Berri: 6-9-9 Cabinet Formula Still Reasonable and Acceptable
إقرأ هذا الخبر بالعربية
Speaker Nabih Berri stressed on Wednesday the need to form a new government in light of the ongoing disputes between the rival political powers over the matter.
He said: “The 6-9-9 cabinet formula is still the most reasonable and acceptable proposal.”
He made his remarks during his weekly meeting with lawmakers at his Ain el-Tineh residence.
The speaker added: “All sides must assume their responsibilities to confront pending issues and upcoming developments.”
The proposed formula grants centrists six ministers and the rival March 8 and 14 camps nine ministers each.
Premier-designate Tammam Salam was appointed in April but has so far been unable to put together a government over the conditions and counter conditions set by the rivals parties.
Earlier on Wednesday, Berri had held talks with Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat's envoy, caretaker Social Affairs Minister Wael Abou Faour, to discuss the latest developments.
The minister said after the meeting: “Crises are mounting in Lebanon and the roadmap should therefore be clear to all parties. They should restore partnership between them, whether at cabinet or the national dialogue table.”
They must also cooperate in tackling upcoming developments in Lebanon, such as the presidential election.
“Consensus must be reached and political efforts must be exerted in order to avoid political vacuum,” urged Abou Faour.
President Michel Suleiman's six-year term ends in May but there are fears that the differences between the March 8 and 14 camps would lead to a vacuum in the country's top post.
11 December 2013, 15:10
85
Prior to the Presidental elections there is a more pressing issue to address.
The army was sent in to suppress and contain the rage amongst the Sunnis' in Tripoli after the perpetrators of the twin Mosque blasts were revealed.
Who is going to contain the rage amongst the Sunni population of Lebanon after the STL hearing in January.
You might be able to appease the Sunnis of Tripoli and pass judjment against Ali Eed and his party, but come January, who is going to pass Judgement against a party that comprises nearly 70% of a certain sect to appease the whole 100% of a different sect. We are heading towards a catastrophe that will deem the failure to elect a president mere child's play.
11 December 2013, 15:49
96
Well if worse comes to worse they could "take care of them"...
11 December 2013, 15:59
14
The problem is not 9-9-6.
M14 were ready to accept 9 9 6. But When Hassan realized they were willing, Hassan raised the rethoric to market their acceptance of anything as a defeat. This way he keeps the status quo until he wraps up his syria operation.
The problem is the ministerial statement. Will it mention the milicia's weapons and hence legitimize them? or will it not?
11 December 2013, 16:15
107
Lebanon first HA knows exactly what its doing, its a systematic weakening of all aspects of the state, the main aim is a vacuum of state authority especially with the armed forces, to the point where there is no government, no President, no meetings in Parliament ie a paralysis of state institutions and then they can come out of their security zones in force and in numbers using the element of surprise, numbers and speed to take over. They are after all the advocates of an Islamic State (Wilayat Al Faqih), once that is done Lebanon can truly be part of the "resistance Axis" where it will become the Post Box to the Israelies and anyone who stands in its way.
Unfortunately we are reaching the point where our backs are to the wall and the Lebanese needs to decide what he wants his country to look like, Tehran or Damascus? Or Paris and New York. Personally I think Paris is a better option...
11 December 2013, 16:24
24
cedars. noone can take over lebanon. The marouniyyeh siyeisiyyeh tried it in the 60s and 70s, didnt work. The sunniyye siyesiyye tried it in 90s and 00s under the auspices of ksa. Didnt work.
The chiiyye siyesiyye will defintely not work on the medium term.
Plus i dont think HA are immature enough to try to do their wileyit el fakih. They are enough with controlling airport, port, telecom and a few other things.
They just want to keep the control they have now. No need for more. Only thing, they had to fight in syria bec they cant afford to lose assad, the greatest evil of lebanon.
11 December 2013, 16:28
19
why 12+12? make it 6+6. No need for so many useless salaries for such a small country.
11 December 2013, 16:34
86
Hand over command of the country to the army and let them strike with an iron fist whoever is carrying as much as a sling shot (M8 and M14) no exceptions to anyone or anything. All in, all the way in and that includes palestenian camps.
11 December 2013, 17:44
23
actually i dont agree. M14 are becoming more and more extremist: no dialogue, no oil file, no meeting of govt, HA's Syria's involvment more important that lebanon... M14 completely sclerosed the country.
On the other hand HA has a completely foreign agenda and doesnt give a hoot about the prosperous sovereign lebanon most dream about.
Centrists are common sense people who are willing to talk to HA and discuss with him, without being too extrimist.
I personally would favor 4-4-12
11 December 2013, 17:44
93
The 9-9-6 Cabinet proposal is a proposal for Paralysis at best, Hezbollah domination at worst. With 24 Ministers, the "centrists" appointed by Jumblatt and Sleiman, would be subject to Hezbollah intimidation to caste their votes with the 9 M8. This is a plan to institutionalize and formalize political polarization in Lebanon. Rather than move the whole country to take policy in the Hezbollah direction, Hezbollah only has a handful, 6 ministers to threaten or kill and this brings the whole government. Six.
11 December 2013, 17:46
93
Until Hezbollah puts down its weapons, gives up the option of securing its political agenda by use of force of arms against its political opponents, there is no formula that can be devised that would render the Government to be independent of an armed political faction or party.
11 December 2013, 19:26
37
M8 got 55% of the popular vote in the last election, M14 got 45%.
