Lebanon .. Why the popular uprising remained without leadership?

Afif Diab-Beirut

Two weeks after the nationwide protests, the Lebanese popular movement remained lacking a unified or spoken leadership despite the unified nature of demands from across the spectrum.

The demonstrators raised unified slogans calling for an end to the deterioration of economic and financial conditions, which negatively affected various segments of society without discrimination or discrimination.

The spontaneous demonstrations have contributed to the relatively unified demands from the request for the resignation of the government to regime change, including the fight against corruption and the recovery of looted funds and the holding of early parliamentary elections in accordance with a new election law that is outside the confessional constraint.

Lebanon's protests unite a single basket of demands without coordination or organizing bodies, which were the focus of large-scale sessions and panel discussions in the sit-ins.

Civil society forces and cultural and economic bodies have been active in setting up tents and setting up evening parties, the aim of which is not to produce a single leadership of the popular movement, but to form a free space for dialogue and discussion, especially among the youth on political, economic, social and environmental issues.

Time and mobility
On the extent of his success in formulating a unified formula for the demands and the mechanism to achieve them in the short and medium term, says Professor of Political Science at the Lebanese University d. Ali Shukr: Time is not in favor of power and mobility.

He adds to the island Net that if the movement extended for a long time, it needs to recrystallize specific points and common and wide "because the demonstrators can not stay in the streets for a long time."

He explained that prolonging the movement may contribute to weakening and ineffectiveness in the next stage, unless crystallized through leadership and demands.

Bigger than everyone
The unprecedented popular movement surprised the authority and its partisan or party forces, in terms of its spread and the extent of popular participation in it as a protest that began against the government's intentions to impose taxes.Then, it spread to regime change and infuriated the entire political class, accusing it of corruption and looting public money.

Political analyst Ibrahim Haider says that the failure of political and partisan forces, loyal or opposed, to dominate the movement is a positive point.

He believes that the multiple demands of the demonstrators on all Lebanese territory refute all accusations that this popular uprising is funded by foreign embassies or local political parties.

However, he considers that one gap in this movement is the lack of a unified leadership that will frame its work, its demands and its program and establish a mechanism for its development.

Haidar believes that this gap was exploited by the Authority, and must be missed the opportunity through the formation of a leadership of the movement and within it exclusively.

Lead the people
In this regard, activist activist and civil society Ammar Abboud believes that the advantage of this popular revolution is that it has no leadership, the revolution does not need to lead it, especially since the people are united on their demands.

He adds to the island Net that the authority said that the popular revolution does not have a unified list of demands in his place, the demands are clear and can be summarized according to the throats protesters "overthrow the government and a modern electoral law and parliamentary elections."

"We cannot negotiate an authority that has lost its legitimacy through the peaceful revolution of the people," Abboud said.

In turn, the activist activist Professor Walid Fakhreddine that there are no representatives of these demonstrations to negotiate with them, and if the Authority wants to negotiate it must talk to all Lebanese who rose up against it.

He adds to Al Jazeera Net that talking about the dysfunction of the movement and the lack of leadership has "a kind of disregard for the minds of the Lebanese and their great revolution, which has one demand: We want this government to leave and we want a transitional government composed of those who are out of power and fight corruption and stole public money at least since 1990." .