Prime Minister Mikati ordered the time change to be postponed for a month, but without officially announcing the decision. The matter came to light thanks to a video of a conversation with the president of the Chamber of Deputies, which was published on the web. Confusion reigns in the institutions, the planes are paralyzed and the Christian community refuses to abide by the measure. The Maronite Patriarch, furious.
Beirut () – “With this decision, the state, already wavering in itself, is only losing credibility”, with an executive branch paralyzed due to the absence of a head of state and a Parliament divided into two large opposing camps that they have not been able to agree to choose it.
The comment comes from a well-known economist, Sami Nader, regularly consulted by the main television networks in the country. His words summarize well the controversy that arose around the decision taken by the Prime Minister, Nagib Mikati, to postpone the time change for a month in the Lebanese summer.
The time change was to take place yesterday, as in all nations that adopt the measure. Faced with the confessional and political clamor aroused by the decision, the Council of Ministers, meeting urgently, decided to suspend the measure and adopt -as is the norm- summer time. Among other things because there is an international provision that Lebanon must comply with: it cannot make changes without giving at least one year’s notice.
Mikati had made the decision on March 23, without giving any explanation and two days before the planned change (between Saturday night and Sunday). However, a video recorded at the House of Representatives and posted on social media shows President Nabih Berry asking Mikati not to switch to daylight saving time. Berry’s justification is that this will make it possible to break the fast an hour earlier, alluding to people who observe Ramadan (the holy month of fasting and prayer that lasts from sunrise to sunset).
A Lebanese political expert said on condition of anonymity that “the leaking of the video and its publication would not have been possible without Berry’s express permission. This gesture,” the source adds, “exposes the desire to show Mikati’s weaknesses and inadequacy which is today to direct the institutions and ensure their proper functioning. And it is exposed at a time when some think that Hezbollah is about to let go of his hand.”
The truth is that Mikati’s impromptu decision has sparked the ire of Christian political and religious leaders. The Maronite Patriarch, Card. Beshara Raï, spoke of a decision made “without consulting anyone” and announced that the patriarchy will not abide by it. And not even a phone call from Prime Minister Mikati was enough to change his mind.
The two main parties representing Christians, the Lebanese Forces and the Free Patriotic Movement (CPL), also spoke out against the prime minister’s decision. In particular, the president of the CLP, who accused the prime minister of wanting to “assume” certain prerogatives that are exclusively presidential.
The patriarchate made this decision “to prevent the isolation of Lebanon from worsening” at the international level, he explained to AFP spokesman Walid Ghayad. With this explanation, an attempt is made to appease a controversy that has already provoked strong confessional tensions.
However, the reasons put forward by Ghayad are shared by an important part of the Lebanese, if only out of simple common sense. In addition, many companies and the media decided not to comply with Mikati’s measure in a now ultra-connected world. In fact, the decision caused disruptions in international flights or foreign-related institutions, as many countries switched to daylight saving time yesterday. Paralyzed by the government decision, the national airline, Middle East Airlines, announced its intention to “advance one hour” its regular flights from Beirut.
Complying with the guidelines of the Maronite Patriarchate, the secretary of the Catholic schools decided that the institutes will follow the summer schedule as of today. “But what will my wife, who has to take our children to school before going to work, do?” asked an official, who denounced a “two-speed” Lebanon due to the decision made by Mikati.
The affair triggered an avalanche of sarcastic comments on social networks: one netizen wonders if this decision could trigger “a new civil war”. The measure took the whole of society by surprise, which questions whether now “we will live an hour behind the rest of the world.” This phrase, heard in a cafe, well illustrates the feeling of confusion of all Lebanese.
