Nayla Tueni

My grandmother Nadia Tueni wrote these words, and on August 4, they became more real than ever. A city that has died a thousand times, and risen a thousand times. This is our daily battle: to love you, to believe in you, to fight for you… Where my father gave his blood dreaming of a better tomorrow… A city that bleeds, that breaks, but never bows. Even in ruin, you remain alive ,in your people, in your streets, in your soul.

According to constitutional principles, a state is ruled by law. However, this is not the case in consensual democracies created by sectarian, factional, and tribal alliances. In this form of governance, state institutions recede to the background while local leaders, militias, and street thugs assume power. Applying the law becomes a sort of social luxury that the state coordinates with other de facto powers to achieve. The notorious Roumieh Prison in Lebanon offers a typical example.

The Subsidiary Parliamentary Committee will meet again today to look into the common factors among proposals for a new election law, one that is fair and consensual. But it is clear that the committee is only wasting time, like all Lebanon has been lately doing as it awaits developments on the Syrian front.