The collapse has become comprehensive... No sector remains untouched by paralysis. The education sector is suffering and crying for help; hospitals and medical sectors are requesting assistance... Public administrations and official institutions need restoration both in terms of manpower and infrastructure, while skilled professionals and those with expertise are on the brink of emigration, seeking job opportunities beyond the border... They have exhausted all means of attaining a decent living... So what is the way to revive all these sectors?
The President of the Economic, Social, and Environmental Council, Charles Arbid, answers: "It's in politics." He explains through "Akhbar Al-Yawm" that any attempt to address the economic crisis will not succeed unless it begins with political understanding. He states that if political agreement on a new phase does not happen, no progress can be made; rather, all solutions will be mere patchwork.
He sees that we are a group of people living together, where each faction organizes its own patch according to its interests, while the principle of the state and its logic will not align unless there is a direction towards construction, correction, and establishing foundations for at least the next 25 years. This means that any current attempt at financial or economic reform and setting recovery plans to exit the crisis or legislating laws remains insufficient without an agreement among the Lebanese on how to coexist, and whether this structure is viable or not.
Arbid reiterates that laws, no matter how important, remain insufficient; the banking sector cannot be reformed, the currency cannot be stabilized, laws cannot be implemented, and developmental plans cannot be executed without political agreement. He expresses sorrow that each faction views the country from its own perspective; factions have announced their inability to coexist but are also unable to divorce or reconcile. They have become "neither suspended nor divorced"... each singing to their own tune while the people pay the price.
He notes that all measures are temporary because the foundation is a "grand agreement." He says: unfortunately, this agreement cannot be formed internally... the longer it takes, the harder it becomes to derive solutions domestically. This is why there is a need for external intervention, which comes with its own conditions, costs, and repercussions!
