05 August 2008
BEIRUT: The Future Movement of MP Saad Hariri confirmed on Monday media reports that said that the group was going through "major structural reorganization." "The Future Movement has never been a rigid entity and always open to new ideas and reforms," it said in a statement Monday. "However, media reports carry some exaggerations."
Beirut's pro-opposition newspaper As-Safir reported on Monday the Future Movement appointed former Interior Minister Hassan al-Sabaa to replace former MP Salim Diab as head of its central coordinating body.
According to As-Safir, the step is part of a larger evaluation of the party's political and security procedures ahead of the spring 2009 elections and is a response to the movement's failures in street clashes with opposition supporters.
As-Safir added the chief complaint about the central coordinating body is that it focused on "functional" duties at the expense of political work, which resulted in "an estrangement between the Future Movement's leadership and its base."
The newspaper underlined that foremost under scrutiny in the evaluations is "the utility of what a Future Movement activist, interviewed by the newspaper, called 'black decisions,'" with respect to the two government decisions over Hizbullah's telecommunications network and airport security that led to protests which degenerated into street fighting.
Although the Future Movement was "sure" Hizbullah would not launch a further "military or security adventure in the capital," if Hizbullah did employ force, the Future Movement "would not bear the cost ... but rather would deter it," As-Safir reported.
As-Safir said evaluations of the Future Movement's central administration and of the governorate councils in Akkar, Beirut, the Bekaa Valley, Iqlim al-Kharroub, Tripoli and the South are also under way.
In their statement issued Monday afternoon, the Future Movement said: "The May 7 incidents, in addition to sporadic security incidents ... laid an important responsibility on the Future Movement toward its supporters and to Beirut in particular. This responsibility required an internal review tackling the movement's political, national and structural aspects."
"Talk about change in the movement is still premature, but it does not stop the fact that the movement's leadership has been holding meetings for the past few weeks with leaders throughout the country," the Future Movement statement said.
Political, organizational, structural and administrative teams are currently preparing working papers "which will then be presented to the leadership," it added.
Meanwhile, Beirut newspaper Al-Liwaa, which leans toward the March 14 coalition, of which the Future Movement is a key member, said on Saturday that the parliamentary majority would soon be meeting in order to adopt an "action plan ... capable of correcting failures" that had negatively affected the bloc.
Copyright The Daily Star 2008.
