As Lebanon faces the prospect of an expanded war with Israel, the country’s Maronite Christian community is going through transformations of its own. Its main political party, the Free Patriotic Movement (FPM) of former president Michel Aoun, is rapidly being transformed into the personal fiefdom of Mr Aoun’s son-in-law, Gebran Bassil. While less dramatic than a war, this development says a great deal about the Christian community’s politics in the country, and its direction.
In 1990, after Mr Aoun had declared a war of liberation against Syrian forces in Lebanon during the country’s civil war, he regularly made speeches to the throngs standing outside the presidential palace, from where he headed a military government. One of the themes he often repeated was that he sought a new, more egalitarian Lebanon, in which prominent sectarian leaders would no longer rule.
Coming from Mr Aoun, this made sense at the time. He himself was a child of the Lebanese periphery, who gained social promotion through the country’s military – sometimes, though not always, a rare example of meritocracy in the country. Yet when Mr Aoun rejected the Taif Accord of 1989, after Lebanon’s parliamentarians had voted in favour of it in Saudi Arabia, another facet of his character came to the forefront.
His rejection seems to have been motivated by the fact that the negotiations leading to Taif had not led also to his own election as president of the republic. This was despite the fact that he had significant Maronite Christian support, had begun his campaign in 1988 by closing down illegal ports, and seemed to embody a statist project against a decade and a half of wartime militia rule.
Mr Aoun was soon defeated by the Syrians and forced into exile. When he returned to Lebanon in 2005, he was received with great enthusiasm by his supporters. The political class’s efforts to contain him and form alliances to limit his success in parliamentary elections that year only boosted his appeal. Consequently, Mr Aoun secured the largest Christian bloc in Parliament.
From that moment on, Mr Aoun revived his old ambition of becoming president. He allied himself with Hezbollah, effectively breaking up the March 14 coalition that had opposed Syria in the aftermath of former prime minister Rafic Hariri’s assassination. This had obliged the Syrians to withdraw from Lebanon, allowing Mr Aoun to return.
Mr Aoun’s alliance with Hezbollah paid off when, in 2016, the party backed his presidency, even as his main Christian rival, Samir Geagea, did the same. Mr Aoun was elected in October 2016, and immediately sought to promote Mr Bassil, both in the government and in his own Free Patriotic Movement. In August 2015, Mr Aoun supported Mr Bassil’s elevation to FPM leader, without elections being held.
Since then, Mr Bassil has purged senior party members whose ties were to Mr Aoun, not to himself. In 2022, he expelled two FPM parliamentarians, Mario Aoun and Ziad Aswad, and most recently, he expelled Elias Abou Saab from the FPM-led parliamentary bloc. In a sign he was gaining in boldness, he recently kicked out Mr Aoun’s nephew Alain Aoun, leading another prominent FPM member, Simon Abi Ramia, to resign from the party.
While there is little that's surprising in Mr Bassil’s transformation of the FPM into a version of himself –what Mr Abi Ramia called “individualism” in his resignation speech – it does provoke several thoughts.
Bassil has purged senior party members whose ties were to Aoun, not to himself
First, unlike most other Lebanese political parties, which are built around sectarian leaders, the FPM initially had a more interesting potential. Many parliamentarians of the group were people of note in their respective areas, not factotums of Mr Aoun. It appeared the FPM could become a gathering point for a mostly middle-class and lower middle-class electorate, was genuinely popular in Christian areas, and was also willing to cross sectarian lines.
Second, Mr Aoun’s past rhetoric portrayed the FPM as different than the sectarian elite against which Mr Aoun had railed in 1990. One couldn’t go too far, as the general could himself be very much a sectarian figure, but at least on the face of things the party’s constituency appeared to be less focused on sect than on a vision of the state to which its middle-class and lower middle-class supporters adhered.
Third, by removing prominent people from the FPM and intimidating the rest, Mr Bassil has taken what had been a fairly pluralistic party and turned it into one susceptible to becoming a gaggle of yes-men. That doesn’t apply to all its remaining leading members, but Mr Bassil’s message is clear: “Either work with my programme, or you’re gone.”
Fourth, in the short term, Mr Bassil’s controversial choices have alienated a significant number of voters, so that in the last elections of 2022, it was the rival Lebanese Forces Party that received a majority of Christian votes, not the FPM. As more FPM figures are forced out of the party, the party’s electorate will probably continue to be eroded.
That may not bother Mr Bassil, whose aim appears to be to create an organisation entirely loyal to himself. Yet all that this shows is how dysfunctional and undemocratic Lebanese politics has become, where retaining personal power is far more of a priority than presenting novel ideas that build constituencies.
