I call it a form of tyranny. As such, I proposed that any law that needs to be passed in a country, needs to be passed by a minimum margin to inspire confidence in the correctness of the decision. Therefore, for example, a conformable margin of difference for any law in Lebanon for adopting or changing a law would need a minimum 2/3 majority support. 2/3 majority, which is 67%, means that for a law to be passed, it will have a "margin of confidence" of 1/3 in the correctness of the law ( math: 2/3 supporting the law minus 1/3 who opposed the law). What does this seemingly technical talk have to do with Christians, minorities and tyranny? Adopting such a system has a built in protection to minorities. This system is built to ensure the creation of correct laws, and its byproduct is that it protects minorities. So that the more accurate we want our laws to be, the higher the "margin of confidence" we can require before these laws can pass. So for many laws, if may even make sense to have the law pass by a 80% majority (confidence factor = 60% which is 80%-20% ) or even by 90% (confidence factor = 80% which is of 90%-10%). The more important the law is, the higher the margin of confidence that should be required of it.

So, if Lebanon's parliament passed a law that says that "all laws can only be adopted by 67% majority", then these laws would be more accurate, and of course, critically important to all minorities, such as the Christians, is that they will be protected in a very real way not only from the majority or a non-Christian president, but will also be protected from a parliament that wants to pass laws to impose its own agenda on minorities. This is how you create better democracy and protection for liberty. You do so by putting in place the institutions and laws that allow the creation of good laws. Naturally, good laws can only be seen as good if they are supported by the greatest majority possible. This of course, also results in a true protection for minority who will have to be made a part of the system in order for the system to function and for laws to pass or change.

In this manor, Lebanon can free itself from any mention and practice of religious preference, by law or tradition, to any political office or government position, and can greatly stregthen its democratic practice and freedoms protection. This form of democracy that I propose, is the true form of government that promotes the liberty of the individual. And of course, when we protect the liberty of the individual, who in essence is a minority of one, we protect the liberty of all, and especially protect minorities, from the oppression and wild passion of the majority that may have little respect or care for such values.

And Lebanon is full of minorities.

So one question is, will the Lebanese Christian dare to support a candidate that would aim to place such a rational democratic form of government in place? And another question is, will Hizbullah understand that they were once treated as a minority and second hand citizens and come to appreciate that such a system is good for them and for others? And another question is, will the USA support and encourage the development of such a system, even if the person promoting such a rational form of government has opposed the USA on many policies including on Hizbullah, and had accused the USA of supporting those who were trying to suppress democracy? And another question is, will Saad Hariri, son of Rafic Hariri, give support to a such a person when Saudi Arabia may not, because such a person is focused on promoting Liberty.

If these above questions can be answered positively, and such forces can come together to support such a person for the sake of Lebanon, in order to create a new form of government in Lebanon, that once and for all removes religion from official practice, and to promote freedoms for the individual and promote good policy and law, then I may consider being nominated for president of Lebanon. My Grandfather was a parliament member, and so was my dad's uncle. I am not a religious person and my political credentials in political practice in the most advanced democracy are established. My agenda will be to implement these ideals that I write about in my books. I had left Lebanon and I am residing in the USA now, and I will gladly consider such a nomination. They say that Shiites with the two main factions led by Hizbullah and the other by Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, and Sunnis and Saad Hariri, and Syria, and Iran, and the USA, and Saudi Arabia have major influence in Lebanese affairs. It will be interesting to see how much courage there is around in support of true change and a better future.

By,
Jamil Kazoun


Author of the book: A Second American Revolution: Creating Rational Government
and the book: A Third American Revolution: A New World Government . A Plan for Liberty, Justice and Peace"

Bellow are many links to some of the author's writings

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