Salam: No Contradiction Between Respecting Taif and Reforming the System

Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam announced on Wednesday that "celebrating the Constitution does not mean returning only to the moment when the text was drafted, but asking what we have done with it, what our experience has added to it, what remains incomplete, and what we have learned after a full century of crises, wars, and settlements."

He noted, during the opening ceremony of the "Between the Lines of the Constitution" exhibition at the National Library, that "constitutions are not just texts for organizing power, but above all, texts for restricting power," clarifying that the deeper meaning of the idea of a constitution is that authority should not be absolute, that the ruler should not be above the law, and that citizens should know their rights and every authority should know its limits.

He pointed out that "the Lebanese Constitution is a child of diversity in its intellectual sources, the experiences that preceded it, and the society that sought to organize its political life," noting that "its roots go back to the nineteenth century, with the reforms of the Ottoman Regulations, the introduction of concepts of equality before the law, administrative organization, and the guarantee of certain rights, leading up to the Ottoman Constitution of 1876 and the return to parliamentary life in 1908."

He added that "the experience of the Mutasarrifate following the events of 1860 in Mount Lebanon, and the Arab Renaissance movement, contributed to shaping the intellectual climate that made the 1926 Constitution possible, while the Constitution benefited from French constitutional traditions, particularly the parliamentary system, separation of powers, ministerial responsibility, and the guarantee of public freedoms."

Salam affirmed that "Lebanon did not import a ready-made constitution but took from the French experience and added to it its own specific experience," noting that "Article 95 was from the beginning an attempt to reconcile the principle of the modern state with the reality of a pluralistic society, by adopting sectarian representation as a temporary measure to achieve justice and consensus."

Regarding Taif...
He addressed the Taif Agreement, considering that it was not merely a settlement to end the war, but a new attempt to answer how to manage plurality "without it turning into a conflict over the state."

He confirmed that Taif stipulated that Lebanon is "a final homeland for all its children, Arab in identity and belonging, and that its system is democratic, parliamentary, and based on the separation, balance, and cooperation of powers," as it redistributed authorities, enshrined parity, and affirmed that the people are the source of authorities and holders of sovereignty.

He stressed that Taif also outlined a path for completing state-building, through the abolition of political sectarianism, balanced development, extended administrative decentralization, extending state authority over all its territories with its own forces, and limiting legitimate force to its institutions.

Salam asked: "Have we truly implemented Taif, or have we implemented only the parts that redistributed power, while postponing those that were supposed to develop the state?" He noted that the Senate was never established, that the abolition of political sectarianism and decentralization remained postponed projects, while sectarian representation expanded in administration.

He said that "it is not permissible to declare our adherence to Taif while leaving a large part of its reforms suspended, nor is it permissible for each faction to use whatever suits them from it," calling for correcting distortions in its clauses, closing gaps revealed by practice, and developing the Constitution when necessary according to its rules.

Salam concluded by affirming that "there is no contradiction between protecting plurality and building the state, no contradiction between respecting Taif and reforming the system, and no contradiction between being faithful to the Constitution and developing it," stressing that "there is no contradiction between honoring the Taif Agreement and reforming the system."