In the interview below, Mr. Mhanna talked about citizen awakening. He also highlighted the crying need for strong anti-corruption signals in order to restore national and international trust. He also acknowledged that the “the new government does not represent the aspirations of the demonstrators”.
These are interesting insights by a journalist who is a natural defender of the freedom of the press and of free speech.
Indeed, without being familiar with Mr. Mhanna’s own work, Bambi has the utmost respect for his foundation, a legacy of Mr. Samir Kassir.
Mr. Kassir was a Lebanese-French professor of history at Saint-Joseph University and a journalist. He was cowardly assassinated in 2005.
From a Wikipedia page, we can read the following: “Kassir was assassinated using a car bomb in a Christian part of Beirut on 2 June 2005, just a few days after the general elections. The investigation into his assassination is still underway, but to date no one has been indicted. Since he had been constantly receiving threats from Lebanese and Syrian Intelligence Officers, there is widespread speculation in Lebanon that the perpetrators were the Lebanese-Syrian security apparatus or remnants of this force (as Syria has claimed that all its intelligence officers were out of Lebanon; in addition, the head of the Lebanese security forces had resigned). The Syrian government has denied these charges”.
This being said, best wishes to Lebanon in both the short- and longer-term. May fiscal accountability, democracy, justice, common sense, and… peace prevail.
