By Abed Bsat | Staff Writer
A recap of Saad al-Hariri’s failures.
The Daily Star, Lebanon’s oldest English-language newspaper, has become another casualty of the country’s collapse, bringing its almost 70-year existence to an end. The newspaper, founded in 1952 by journalist Kamel Mroueh, was owned by politician and former Prime Minister Saad al-Hariri.
It announced to its staff that they will be laid off on October 31st, due to the financial collapse. The Daily Star issued a statement explaining their decision, and also stated that compensation arrangements were being negotiated. However, this doesn’t seem to be the case so far. Following the closure of the newspaper, over twenty employees are owed wages. The Alternative Press Syndicate in Lebanon has criticized the newspaper’s management for the “arbitrary dismissal” of its employees, for denying severance packages, and for failing to inform them about a compensation timeline.
This isn’t the first venture that the Hariri family has owned and destroyed.
Future Television, founded by Rafik Hariri in 1993, was a TV channel that used to broadcast several talk shows, series, and the news. It had a sister newspaper called Al-Mustaqbal newspaper. Both outlets were politically aligned with the views of the Future Movement, a Hariri-led political party. Since 2016, Future TV has fallen behind on the salaries of its employees, which led to an open strike. Ultimately, in September 2019, Saad Al-Hariri suspended the work at Future TV, for the same financial reasons that led to the closing of Al-Mustaqbal newspaper.
Another example is Saudi Oger, one of the largest construction firms in Saudi Arabia. Due to massive mismanagement and corruption within the firm, the company suffered significant financial hardships and failed to provide monthly wages to its employees since November 2015. Ultimately, Hariri filed for bankruptcy in July 2017, forcing thousands of employees to leave the kingdom without years of paid wages and end-of-service benefits. Employees took the matter into their own hands and filed a suit against Hariri demanding their wages. According to a source in the company, Saudi Oger owed some 800 million dollars in wages to its employees. The case has been handed to the Ministry of Labour to resolve the issue but didn’t specify a date for said resolution…
One can take this a step further and discuss Saad Al-Hariri’s failures as a politician. During his tenure in government, Hariri made several false promises such as creating over 900,000 jobs and maintaining the stability of the Lebanese lira. He should also be held accountable for the actions of his ministers during his time as PM. A decade ago, the former Energy Minister Gebran Bassil promised Lebanon that it would have 24-hour electricity, in a plan that cost the country billions of dollars. Fast forward to February 2022, the country is currently drowning in darkness as the national electric grid has crumpled, disrupting basic aspects of daily life, and forcing many to rely on private generators for power – if they can afford it. The lira has depreciated to a record low, nearing 21,000 liras for every dollar at the black market, as opposed to the official exchange rate of 1,500 liras.
Hariri displayed fragile leadership as PM. During his tenure in 2017, Hariri surprised the world when he announced his resignation from his post in Saudi Arabia, citing Iran’s and Hezbollah’s political over-extension in the Middle East and fears of an attempted assassination. Last month, he announced his temporary retirement from politics, alongside the suspension of Future Movement’s political activities. This is the end everyone expected for him, after more than a decade of failures and reckless political maneuvers which worsened the domestic situation in Lebanon, while leaving the country hostage to regional fluctuations and proxy wars. Note that he is not the only politician to have such a track record, but he stands out in his dual contribution to the ruin of Lebanese lives at home and abroad.
After the Beirut Port explosion and the resignation of Hassan Diab’s government, Hariri was tasked as PM and spent over nine months in negotiations with President Aoun to establish a transitional government in hopes of saving what is left of this country in vain, halting all reforms and initiatives that could have placed this country back on its feet. And while Hariri isn’t solely responsible for the collapse we are facing now, he and his party are a cog in the machinations which are slowly pushing us either out of Lebanon or into our graves.
By all accounts, it is no wonder to the Lebanese and the international community that Saad al-Hariri can be seen not only as someone who has failed to run several enterprises he owned but also as someone who failed to oversee several governments that he headed as prime minister. Perhaps it is in everyone’s best interest, including Hariri’s, that he made the fateful decision to retire from politics a few weeks ago, as well as suspending the political activities of his party.