Al-Rahi Urges Cabinet to Abide by Constitution on 2012 State Budget
إقرأ هذا الخبر بالعربية
Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi said Sunday that the primary responsibility of Lebanese authorities is to guarantee an economic and social rise, urging the government to abide by the constitution.
“The economic and social rise is the basis of the rise of the state and its people and institutions,” al-Rahi said in his sermon.
“But such a move requires a policy aimed at serving the rise,” he stressed.
Politicians should work on eradicating corruption and the growing paralysis in administrative work, the patriarch said.
He urged the government to abide by the constitution in the adoption of the 2012 draft state budget, lamenting that the negligence of such a duty for years left the cabinet incapable of meeting its obligations towards private hospitals, schools and social centers.
Al-Rahi accused the government of obstructing its services to the citizens through the procrastination in the adoption of the budget.
The government hasn’t yet approved the draft budget and a $5.9 billion 2011 spending is still awaiting parliament’s endorsement. If approved, it would legalize spending by the government above 2005 levels.
Lebanon hasn’t had any official budget since that year.
The cabinet is set to discuss the draft budget during a session on Tuesday.
Al-Rahi also urged authorities to back investments in the tourism, industry and agriculture sectors to bring back life to the country’s economy and provide job opportunities to citizens.
The patriarch stressed that the reform of the National Social Security Fund is necessary to provide citizens with health and social care.
He slammed favoritism, saying “the stronger the state and the rule of law become, the more nepotism and the interference of influential people would decrease.”
29 January 2012, 13:01
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parliament M14 majority (with joumblat) will never approve state budget. this will highlight their incompetence since the syrians left, in 2005, until end of 2010 when cabinet was taken over by M8.
still there are people who applaud M14 'governance' (:
Brilliant!
29 January 2012, 15:38
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You have your Lebanon and it is a dilemma, and I have my Lebanon and it is a beauty. Your Lebanon is one of bickering and finger pointing. My Lebanon is one of unity and self reflection. Your Lebanon is one of foreign allegiances, and mine is one of unity under one flag, one army and one constitution that treats all fairly and equally. Your Lebanon is one splintered by corrupt politicians, and mine is yet to be remade and reborn into one progressive and just nation. Is it possible to harness the good people of Lebanon to unite and work on establishing the dream nation we all deserve?
29 January 2012, 16:05
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helicopter.
our lebanon is also a beauty and unity. it's just several zionists here, pretending to be lebanese, that are provoking here, but they are irrelevant.
29 January 2012, 17:19
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Cookie_Monster do you dunk the Baalbek hashish laced cookies in the Kool Aid or do you have them separately. Also it's not polite to share the cookies with jabalamel but not with the rest of the group, I do understand he supplies the hash but still.
29 January 2012, 17:27
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helicopter, for you own safety, please change you name or jabalamel will mistake you for one belonging to the Lebanese armed forces and shoot you down he can't help it it's in his nature.
29 January 2012, 19:01
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poor cookie always denying facts for the sake of his orange propaganda...
let us remind him that lebanon was elected the world s best performer in economic growth in 2008. and the Lebanese economy experienced continued resilience, growing 8.5 percent in 2008 and seven percent in 2009 and seven percent in 2010... but only 1.5 in 2011 under your M8 gvt...making it the third slowest economic growth in the MENA region behind ... egypt and 16th world s slowest...
if you call incompetence then better apply it to the M8 gvt given the economic figures against which your propaganda falls.... as usual !
29 January 2012, 19:07
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oh and inflation in Lebanon reached an average 5.9 percent this year, sixth highest in the region, Lebanon’s inflation rate averaged 4.5 percent in 2010 and 1.2 percent in 2009. (10 in 2008, 4.2 in 2007, 4.8 in 2006, 2.4 in 2005...)
seems your M8 gvt didn t try hard to contain the inflation either... :)
better think before posting, you d look less ridiculous
29 January 2012, 19:11
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the economic growth has been steadily growing since 2002... except in 2006 because of your friends war when it fell to a minus 6.4 percent!
so just check before saying M14 governance is incompetent! figures and facts prove you wrong as usual
29 January 2012, 21:54
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borrowed money makes fake wealth my dear peace. those numbers are inflated and our 'boom' has always been a fake one because of borrowing. draw the parallel between national debt and the 'boom' you're talking about and u notice that in the years when we didnt borrow money, we were trailing behind. do u need me to remind u of the size of our national debt? and who caused it? and why? i'll give u a hint: hariri emulated the now failing american example by ignoring industry and agriculture and focusing on services and finance sectors :D and you idiots bought it.
go peddle your economic 'data' to some retarded M14'er because anyone else has the minimum common sense to slap you in the face at the economic BS you're showing us (:
29 January 2012, 22:04
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yes i didn t expect less from you cookie, even figures you don t believe proving how biased you are....
but i guess you are better than experts in economy as usual...(bloomberg, indexmundi...)
29 January 2012, 22:19
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oh and to show how biased ou are since 2005 the debt has been significantly reduced : from 180% of the GDP it has fallen to 134% in 2010....if M14 gvt weas incompetent we should have witnessed an increase no?
and your comparison with the USA is again irrelevant as the lebanese banking sector has shielded lebanon from the financial crisis... (source: IMF) but i guess they are liars too...
""the IMF found that domestic economic and financial conditions remain favorable, possibly more so than at any point since the civil war ended in 1990. After two years of relative political stability, the country has shown an exceptional resilience in the face of the global financial crisis and a capacity to rebound and thrive. Led by a dynamic private sector, Lebanon grew an estimated 9 percent in 2009 and is projected to grow by 8 percent in 2010, according to the IMF assessment.""
stop YOUR FPM BS and be honest for once...
29 January 2012, 23:17
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pleeeeeeeeeeease who's denying that our banking sector isnt good? we have nothing else so we'd better be good at that at least.
and yes, bloomberg and co are a bunch of liars who never saw the great depression coming and kept inflating numbers and giving positive outlooks (:
or are you so much in denial that you dont see that?
again, stop repeating yourself. i'll explain it to you in simple words cos you r obviously a bit thick: if i have 5000$ at the bank and i take a loan of 20K, i now have increased my wealth by 500% by borrowing money that's not mine. now if all goes well and i manage to pay off my debt, with time i will turn my fake wealth into real wealth once the debt is paid off. until then, my ballooning bank account is showing numbers that may appear real when my neighbor sees me showing off my new SUV but i know i had to borrow to be able to afford it. capisce? here gows your 'growth' out of the window.
29 January 2012, 23:23
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the year our gvt didnt borrow, are the years that are closest to reality, like it or not. if we were really growing for the past 5 years, why havent we been able to pay off more than our national debt's interest? why is our infrastructure so primitive and our daman el ijtima3i on the brink of collapse? the good thing is that most of our debt is owed to our own banks and what shielded us really from the depression is our gold-backed LBP (: while europe and US's FIAT money isnt backed by any gold. this is our strong point and we have president elias sarkis to thank for his decision to buy the gold in the 70's (:
