Nabih Berri and ….the Emperor’s New Clothes

Nabih Berri, Lebanon’s Speaker of Parliament, has usurped his public office for far too long. He has used the Syrian regime of Hafez and till 2011, that of Bashar al Asad to stay in power and become a towering force over Lebanon’s political scene. After 2011, he became estranged with the Syrian regime, so Hezbollah picked up the mantle of shoring up his authority in Lebanese politics as a means of completing its takeover of all government institutions.

From the electoral law to the judiciary’s appointments, to military promotions, to the selection/election of the President of the Republic, Berri acted as the Trojan Horse of Hezbollah. At times, there were some tensions between Berri’s partisans and those of Hezbollah. But such conflicts were more turf wars over smuggling, forex speculation, and racketeering, but not of political nature. Although Berri’s partisans do not follow the edicts of the Iranian theocracy, nor do they believe in the peculiar precepts of the “Guardianship of the Islamic Jurist”, they share same beliefs in exploiting the country’s official posts and the enjoy the riches that come with it.

So, while Hezbollah has exhibited its intent to and readiness for, deploying its combatants from Yemen to Iraq, and from Syria to South Lebanon, the Amal Movement was a ‘fat cat’ partner in this scheme that divided the spoils between the two Shia movements.

The Lebanese political elite (if such a word can be loosely used) found in Berri a most useful ‘buffer zone’. Not willing to deal with Hezbollah, except for Aoun who foolishly thought that he could drive a wedge between the two Shia groups, all other politicians kowtowed to Berri. They adopted him as the ‘official translator’ of their political aspirations with Hezbollah including, a string of Prime Ministers, Ministers, Members of Parliament, and high officials in the civil and military services. So, it fell to Berri the task of babysitting the Lebanese politicians, and he relished the role.

Except that now Hezbollah is decimated both physically and militarily and its regional sponsors in Iran are under existential threat. As a result, Berri ended up as the headmaster of an orphanage of ex-Hezbollah militants, ex-Asad supporters and a Lebanese political mafia that can neither offer him support nor extract from him any benefits.

Berri thought that with the finalization of the maritime borders with Israel, the acceptance of the strict terms of the recent ceasefire, and the apathy of the political opposition, he could remain the ‘Emperor’ of Lebanese politics.

This reminds us of a story, first told by Hans Christian Andersen in 1837, which was a critique of societal norms. Set in a time when an emperor is obsessed with acquiring extravagant attire at the cost of his kingdom’s well-being. Two con-men arrive in the capital, posing as weavers, and claim to craft magnificent clothes that are invisible to the incompetent or foolish. The emperor, too, convinced by his own desire for grandeur, parades through the city in his “new clothes,” and his subjects, fearing ridicule, go along with the illusion. It is only when a child innocently points out that the emperor is wearing nothing at all that the truth is revealed.

When will a child from the Lebanese political kindergarten shout the ‘Emperor is Naked’?! It’s high time for someone to say it.