Lebanon: Reform Starts With Politicians

This editorial was published in the Daily Star on 7/12/2010

Politicians and officials in Lebanon gathered Monday for the annual ceremony to mark the opening of the judicial year.

The usual suspects were there: President Michel Sleiman called for a judiciary that is “strong, capable, and modern and a protector of freedoms.”  The other word that is usually heard on such occasions is “independent,” and Sleiman didn’t disappoint here either.

However, he said the responsibility for the independence of the judiciary rests primarily on the judge, who should remain honest and competent.

This exhortation, truth be told, is a bit problematic. It’s like telling drivers that they’re responsible for the soundness of Lebanon’s roads, while ignoring the state of our pavement, the enforcement of vehicle roadworthiness, and the lack of lights at night.

It’s like telling farmers in the Northern Bekaa to be honest, and grow tomatoes, or public employees to be competent and happy, when some have been waiting decades to be considered full-time staff.

It’s not that the particular approach of the president is wrong; most politicians echo this type of rhetoric.

In the first place, they can begin with themselves. If every single politician who talks about reforming the judiciary could just start by never interfering in a given case, it would be a tremendous start.

In the second place, which judges are letting us down? If someone lodges an official complaint about the unethical behavior of a given judge, will the process produce results?

Last year, the justice minister ousted a corrupt judge from his post, for bribery. A number of other magistrates who were investigated during this mini-campaign got off with warnings, were found to have done nothing wrong, or still await a “verdict.”

The point is that few people would believe that there was only a single corrupt judge in Lebanon that year, and none in 2010. In fact, there are many more, and the ones who go before the disciplinary councils are the ones who lack political protection. Who provides this protection? The same politicians who lecture us repeatedly about the need to reform the judiciary.

In order to reform politics, the legal and judicial element is critical. To reform the economy, laws must be changed, and respected. To reform society, the judiciary must offer fairness. To achieve sovereignty, a country’s judiciary must be sovereign, and itself under the law. The country experienced an economic recovery after the Civil War, despite all of the defects. But no one talks about the judicial recovery after the fighting stopped.

Lebanon is currently on edge because of the Special Tribunal, taking place on another continent. It isn’t surprising, since a country whose politicians don’t play by the rules when it comes to their own judiciary will remain immature in the eyes of the world. It will be a country perpetually in need of tutelage. This is why people are reading about The Hague these days.