Environment Minister Says Protests 'Directed at Wrong Person'
إقرأ هذا الخبر بالعربية
Environment Minister Mohammed al-Mashnouq refused on Wednesday to budge on his decision to remain in office despite protests calling for his resignation over his failure to resolve the waste crisis.
Following talks with Prime Minister Tammam Salam at the Grand Serail, al-Mashnouq said the protests are “directed at the wrong person.”
He stressed that he would remain in office. “I am part of this government. I don't mind discussing (with protesters) any other issue.”
On Tuesday, “You Stink” movement activists briefly took over the environment ministry in downtown Beirut and demanded al-Mashnouq's resignation.
They have so far staged three large protests over the government's failure to deal with the garbage crisis that erupted following the closure of Lebanon's largest landfill in Naameh on July 17.
Skirmishes also erupted Tuesday outside the environment ministry as dozens of protesters outside pelted security forces with bottles and stones.
The protests have attracted supporters from across Lebanon's political and religious divides, reflecting the growing frustration with the corrupt political class.
But al-Mashnouq said his conscience was clear and hoped the waste crisis would be resolved.
He reiterated that several political parties were to blame for the failure to resolve the problem.
G.K.
M.T.
02 September 2015, 13:07
67
He is the minister in charge, he wasnot able to do his job and he recognized he wont be able to when he withdrew from the comitee so time to go home... Nothing personal, just logic...
02 September 2015, 14:06
42
it's always somebody's else fault. shame on this man, this is his legacy people will remember him by - partying in foreign countries while our country drowns in trash.
02 September 2015, 18:06
11
you got the wrong guy. He was not partying in foreign countries. Get educated before you get disgusted.
03 September 2015, 06:19
01
Not just this man, all of them point the finger somewhere else. This is why they should not focus on any one man or ministry but on all and specifically the big sharks like Berri, Aoun, and Jumblat who should be stripped of their parliamentary seat. A Democracy is like a machine, all its parts must be synchronized and working well together, one broken part will break bring the whole machine to a halt. My take on Mashnouq is that he was vague on placing the blame, it is his responsibility to be transparent and state exactly who is keeping him from doing his job as it should be done.
02 September 2015, 18:00
41
I feel sorry for the environment minister Mashouq... he inherited a poison chalice. But he is the Minister in charge of what has become the focus point for the peoples rage at the incompetence of this corrupt political class that cannot do anything except agree to illegally extend their own parliamentary terms! Enough of this stinking trash! You all stink!!!!
02 September 2015, 18:34
41
Why are you trying to justify the incompetence of the Lebanese political class? Bassil was energy minister for 3 years and you think he alone stole $1.6 billion? If that is true then what did the rest steal over 20 years? They all stink and people like you smell just as bad!
02 September 2015, 18:42
41
why is there billions of cubic meters of gas of the coast of lebanon but we don't extract it? Is is Bassil's fault? He has being screaming about for years? Or is it the stinking lebanese political class can't decide how to divide the profits amongst themselves? Meanwhile israel and cyprus are pumping our oil and gas while laughing and high fiving the international oil companies all the way to the bank!!!! and we are here arguing about who's fault it is that the rubbish is piling up on the streets!!!! Its piling up coz our politicians are playing games with which one of their invested companies will win the tender to rip of the lebanese people for the next 5 years!
02 September 2015, 19:44
01
Mr. Mo Ham-Head Mashnouq, the youth movement may have acted wrongly by entering your ministry, yes, for a moment I'll give you that, but it has been quite a while that the people of Lebanon have been asking you to leave because you failed so miserably the job that was delegated to you. They posed no physical threat to you nor the office you serve, so why did your cousin Nouhad the Samba dancer of Mykonos use so executive a force on them? Nouhad is not cut for his job, and neither are you, both of you will now have to answer for your crimes, the people of Lebanon are not goats for you to slaughter.
02 September 2015, 19:56
11
The political class are so terrified of Mashnouq falling to the axe of public opinion and they've banded together against the movement - if he becomes accountable for his actions, it'll mean that they'll all be vulnerable to this sort of action.
I pray for the day that our government fears our people, as it is meant to be. They serve the people, not the other way around.
02 September 2015, 20:43
22
@phoenix
NO the youth movement did not act wrong by entering THE ministry ( it is not HIS ministry) It belongs to the people of Lebanon. State institutions do not belong to a minister it belongs to the people of Lebanon. They have the right to occupy it when it is run by corrupt and inefficient ministers. PERIOD
02 September 2015, 21:37
02
can you occupy a federal building in the united states, lol?
03 September 2015, 13:37
00
(1). Coolmec, habibi, you are I are not in disagreement, but tactically the move was wrong, in a democracy everything belongs to the people, but then wasn't it said that freedom is the highest level of responsibility? Maybe I am no longer a young man, true that, but at least when people of my generation caution, it would be prudent and fair to listen. OK, it wasn't so bad to enter the ministry, it was OK to protest inside the office, but when the minister of the interior asked them to leave, they should have left and continued outside.
03 September 2015, 13:37
00
(2). Coolmec. Why? Because it is NOT realistic to expect a minister to resign in this way, on the contrary, it would bring about his resolve to stay. I am part of the You Stink movement and here I believe that this could have been avoided, in fact in some segments of Lebanese public, the minister also got himself some public sympathy. I am one who knows when a thing is strategic or otherwise, this was a strategic mistake, there are many other ways better. My take, that's all.
03 September 2015, 01:38
01
@coolmec,
I urge you to open your two eyes and not only one. Then if sincere you would urge people to storm Bas-Seal offices and palaces for corruption theft and inefficiency.
I think you agree with me that most politicians are corrupted. As a consequence They caused all actual crisis and deserve well to be to be trialled.
However, (here you may not agree with me), the people should address first the fair election of a PRESIDENT in spite of the boycotting members (not doing their duty). Then putting long agenda for our crisis. In fact if the people succeed to paralysed the parliament and the cabinet then only the chaos prevail for the benefit of illegal arms following the jungle rules.
