Al-Rahi Calls for Freedom of Choice and New Social Contract
Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi reiterated his call for the adoption of an electoral law that brings into power efficient people and advocated a new social contract to resolve the country’s differences.
During a dinner banquet thrown in his honor by the Maronite parish in Montreal, al-Rahi said: “Lebanon is in need for a new electoral law that respects the freedom of choice of the citizen in bringing the person whom he sees as efficient and loyal to the nation.”
He criticized the government for failing to fill vacant diplomatic seats. “The appointments are not being carried out because everything is politicized.”
The patriarch also described the dispute last month between MPs during a three-day parliamentary session aimed at assessing the performance of the cabinet as “shameful.”
He lamented “the level that the lawmakers have reached to in their statements and thinking.”
Al-Rahi said that 70 years after the Lebanese struck the National Pact deal to steer Lebanon clear of loyalties to the East and West, the country is more divided.
“It is time to work for a new social contract based on the National Pact and all the differences in Lebanon because there is no loyalty but to Lebanon,” the patriarch told Lebanese community members.
The new contract would help the Lebanese announce their loyalty to the nation rather than their sects and political parties, he said.
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