Will The Patriarch Please Make Up His Mind?

Once and for all, the Maronite Patriarch should decide if he’s for or against consensual politics.

Back in the heydays when the Opposition was blocking the vote for a new President in order to secure a national unity government, March 14 was itching for what they saw as their constitutional right to vote with a simple majority. There was one major obstacle, however: The highest Christian authority in the land refused to sanction anything other than a two-third corum for that vote.

March 14 was divided at the time as an epic debate broke out in their midst. The Arab-backed concensualists dueled with the western-backed confrontationalists until the formers to which Mr. Sfeir belonged triumphed. The utlimate result of that battle was what we have today: A consensus-heavy national unity government and a veto-wielding Opposition.

Yet today, in a puzzling reversal, we find Mr. Sfeir lamenting the “tradition of unity government” which “paralyzes the nation”:

“In other states, the majority rules and the minority practices opposition, but in Lebanon the two parties want to rule,” Sfeir told believers in Sydney. The government, according to Sfeir, has become like a “carriage with two horses pulling it from the front and two horses pulling it from the rear.” “So how can it move?” he asked

One can only wonder with amazement at why Mr. Sfeir is disowning his own role in this paralysis.