In a way, Mr Bassil has only reinforced a sense that the Christian community remains a prisoner of the duality that led to its destruction in 1990, when the Aoun-led Lebanese Army fought Mr Geagea’s Lebanese Forces in a savage war that undermined the Maronites’ national power. The Aounists and Lebanese Forces are still around, and both are still dividing the Christian electorate.
Most disappointingly, Mr Bassil and Mr Geagea have sustained a political environment within the Christian community that leaves little room for dissenters. At a time when many Christian citizens seem to have given up on a unified Lebanese state, the community would gain by breaking out of the Aounist-Lebanese Forces headlock.
The Sand Castle
Director: Matty Brown
Stars: Nadine Labaki, Ziad Bakri, Zain Al Rafeea, Riman Al Rafeea
Rating: 2.5/5
UPI facts
More than 2.2 million Indian tourists arrived in UAE in 2023
More than 3.5 million Indians reside in UAE
Indian tourists can make purchases in UAE using rupee accounts in India through QR-code-based UPI real-time payment systems
Indian residents in UAE can use their non-resident NRO and NRE accounts held in Indian banks linked to a UAE mobile number for UPI transactions
THURSDAY FIXTURES
4.15pm: Italy v Spain (Group A)
5.30pm: Egypt v Mexico (Group B)
6.45pm: UAE v Japan (Group A)
8pm: Iran v Russia (Group B)
The%20specs
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EEngine%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3E2.0-litre%20turbocharged%204-cyl%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ETransmission%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3E8-speed%20auto%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EPower%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3E300bhp%20(GT)%20330bhp%20(Modena)%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ETorque%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3E450Nm%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EPrice%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EDh299%2C000%20(GT)%2C%20Dh369%2C000%20(Modena)%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EOn%20sale%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3Enow%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
ACL Elite (West) - fixtures
Monday, Sept 30
Al Sadd v Esteghlal (8pm)
Persepolis v Pakhtakor (8pm)
Al Wasl v Al Ahli (8pm)
Al Nassr v Al Rayyan (10pm)
Tuesday, Oct 1
Al Hilal v Al Shorta (10pm)
Al Gharafa v Al Ain (10pm)
Common OCD symptoms and how they manifest
Checking: the obsession or thoughts focus on some harm coming from things not being as they should, which usually centre around the theme of safety. For example, the obsession is “the building will burn down”, therefore the compulsion is checking that the oven is switched off.
Contamination: the obsession is focused on the presence of germs, dirt or harmful bacteria and how this will impact the person and/or their loved ones. For example, the obsession is “the floor is dirty; me and my family will get sick and die”, the compulsion is repetitive cleaning.
Orderliness: the obsession is a fear of sitting with uncomfortable feelings, or to prevent harm coming to oneself or others. Objectively there appears to be no logical link between the obsession and compulsion. For example,” I won’t feel right if the jars aren’t lined up” or “harm will come to my family if I don’t line up all the jars”, so the compulsion is therefore lining up the jars.
Intrusive thoughts: the intrusive thought is usually highly distressing and repetitive. Common examples may include thoughts of perpetrating violence towards others, harming others, or questions over one’s character or deeds, usually in conflict with the person’s true values. An example would be: “I think I might hurt my family”, which in turn leads to the compulsion of avoiding social gatherings.
Hoarding: the intrusive thought is the overvaluing of objects or possessions, while the compulsion is stashing or hoarding these items and refusing to let them go. For example, “this newspaper may come in useful one day”, therefore, the compulsion is hoarding newspapers instead of discarding them the next day.
Source: Dr Robert Chandler, clinical psychologist at Lighthouse Arabia
MATCH INFO
Uefa Champions League, last 16, first leg
Liverpool v Bayern Munich, midnight (Wednesday), BeIN Sports
$1,000 award for 1,000 days on madrasa portal
Daily cash awards of $1,000 dollars will sweeten the Madrasa e-learning project by tempting more pupils to an education portal to deepen their understanding of math and sciences.
School children are required to watch an educational video each day and answer a question related to it. They then enter into a raffle draw for the $1,000 prize.
“We are targeting everyone who wants to learn. This will be $1,000 for 1,000 days so there will be a winner every day for 1,000 days,” said Sara Al Nuaimi, project manager of the Madrasa e-learning platform that was launched on Tuesday by the Vice President and Ruler of Dubai, to reach Arab pupils from kindergarten to grade 12 with educational videos.
“The objective of the Madrasa is to become the number one reference for all Arab students in the world. The 5,000 videos we have online is just the beginning, we have big ambitions. Today in the Arab world there are 50 million students. We want to reach everyone who is willing to learn.”
