by Joseph A. Kechichian, Senior Writer Gulf News

Beirut: Phalange Party leader Sami Gemayel pulled two ministers out
of Prime Minister Tammam Salam’s cabinet, as Sejaan Qazzi (Labour) and
Alain Hakim (Economy) joined Ashraf Rifi (Justice), who quit on February
21 to protest cabinet procrastination in referring the case of former
Minister of Information Michel Samaha to the Judicial Council.

“The
Phalange Party has decided to resign from the government because
Lebanon needs a ‘positive shock’,” Gemayel affirmed at a carefully
staged press conference, and rejected what he termed “cabinet
mechanisms” that stifled objections, which apparently prevented classic
deal-makings.

Flanked by Qazzi and Hakim, Gemayel attacked
ministers who, he claimed, were not concerned with the protection of the
banking sector against regular verbal attacks — presumably by Hezbollah
officials against Central Bank Governor Riad Salameh — and showed
little interest in the plan submitted by the Minister of Economy to
revitalise the sector. Gemayel did not mince his words when he declared
that ministers “are only concerned with passing suspicious deals,” which
may have been in reference to the waste disposal solution that was
agreed to after an eight-month-long ordeal that left Beirut and Mount
Lebanon reeking in garbage.

According to Al Jadid television
station (New TV), Phalange Party officials held a stormy meeting on
Tuesday when the two resignations were finalised while leaving Minister
of Information Ramzi Jreij free to make his own choice. Jreij told the
pro-Hezbollah Al Safir daily that he would stay put because he “is not a
member of the Phalange Party,” and opined that the situation in the
country cannot withstand the resignations of Qazzi and Hakim.

It
was unclear why Gemayel and his politburo reached this decision although
party regulars were warned that too many compromises at the cabinet
level significantly weakened their position where it mattered — inside
the government. For months on end, Gemayel insisted that the Phalange
would work within the system that, presumably, was increasingly
difficult to do.

The public spin hinted that the Phalange presence in the cabinet
ceased to “serve the interest of the Lebanese,” which was revelatory
since it implied a lack of productivity on various concerns, ranging
from the waste management file to the newest dispute over the
controversial Janna dam project in Mount Lebanon. Gemayel objected to
dumping garbage inside the Mediterranean Sea — in clear violation of the
Barcelona Treaty that called on signatory states, which Lebanon is, to
uphold the law — and insisted that approval of the Janna dam would
destroy the largest forestland, which the Phalange found unpalatable.

Although
the Ministry of the Environment objected to the Janna dam project after
two environmental impact studies concluded that “the project is
non-beneficial and non-environmental,” while a third apparently warned
of potential risks, suspicious deals translated in ongoing work at the
site, north of Beirut. According to Gemayel, the contractor hired to
build the dam faced corruption charges in Brazil, where the firm was
also “accused of bribing politicians to approve the construction of
useless dams.” Contentious discussions about the plan and the contractor
were discussed by the cabinet in recent weeks without any progress to
suspend construction pending a probe into the integrity of the
contractor.

Gemayel concluded his press conference with an avowal
that the Phalange presence in the government could only be useful if and
when its ministers successfully managed to stop corruption but
concluded that this was no longer the case.