The President of the Independence Movement Michel Moawad asserted that the chapter of the Presidential Elections was closed, and that Lebanon has today a new President of the Republic empowered by Christian and National reconciliations, agreements and legitimacy.
Moawad, during a requiem mass held at the St John the Baptist church in Zgharta for the 27th commemoration of the martyrdom of President René Moawad and his companions, called upon all to close the chapter of the past disputes and put an end to the past conflicts and to the culture of disruption, which hurts the country and the people.
He also invited everyone “to unite around the new mandate and the President of the Republic, as no one can cancel the other, and the country can accommodate all and not exclude anyone, as President Moawad always said.”
Here is the full text of Michel Moawad’s speech on the occasion:
“27 years have gone by since the assassination of President René Moawad.
27 years have gone by since the martyrdom of Colonel Ramia, Joseph Basha, René Keedo, George Khawand, Sayyed Mora, Assad Moawad and Yacoub Al Sakkal.
I still feel them present around me.
I see them in the faces of their parents and brothers and children, in the faces of all of you who remained faithful to President Moawad’s political beliefs and the cause he was martyred for.
27 years have gone by and it seems as it was just yesterday…
It feels that it was just yesterday when I saw him for the last time in Paris, on the eve of his election on November 4th, 1989…
That night, he told me that the next day he will be elected President of the Republic and that his task will be very difficult … and that it involved danger,
and that if he suffered any harm, he entrusts me to assume my responsibilities and take care of my mother and my sister, take care of the family and of Zgharta… and not to leave Lebanon.
27 years have gone by and we are still here, my father…
We faced hard times and were constricted, but we didn’t give up at any moment,
We did not kneel down… just like you didn’t make compromises because of which they assassinated you.
They assassinated you because you were a strong President. Strong by your pacific approach to matters, by your smile that never left you, by your well-known diplomacy that made some say that you can carve a mountain with a needle…
And at the same time you were strong by your tenacity, your non resilience and your firm refusal to make any compromise on the Lebanese cause…
If you were not strong, they wouldn’t have assassinated you.
They assassinated you because they feared your inaugural Presidential speech and the Independence speech.
They assassinated you to assassinate the sovereignty element in the Taef Agreement. They assassinated you because you were a sovereign President par excellence, who succeeded in reconciling the sovereignty of Lebanon with his Arab identity. You were sovereign in your determination to enforce and spread the Lebanese State’s Authority on its full territory of 10452 km2, without any partner.
Sovereign because you refused the launching of a Syrian military assault on the Lebanese Presidential Palace. And sovereign because you refused to discuss the formation of the first Lebanese Government after the Taef with any non-Lebanese entity. For you, any Lebanese matter is to be discussed in Lebanon. And it is for the Lebanese officials to find solutions, by applying the articles of the Lebanese Constitution…
They assassinated you because you were the symbol and the guarantor of the National Pact and the proper partnership in Lebanon.
A real and balanced partnership between all the components of our Nation. A partnership where no party feels superior to another and no one exerts dominance on another.
A partnership that functions under the umbrella of the State and the Constitution, and aims for building Lebanon and bringing in development.
They assassinated you because you were from the Chehabist School, the national school of constitutional institutions. And you were determined to build all the State’s institutions, in all fields: The military, security, judicial, administrative and inspection institutions. Yes the inspection institutions…
Your goal in building the institutions was to protect freedoms and safeguard them, so that Lebanon reclaims its status of being a beacon of Democracy and development, and that the Lebanese live with dignity and freedom in their country.
They assassinated you to replace sovereignty with a foreign mandate, and partnership with hegemony, and institutions with ‘farms’ and corruption.
27 years have gone by, and today we are at the start of a new Presidential Mandate.
We witnessed a period of turmoil before the Presidential election, and we saw sharp divisions and confrontations.
With full realism, I say today:
The chapter of the Presidential election is behind us now, and Lebanon has a new President, a President of the Republic empowered by Christian and National reconciliations, agreements and legitimacy.
I therefore call upon all to close the chapter of the past disputes and to put an end to the past conflicts and the culture of disruption, which can only hurt the country and the people.
I invite everyone to unite around the new mandate, around the President of the Republic.
Because no one can cancel the other,
The country can accommodate all and not exclude anyone, as President Moawad always said.”
العربية