كلمة "مهمة" للحريري الجمعة ولقاءات لـ"المستقبل" في جدة

lol invariably, when the m14 want to do something, they all have to go to saudi see the boss and kiss his royal feet

and if the talks "focus on the situation in the northern city of Tripoli." then i expect tripoli to be re-ignited soon

I agree with FT on this. The problem in Lebanon is that her people are cut out of the equation by which the political class is empowered. and Lebanon is supposed to be democratic? The system is set up for outside interference and meddling, afterall, the French colonialists created it just for that purpose, not entrusting the people with the election of their own leaders.
The political class is old enough to have memory of orders coming from Istanbul or Paris or somewhere foreign to Lebanon and so they reflexively look outside of Lebanon for everything political. The entire system needs to be overhauled.

Taif needs to be retained for the time being and fully implemented. There needs to be a Lebanese Senate where the 50-50 Christian Moslem split should be expressed, the Parliament, the Chamber of Deputies needs to be elected by popular vote.
No Bill passes Parliament without concurrent vote of the Chamber of Deputies and the Lebanese Senate.
We should keep the Sunni PM, the Shia Speaker and the Maronite President. Since the President is the Head of State, he should be elected by all of the people. The Aoun suggestion of a 2 stage process is a good one. However, all Lebanese should participate in both steps, both resident and expatriate Lebanese.

Since remittances from expatriate Lebanese to Lebanon brings over $8.0 billion dollars to the Lebanese economy, the expats need a voice. In the first step, the top two candidates would pass to the final election. The second step of the process will determine the vote of the 128 member Chamber of Deputies who vote for the President, like the Electoral College in the US. The vote is tabulated caza by caza with the winner of the votes of the electors in each caza determining the vote of that caza's delegation to the Chamber of Deputies.
In this way, rather than Iran, or Washington or Paris, or Riyadh or any other foreign government determining the outcome, the people determine the outcome and the manner in which the Deputies vote by their vote. The Deputies will have no choice but to vote in the manner of the people's vote from the caza.

The only way to bring Hezbollah back to its proper size in Lebanon as a political party is to strengthen the democratic institutions of the government. Democratic institutions can only be strengthened by increasing the participation of the people in electing the leaders of these institutions.
Hezbollah now is on par with many of the officials in government. The Hezbollah leadership is by with will of Khamenei. The Government leadership is by with will of Riyadh or Washington or some other capital. But when the leadership of state institutions is determined by the people of Lebanon, the people of Lebanon's choice trumps the choice of anyone else. It is our only way out from under the boot of this militia.

can you elaborate how hariri is not supporting democracy in Lebanon? Is he boycotting the presidential elections? Excessive propaganda is not good for your health!

So many thumbs down on such a reason le proposition.

I hope it is his crises that he will talk about. Or as the Lebanese saying goes, ayouha al Dr. Arreet 7akeh dactir nafsak (or something like that)

Looks like it FT. You and I have disagreed a lot in the past, but not because you are FT or because I am Beiruti. It is simply over ideas. But when you have a good idea, as today, I am not prohibited by ad hominem attacks of the past from agreeing with your sound idea. And you have a very good one with which I agree. Now, did the world stop turning on its axis because people who disagreed before can agree today?? Well no, in fact that world keeps turning on its axis because people who can have honest disagreement about ideas, can agree when they get the same idea.