Do you believe in equality?
11 December 2013, 20:50
02
In the US, Democratic candidates for the US Congress got more than 1.5 million votes than the Republican House candidates, but Republicans hold a majority under the election laws in the US. In 2000, Gore won more popular vote than Bush, but Bush won. Its all about the law that is in place. You can't change the rules after the fact and then claim that you won. Democracy, rule of law and plain ole law doesn't work that way.
In any event, the mandate of that 2009 Parliament is expired, so the numbers are, as of today, meaningless.
11 December 2013, 21:03
32
@Chrisrushlau : that's not true. March 14 won the 2009 elections. March 14 lost its majority after politicians broke away from the movement (ie: Jumblat).
If your 45% (m14) / 55% (m8) split comes from wikipedia, the numbers there are wrongly calculated and actually inverted (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lebanese_general_election,_2009)
This means the people who legitimately voted M14 were cheated and are no longer properly represented in parliament!
Also, 45% of voters did not vote. This tells a lot about the silent majority who rejects both M8 and M14.
And amongst the voters, many people voted AGAINST M8 / M14 rather than FOR them.
There are more ANTI-Hariri in Tayyar than pro-Aouns for example...
11 December 2013, 21:04
22
The fact it means there were 73% of the population who voted for neither side because they didnt give a damn about any of them and chiefly because neither side let a viable 3rd or 4 th or 5 th side emerge because they were in government thus stealing funds which they used a portion of to fund their campaigns by buying votes, marketing, advertising etc etc so as they say in Canada any contender had a snow balls chance in hell of competing with them. This is the sad story of our beautiful country ruled by a bunch incompetent thieves whos loyalty to Lebanon is the last thing on their to do list. Show me one decent country where a politicians loyaty lies with another country, its unheard of, anywhere else he would be considered a traitor and destroyed in the political game.
11 December 2013, 20:49
21
Dear Lebanese Politicians,
The Lebanese Government is not a GAME you win or lose. It's certainly not a numbers game.
You don't create or cancel ministries just to fit a "magic number" formula. You create ministries because they are useful and you cancel ministries because they are useless or their purpose is obsolete (ministry of information for example).
As long as you keep playing your numbers game, all lebanese are losers and you will yet again achieve NOTHING!
Stop trying to win control and give us a set of ministers that actually know their shit. Not the piece of jokes ministers that you are recycling and that are ALL incompetent in their jobs.
Obviously, at the next parliementary elections, Lebanese will repeat the same mistakes of voting for the same M14 / M8 politicians because they are sheep and too dumb to understand that these are mafias that are robbing us blind !
12 December 2013, 12:23
00
@thefact : I agree with you ! But it's a chicken and egg problem
1- We need a legitimate Government to organise Parliementary elections
2- We need a legitimate Parliament to organise Presidential elections
3- We need a President to appoint a new prime minister / Government
11 December 2013, 21:21
21
The fact this concept of democracy and good for the nation exist in countries like Canada, here its all about following the orders of the chiefs, following their policies, their instructions because thats the reason you made it to parliament, rebel on them and they will create a million ways to stop you and if need be "take care of you". We live in a jungle basically. This country dosent need democracy, this country needs the iron fist of the army and the army needs to come down hard on any one with as much as an air gun from any sect and in any area, this includes the palestenian camps, after that is done we can have fair and free elections, this is the only solution I can see to avoid civil strife.
11 December 2013, 22:23
02
The Harriri murder is the reason we have reached this stage and the only way to treat this stage is to bring his killers to justice which means bringing the killers of some of Lebanons finest people to justice. Forget about Harriri as a person but in that explosion 21 innocent Lebanese died should we move on on that as well? Would they move on in Canada? I remeber the shiite mother of one of my best friends telling me that may god protect Harriri because if he goes the country goes, and I replied by saying then what sort of a country is this relying on one man. Her words always echo in my memory. This story needs to end and meet the expectations of the people with regards to justice. Plain and simple.
11 December 2013, 23:05
12
Thefact if Lebanon was to wait till every owner fixed his property there individually it would have never been rebuilt. Lebanons main source of revenue is tourism and the only way to do that is bring the tourists back, in a small country like this hundreds of thousands of tourists create a huge impact financially in ever sector. As for foreigners investing in Lebanon that's allowed and at the end of the day they are not going to take that land or property with them. Did you know that before Harriri was assassinated Lebanon was looking at a massive tourist influx and an even bigger influx (3 million) in the summer of 2006 before HA instigated the war with Israel. His plan was clear fix the downtown give tourists something to come to and that was the key to rising from the ashes. You say he stole I say at least he did something compared to other politicians.
12 December 2013, 02:04
30
Berri is very worried ... Should a technocratic cabinet be allowed they would probably throw Lebanon to the IMF wolves. We have seen this ploy to give cover to political parties in other countries.
The austerity the IMF would invoke would devastate Berri's constituency ... One need only look at Greece to see how jobs, unions and social services would be mercilessly gutted.
12 December 2013, 11:27
00
greece is the result of bad governance and corruption, not the IMF, even if IMF can sometimes be terrorists....
12 December 2013, 02:44
01
No it's not reasonable Mr. speaker. Hizbullah is a terrorism organization that should not be involved in the government.
12 December 2013, 11:31
00
LOL why bother?
as long as the very same parties and crooks govern, whatever formula chosen the country will continue to go backwards till the people re elect this political mafia...
the only choice to make is which side is less worse than the other?
