The National Initiative Movement 2020 Declaration

With its culminating economic, financial and social dimensions which have put the country on the brink of collapse and the society on the verge of chaos and fragmentation, and with the confirmation of Coronavirus cases in Lebanon that have added insult to injury, we strongly believe that the core roots of the current fiery crisis lies in a major political factor: The furtherance of the tutelage over Lebanon since 1990, whether the Syrian one or the Iranian one.

The three-decades-old tutelage has hindered the rebuilding of the Lebanese state in the aftermath of the war in line with the National Accord Document ratified in Taef and the Constitution that has emanated from, and has isolated Lebanon from its Arab and international reach indispensable for its recovery, prosperity, and glory.

The full-fledged underhanded corruption that has crippled the country sovereignty and permeated all levels of the Lebanese society whether political, economic, financial, administrative, and even judiciary, finds its roots in the corrosive machinery of mutual protection between corruption and tutelage: The tutelage protects corruption and delinquency and these latter protect tutelage, to the point of ceding sovereignty for positions and privileges; the entire political spectrum has engaged in this reckless barter through the so-called settlement, rushing the collapse of the temple and putting everyone in the dock.

Once again, we reassert that the gateway to national salvation, including halting corruption and dissolution in all their manifestations, lies in the straightforward return to the Taef Agreement and the Constitution, as the indispensable references for the regularity of any salvation reform process. Failing to do so, the benign October 17^th uprising and other opponent initiatives would remain mere convulsions facing the trusteeship actors bowed to external patronage.

One of the striking paradoxes in the landscape of the Arab popular movement against corruption, dictatorship and foreign hegemony, is its yelling for a new constitutional contractual document that directs the path towards an overarching national goal, while we Lebanese have  reached such a document following the 15 year-dire military, political and ideological fight; and here we are today ignoring its existence and joining those who are searching for its alike.  

If the stance of one Lebanese party is explicable for he has always sought to revoke these two documents or to re-tailor them in a way that leverages its own interests, what is incomprehensible is the failure of those who champion both the Taef Agreement and the Constitution to claim them as the legitimate reference and framework.

Gentlemen,

After the cabinet of PM Hassan Diab won a vote of confidence in parliament, the International Support Group for Lebanon stressed in a statement its suspension of all help to Lebanon provided that it will abide to the Constitution, the Taef Agreement, the Baabda Declaration, and fully implement Security Council resolutions 1559, 1701, 1680 and 1757.

So why are we searching for escape doors to political parties and groups at odds with Lebanese, Arab and international legitimacy?

Based on the foregoing, the National Initiative Movement 2020 pledges its commitment to working with the goal of implementing the following:

• The restoration of sovereignty and independence, especially in what pertains to the state recovering its monopoly over sovereign decision making, and the eradication of any external tutelage to protect civil peace and coexistence, as summoning outsiders has always shattered the domestic unity.
• Emphasizing that Lebanon is a final homeland for its entire people, rejecting resettlement, and claiming its Arab identity and affiliation; Lebanon expresses its solidarity with the Arab world causes, first and foremost the Palestinian cause, pledging its support for whatever choice the Palestinian people and its sole legitimate representative would make.
• Asserting the respect of the constitutional legitimacy expressly the Constitution and the Taef Agreement, the Arab legitimacy and the international legitimacy mainly Security Council resolutions 1559, 1701, 1680 and 1757.
• The Adherence to Lebanon as a parliamentary democracy, based on the principles of separation, independence and cooperation among the various branches of government as enshrined in the Constitution.
• Working towards putting an end to the power sharing system firstly exacerbated by the Syrian tutelage and afterward by the Iranian one and its weapons (upholding weapons versus corruption barter with the first standing as the protector and accomplice of the second), and here lies the essence of our scheme to combat corruption.
• The National Initiative Movement is committed to developing a road map that ensure the establishment of a civil state in Lebanon in line with the mechanisms stipulated in the Taef Agreement and the Constitution through the adoption of the two-chamber system.
• The Movement pledges lobbying to pass legislations guarantying civil rights that the Lebanese have long advocated for with the aim of adhering to modernity and democracy; an advocacy espoused by the 17^th October rebels, as well as eliminating all kinds of discrimination.
• The protracted inability of the incumbent rogue political class to deal with the problems hitting Lebanon, calls for a radical change in the ruling class, starting with holding early parliamentary elections based on a new electoral law that respects the Constitution and the Taef Agreement, in order to instate an alternative ruling class within all the constitutional institutions.

With due respect to titles, the ladies and gentlemen whose names are mentioned hereafter, have participated in the drafting of this declaration:

Ahmed Ayach, Ahmed Fatfat, Edmond Rabbat, Asaad Bechara, Amine Bachir, Antoine Korban, Antoine Kassis, Elie el Haj, Elie kossaifi, Ayman Jizzini, Badr Oubeid, Toufic Gaspard, George Kallas, Joseph Karam, Hamed el Doukouki, Hassan Kotb, Khaled Hamade, Khalil Toubia, Roula Mouafac, Raymond Maalouf, Ziad Ghauch, Saad Kiwan, Cesar Maalouf, Sanaa el Jack, Suzie Ziade, Soulaf Haj, Serge bou-Gharios, Talal Khoja, Tony Habib, Abdallah el Hanach, Osman el Zein, Ali Hamade, Ali el Amine, Ghaleb Yaghi, Ghassan Moghabghab, Fares Soueid, Kamal el Zouki, Lokman Slim, Majed Karam, Mohamed Abdel Hamid Baydoun, Mahmoud Hariri, Mona Fayyad, Mayada Haidar, Nehme Mahfoud, Naufal Daou, Hesham Kotb, Henry Bakhos, Wissam Abou Harfouch, Youssef Diab.

This Group will coordinate the affairs of the General Secretariat of the National Initiative Movement 2020, assigned with a six-month period task to establish an administrative and organizational structure for the movement.