Deputy Jamil Al-Sayyed wrote in a post on "X": "Retired military personnel represent tens of thousands of Lebanese families from all regions and sects, each of whom has served their country for no less than twenty to forty years under various security conditions, both at the borders and internally." He added: "The salary of a regular soldier, all the way up to the highest-ranking retired officer, ranges at current dollar rates between 20 and 100 dollars, becoming with social assistance between 100 and 300 dollars. Those retiring today, for instance, have a severance payment that does not exceed between one thousand and seven thousand dollars, which is less than the tuition for one year for one of their children. The situation for retired civilians is not better than that of their military counterparts."
Al-Sayyed noted that "we have been trying during the past period, in coordination with our brothers representing the retired military personnel, to address this injustice both in the Parliament and with the government, particularly by proposing an amendment to the salary scale based on raising the minimum wage to around ten million liras, and ensuring that a retiree’s salary does not drop below 85% of the actual salary."
He continued: "Several meetings took place between representatives of the retirees and government representatives who showed their responsiveness, but the promises remained just promises."
Al-Sayyed concluded: "Today, retired military personnel have no option but the streets to make their voices heard and the voices of marginalized groups, and the reason is the state’s negligence in addressing the serious issue. It would honor me to join them, were it not for the fact that such an act would be interpreted as personal political exploitation and could harm their movement." He finished: "The biggest mistake the state could make is to put the army and security forces against retired personnel in the streets instead of resorting to a swift and serious resolution to the root of the problem."
