Dotting the I’S & Crossing the T’S
The extension is a plan and not an avoidance of a trouble
Written by Nasser Kandil,
During the two decades the Lebanese have known the term extension with its different turnings and has become a part of the vocabulary of their public life in politics, economy, and services. The extension for them is always as an expected savor because the only presented alternative in front of them is the vacancy, so the advocates of the extension become the owners of a national responsibility, they originally refused the extension but they have tasted its bitterness for the sake of the homeland.
When the extension has taken place for the President Elias Al Hrawi, the background was prepared for showing the risks of going to presidential elections, that their conditions and data were immature, so the extension was an inevitable exit to secure conditions for the consensual presidential elections that succeed in overcoming the division which emerged from the advance of the name of the commander of the army the General Emile Lahoud as a candidate that is adopted by half of the political class, and who is rejected by the second half.
When the extension has taken place for two consecutive periods for the contracts of cell phones networks, the scene was similar because the extension was after the necessary time for the alternative has been exhausted in fruitless discussions, and the legal deadlines have been consumed in disabling all the opportunities of taking the country over the administration of the facility, till the eve of the deadline has arrived, so the Lebanese were between two choices whether to wake up and having their cell phones turned into a scrap, and their invested money in the paid contributions have tuned into a dust particle, or to find that they have lost the consumer service feature, which half of their business is directed by it and half of their diaries, interests and luxury is related to it, or to pray for goodness for whom has stood for the extension for these companies even if they know that this hides a unmatched looting of their money and the money of their country, so on the next morning they show signs of good news for each other by saying “Have not you known that they extended for the companies and our phones have not stopped.”
When the extension for the General Director of the forces of the internal security has taken place and when the extension for other leaders of the security and military services will be hold, then this will happen in the same way which has occurred before, the alternative is the vacancy, the security chaos, the military vulnerability, the ineffectiveness of the institutions, and will consume the necessary deadlines to agree on an appointment that takes into account the national and professional standards, and puts aside the political deals, bargains, and vexations, till the evening of the maturity so the choice will be between the vacancy and the extension, and one will ask you; What do you want if we do not extend, do you accept the vacancy?
The vacancy as an alternative that is awaiting Lebanon in every aspect and if there is not an extension then it is a craft and a workmanship that is perfected by the decision-makers of extension, so their innocent question will be ready; Do you want us to go towards the vacancy. We are not with the extension but at the same time we are more against the vacancy, an if we have to choose between the appointing and the extension then we are with the appointing, and between the extension and the vacancy we are with the extension.
With the approaching of the deadline of the parliamentary elections, two years ago the Lebanese had the same trick, they had the scene of the vacancy, but there was neither a presidential vacancy, nor conditions that prevented holding the parliamentary elections but now the circumstances show the impossibility of holding parliamentary elections , so the question becomes whether the vacancy is an acceptable alternative in a country that is facing multiple risks and is upcoming towards presidential elections. So who will elect the new president if there is not an extension for the parliament, and if the extension has taken place and the people were praying to bless the deputies and those who invented the extension but on the date of electing a president for the Republic the election has not happened and thus the extension was in vain, so the extension for an extension has occurred once again, and what is not achieved by the extension then it will resolved by the extension of an extension.
Today and while the problem of the garbage is surrounding the Lebanese and has consumed all the deadlines for solutions and alternatives for the current contract with Sukleen company, this matter has happened before, and the ordeal has ended as it will end this time, the question for the Lebanese; what can we do for the garbage? Do you accept the vacancy? so there is no choice but the extension, which is a blessed solution, on the next day the Lebanese will exchange the congratulations naively saying” the ordeal of garbage has ended finally and the cars of Sukleen have returned”.
The Lebanese pay implicitly the bill of the presidential vacancy because they refuse applying the recipe of extension for the former President Michel Suleiman, and they have paid more for the extension for the President Emile Lahoud because they have accepted the extension, unlike the recipe which makes the extension as an alternative for the vacancy a plan, and not mere a demand that is related to facing the maturities. Therefore the extension is a recipe for a meal that has its own cookers, and the Lebanese have to know only the rules of tasting, when the meal is well cooked and presented to them.
Translated by Lina Shehadeh,
2015-07-23 | عدد القراءات 1899