Electric scooters: some rules to remember
- Riders must be 14-years-old or over
- Wear a protective helmet
- Park the electric scooter in designated parking lots (if any)
- Do not leave electric scooter in locations that obstruct traffic or pedestrians
- Solo riders only, no passengers allowed
- Do not drive outside designated lanes
Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
OPTA'S PREDICTED TABLE
1. Liverpool 101 points
2. Manchester City 80
3. Leicester 67
4. Chelsea 63
5. Manchester United 61
6. Tottenham 58
7. Wolves 56
8. Arsenal 56
9. Sheffield United 55
10. Everton 50
11. Burnley 49
12. Crystal Palace 49
13. Newcastle 46
14. Southampton 44
15. West Ham 39
16. Brighton 37
17. Watford 36
18. Bournemouth 36
19. Aston Villa 32
20. Norwich City 29
Bib%20Gourmand%20restaurants
%3Cp%3EAl%20Khayma%0D%3Cbr%3EBait%20Maryam%0D%3Cbr%3EBrasserie%20Boulud%0D%3Cbr%3EFi'lia%0D%3Cbr%3Efolly%0D%3Cbr%3EGoldfish%0D%3Cbr%3EIbn%20AlBahr%0D%3Cbr%3EIndya%20by%20Vineet%0D%3Cbr%3EKinoya%0D%3Cbr%3ENinive%0D%3Cbr%3EOrfali%20Bros%0D%3Cbr%3EReif%20Japanese%20Kushiyaki%0D%3Cbr%3EShabestan%0D%3Cbr%3ETeible%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
The biog
First Job: Abu Dhabi Department of Petroleum in 1974
Current role: Chairperson of Al Maskari Holding since 2008
Career high: Regularly cited on Forbes list of 100 most powerful Arab Businesswomen
Achievement: Helped establish Al Maskari Medical Centre in 1969 in Abu Dhabi’s Western Region
Future plan: Will now concentrate on her charitable work
The National Archives, Abu Dhabi
Founded over 50 years ago, the National Archives collects valuable historical material relating to the UAE, and is the oldest and richest archive relating to the Arabian Gulf.
Much of the material can be viewed on line at the Arabian Gulf Digital Archive - https://www.agda.ae/en
Turning%20waste%20into%20fuel
%3Cp%3EAverage%20amount%20of%20biofuel%20produced%20at%20DIC%20factory%20every%20month%3A%20%3Cstrong%3EApproximately%20106%2C000%20litres%3C%2Fstrong%3E%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3EAmount%20of%20biofuel%20produced%20from%201%20litre%20of%20used%20cooking%20oil%3A%20%3Cstrong%3E920ml%20(92%25)%3C%2Fstrong%3E%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3ETime%20required%20for%20one%20full%20cycle%20of%20production%20from%20used%20cooking%20oil%20to%20biofuel%3A%20%3Cstrong%3EOne%20day%3C%2Fstrong%3E%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3EEnergy%20requirements%20for%20one%20cycle%20of%20production%20from%201%2C000%20litres%20of%20used%20cooking%20oil%3A%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3E%E2%96%AA%20Electricity%20-%201.1904%20units%3Cbr%3E%E2%96%AA%20Water-%2031%20litres%3Cbr%3E%E2%96%AA%20Diesel%20%E2%80%93%2026.275%20litres%3C%2Fstrong%3E%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
The biog
Most memorable achievement: Leading my first city-wide charity campaign in Toronto holds a special place in my heart. It was for Amnesty International’s Stop Violence Against Women program and showed me the power of how communities can come together in the smallest ways to have such wide impact.
Favourite film: Childhood favourite would be Disney’s Jungle Book and classic favourite Gone With The Wind.
Favourite book: To Kill A Mockingbird for a timeless story on justice and courage and Harry Potters for my love of all things magical.
Favourite quote: “We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give.” — Winston Churchill
Favourite food: Dim sum
Favourite place to travel to: Anywhere with natural beauty, wildlife and awe-inspiring sunsets.
Destroyer
Director: Karyn Kusama
Cast: Nicole Kidman, Toby Kebbell, Sebastian Stan
Rating: 3/5
UAE release: January 31
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
THE SPECS
Engine: 4.0L twin-turbo V8
Gearbox: eight-speed automatic
Power: 571hp at 6,000rpm
Torque: 800Nm from 2,000-4,500rpm
Fuel economy, combined: 11.4L/100km
Price, base: from Dh571,000
On sale: this week
'Avengers: Infinity War'
Dir: The Russo Brothers
Starring: Chris Evans, Chris Pratt, Tom Holland, Robert Downey Junior, Scarlett Johansson, Elizabeth Olsen
Four stars
