05 July 2008
BEIRUT: Polished, yet distinctly partial. The National Christian Gathering (NCG), a Lebanese Christian political front, was launched at the Le Royal Hotel in Dbayyeh on Friday, during a convention with a clear bent toward the opposition Free Patriotic Movement (FPM) and Marada Movement factions.
In the lead-up to the conference, with the soft tones of Fairuz serenading those assembled early enough to bear witness, ushers and security personnel directed around 150 Christian Lebanese political, economic and social figures to their seats and at times discreetly jested with individuals wearing ties of the "wrong" colors.
Reserved for NCG bigwigs, the front two rows were clearly populated by opposition stalwarts such as FPM chief MP Michel Aoun, Marada leader and former Minister Suleiman Franjieh, Popular Bloc chief MP Elie Skaff and politically realigned former Phalange boss Karim Pakradouni. While obviously lacking representatives from March 14 Christian factions like the Phalange Party and Lebanese Forces, the NCG event displayed no apparent hostility to the absent segment of the Lebanese Christian political establishment.
Preliminary speakers outlined the motive of the NCG - preserving an effective Christian presence in Lebanon and the Middle East. Then, Aoun - the former Lebanese Armed Forces commander and current opposition Christian lynchpin - took the podium to outline the vision by which such preservation could be achieved.
"We must draw new political lines in order to allow [the state of] Lebanon to play its natural role in the Middle East region," Aoun said.
He added that the NCG seeks to buffer Christians in the Middle East from the negative effects of demographic displacement brought on by "American policy in Iraq and Palestine, which has disproportionately affected Christians there," and placed this against a backdrop of "American hegemony in the international system and to the treatment of smaller peoples like chess pieces in a great game since the collapse of the Soviet Union [reduced balance in the international system]."
Still, the FPM leader stressed that "disagreement with the US administration does not mean enmity with the American people, whose [values] we share." Aoun added that Lebanon is a "small and fragile" country that remains hostage "to its location at the crossroads and fault lines of East and West," but went on to say that "Christians in Lebanon are of the East - and their role [in the country] is vital."
Following Aoun, former Bar Association chairman Shakib Qortbawi outlined the political platform of the nascent NCG, which all speakers described as a Christian political front aimed at promoting dialogue within the community and with Lebanese Muslims. The platform stressed the "internal dangers" of "Palestinian resettlement in Lebanon, a development that would overturn the demographic equation in the country and exacerbate a crisis in a country lacking sufficient natural resources; the purchasing of land by non-Lebanese citizens in an illegal fashion; and the marginalization of the Christian community in government, the public administration, boards, institutions and the security services."
Qortbawi added that "a historic settlement should be concluded with Syria leading to the demarcation of borders, the establishment of diplomatic ties and the creation of neighborly relations between two independent peoples."
Finally, the platform concluded that despite an emphasis on Christians in Lebanon, the NCG is attempting to "create relations between strong Lebanese Muslim and strong Lebanese Christian communities, so as to restore balance in a country that has not known life without it."
Copyright The Daily Star 2008.
