Syrians & Lebanese: Two Sides of the Same Coin

Having grown up Syrian in Lebanon, I have heard it all. To the Lebanese, we were like distant, unsophisticated, country cousins that they would rather not been seen with. They were clever, urbane, worldly, cosmopolitan Levantines and we were simple minded, backwards and spoke with a funny accent. Mind you, this was the impression before the Syrian army and mukhabarat spent almost 30 years there! So I was not terribly surprised when the March 14th demonstrations turned xenophobic and then ugly.

The outrage at the Hariri assassination and the oppressive presence of the mukhabarat were understandable, the xenophobia was not. Both people originate from a common stock. Besides, who better understands Lebanese outrage than people who have endured the suffocating oppression of baathist rule than the average Syrian.

I applaud the Lebanese for demanding their independence and trying to hold the Syrian government accountable. However, there is something very unpalatable about the way they have made Syria culpable for 30 years of their own sordid civil dysfunction. It is all too convenient and, unfortunately, all too Lebanese. Even when they were killing each other, it is always someone else's fault. If it is not the Palestinians, it is the Israelis, the Americans or the ____ (fill in the blank). More than 15 years after the end of the Lebanese civil war, there has not been any serious discussion of the roots of the civil war, no reconciliation, not a single public memorial. The recent discovery of the mass grave in Anjar next to a former Syrian mukhabarat offices was first met with macabre glee in some Lebanese circles. Here is finally hard proof of Syria's dastardly work. But very quickly, the story disappeared from the front pages lest mass graves, of Lebanese making, start popping up a little everywhere. This collective amnesia, may be a reflexive survival instinct, but does not bode well for the long term health of the country.

Don't get me wrong, I care deeply about Lebanon (how can I not? My wife is Lebanese). Some of the Lebanese's conceit about their superiority to the Syrians is true. Beyond the superficial obsessions with everything new and Western, the Lebanese society is more developed in many ways than Syrian society. The free press and free exchange of ideas has fostered an atmosphere that has helped the Lebanese establish civic institutions independent of the absent/dysfunctional state. Moreover, the young, post-civil war generation of Lebanese seem to have shed some their parents' sectarian biases. Syrian society, on the other hand, has languished in cultural and economic isolation and stifling enforced Baathist conformity. Syrians, on the other hand, have a much clearer sense of national identity, something that -despite all the recent flag waving- the Lebanese still sorely lack.

The Lebanese and Syrians are inextricably linked by geography, history, clan and sectarian relationships. Yet over the past 50 years, each has evolved separately, forming a distinctive identity and historical narrative (no Greater Syria for me). Both countries' interests will easily converge when each has a stable, truly representative government. For the Lebanese, the Syrian exit is a start, but along with a full accounting of Syria's misdeeds is a need for a full accounting of their own culpability - what is needed is a Lebanese "Truth and Reconciliation Commission". For the Syrians, the journey starts with the radical reform or the ouster of the current regime. Along the way, both countries will need each other, not in a the master-vassal relationship but as equals with a common destiny.

(Photo by AK: Baalbeck, Lebanon)