Let There Be Light

Mohammed Fneish, our Hezbollah Minister, is the best person to save EDL and boost Hezbollah’s reputation.

“It is very unfair that we regularly pay our electricity bills, whereas Hezbollah-ruled (Shiite) areas do not, because they are armed and zi3ran”
Most of us have heard at least a version of the above statement. The Hezbollah Areas have always provoked their Lebanese counterparts with their perceived impunity towards the law. Add to it the regular electricity cuts the Lebanese are suffering, and you have a formula for enormous resentment.

Of course, the law-breakers in question always retort by changing the topic into one between the haves and have-nots: “why is it that they (rich people)” goes the argument, “consume the enormous amounts of electricity on their pointless opulence in decadent resorts?”. Needless to say. This is not convincing. Lawbreakers are lawbreakers.

This is where Mohammed Fneish, our new soft-spoken Energy Minister, has an opportunity.
Ironically, the very fact that he is a Hezbollah honcho makes him the best person to reign on areas that don’t pay their electricity bills. By doing that, he uses a very important issue on the average Lebanese’s mind, to boost Hezbollah’s popularity. Of course, this has the potential to pay them very valuable political dividends.

He has already started. On Monday, Electricité Du Liban (EDL), announced that it will cut by half its subscription and connections rates for new subscribers. The initiative aimes to encourage electricity thieves to become legit.
But according to Minister Fneish, this is not only a “carrot”. There is –and this is the most important- also a “stick”. The threat of tracking down those who will not make use of this offer starting next year.

Against all my instincts, I hope that Mr. Fneish will still be Energy Minister by next year.