BEIRUT: Maronite Patriarch Beshara Rai voiced his support Tuesday for civil marriage, calling on the government to make it compulsory for all Lebanese. He also renewed his call for a new social contract among the Lebanese based on the 1943 National Pact.
Rai made his remarks during a question-and-answer meeting with some 650 students from the Two Sacred Hearts schools at the Maronite patriarchate in Bkirki.
Asked to comment on calls by Speaker Nabih Berri and other Muslim leaders for the abolition of the country’s ruling system that allotted key government posts along sectarian lines, Rai said: “What does political confessionalism mean? It means two things: The National Pact, which is coexistence between Muslims and Christians, where the Lebanese sacrificed saying no to [foreign] protection or tutelage. This I call the National Pact. If the abolition of the pact is required, this is unacceptable.”
Rai said the National Pact has been translated by the coexistence formula which distributed the key posts in the state: The presidency to the Maronites, Parliament to the Shiites and the Cabinet to the Sunnis, while the MPs and directors general in the state are equally divided among Muslims and Christians.
“When we call for the abrogation of political confessionalism, this means that we want to eliminate participation [in power sharing] and balance [in distribution of state posts],” Rai said. He added that he supported the improvement of the current power-sharing formula but is against its elimination.
“With regard to the personal status law, is there an optional law in the world? Didn’t we study in law that the first rule of the law is obligation? We support the personal status law and compulsory civil marriage for all Lebanese,” Rai said.
He stressed that compulsory civil marriage is designed to solve the problem of Muslim and Christian nonbelievers who live in Lebanon and want to get married.
Rai’s remarks are expected to stir a controversy in a multisectarian country where both Muslim and Christian spiritual leaders have come out against civil marriage, let alone compulsory civil marriage. Although Lebanese law bans civil marriage, Lebanese couples of different sects often travel to countries such as Cyprus to conclude a civil marriage contract.
The dialogue between Rai and students, on the occasion of the 68th anniversary of Lebanon’s independence from France, was attended by Future MP Jean Ogassapian, MPs Ghassan Moukheiber and Neamatallah Abi Nasr from Michel Aoun’s Free Patriotic Movement and Kataeb (Phalange) MP Sami Gemayel.
Rai was asked whether his calls for a new social contract were aimed at replacing the National Pact, which provided for confessional power-sharing equally between Muslims and Christians, and the 1989 Taif Accord that ended the 1975-90 Civil War.
“The social contract I have called for does not mean the collapse of the National Pact. On the contrary, the social contract is a renewal of and stems from the National Pact. Sixty years after the [pact] and after the political and constitutional reforms introduced in the Taif Accord, we are in urgent need of having a new social contract but it should be based on the National Pact and to correct the National Accord Document issued in Taif,” Rai said.
He said the new contract he called for must separate religion from the state, respect all religions, and achieve equality among the people on the basis of citizenship in order to preserve Lebanon.
“We hope that Lebanon will be officially declared as an international center for a dialogue of religions, civilizations and cultures. We are working for Lebanon’s neutrality. In this sense, we talk about the so-called new social contract which we put in the hands of lawmakers,” Rai said.
Asked on the best election law to ensure sound representation of all political and sectarian groups, in Lebanon, Rai said: “I think we are headed for a law [based on] proportional representation.”
The government is debating a draft election law, based on proportional representation, for the 2013 parliamentary polls. The draft law was prepared by the Interior Ministry.
No comments:
Post a Comment