Druze spiritual leader Sheikh Al Aql, Dr. Sami Abi Al-Muna, called for the establishment of a Senate that would be the appropriate framework for dialogue and the maintenance of coexistence by making sure that the main sects are represented, and serve as a source of reassurance for them, by making sure that loyalty to the homeland becomes the basis for building the state.” Stressing “the need for the Lebanese components to respect each other, because whoever thinks of eliminating the other is eliminating Lebanon.”
He made the announcement in a speech at the Institute of Islamic and Christian Studies at the Faculty of Religious Sciences at Saint Joseph University in Beirut, during a ceremony honoring the Minister of Education and Higher Education in the caretaker government, Judge Abbas Al-Halabi.
He. recited a prayer during the occasion : O God, bless our gathering and our university, and grant us the care and ability to carry the message of love, mercy, and brotherhood and to spread the culture of dialogue and peace. O God, guide us to the right path and help us to advance on the path of religion and charity and to preserve human dignity.” And preserve the homelands, O God, enlighten our paths and guide our steps so that we may utter the good and sincere word, which we learned from the pure prophets of God and from our revealed holy books, and whose meanings we accumulated in our institutes, meetings, and conferences over the course of decades.”
He added that the establishment of a Senate will lead to the abolishment of the sectarian political system .
The idea of establishing a Senate in Lebanon was agreed during the Taif Accord but like many other issues that were agreed on , this was never implemented .
According to Carnegie Endowment organization , political sectarianism has two sides. On the one hand it allowed disparate groups to come together by providing the Lebanese people with the framework to devise a social contract. On the other hand, power sharing almost necessarily introduced a corrosive machinery for the distribution of spoils. This allowed corruption to become an accepted form of political behavior relatively quickly; over time, it translated into state inefficiency and the paralysis of decisionmaking. More important, and this is the main flaw of the sectarian model, is that reinforcing sectarian identities and providing them with full-fledged political and legal status came at the expense of convergence toward a common identity.
The Taif agreement was organized around three guiding principles: the establishment of a new balance between the unity of Lebanon and its political system and the diversity of the country’s political and social structure; the transfer of executive power from the presidency of the republic to the Council of Ministers as a collective body; and the principle of parity between Muslims and Christians in the parliament, the cabinet, and the higher echelons of the civil service, regardless of future demographic developments. The agreement also called for the establishment of a sectarian-based senate, which guaranteed the say of religious groups by granting them oversight on vital national affairs and matters that referred to the pact, after the deconfessionalization of parliament; introduced administrative decentralization; mentioned revising the civil status law system; and called for the creation of a national committee to discuss the abolition of political sectarianism.
The flaws of the sect-based governance system in part led Lebanon into the 1975-1990 civil war. The 1989 Taif Agreement put an end to the war.
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