My fellow citizen:

It gives me great pleasure to write this letter on behalf of the National Dialogue Party knowing that from the moment you read the words “National Dialogue Party”, you will ask yourself the following questions:

– Why do we need another political party given Lebanon’s history with the various political parties and groups, given their ideological and sectarian disputes among themselves, leading, to a long and devastating civil war ?

– Why is the term “National” the fundamental claim and practice of every Lebanese political party whether, it is true or not? And why is the term “Dialogue” more relevant to the means and methods we believe in?”

My fellow citizen:

If we compare between nature and the environment, economic and political issues, war and peace situations and others, we find that the only common denominator to all is dialogue whether this dialogue is constructive or destructive, it is always there…

If we go back in our history, the ancient and recent, we will find that Lebanon used to regress whenever the dialogue among the citizens did not work, while on the contrary, whenever the dialogue involved more groups and parties the country as well as patriotism would bloom.

Based on this, the “National Dialogue Party” was born, we had stressed since the beginning not only to be named the National Dialogue Party, and include the word dialogue, but to apply it to the issues of identity, mission, vision, beliefs, and, most importantly, our deeds.

All the previous Lebanese governments and nongovernmental organizations, since the Al Taif Accord, have not been seriously dedicated to eliminating the obstacles hindering the initiation of the Lebanese dialogue. Such a dialogue needs to be honest and truthful in order to achieve most if not all its purposes, mainly to reform the current political system and ideas, and to form a healthy relationship with other countries based to the Taif Accord and to coordinate for a better understanding of the geographical boundaries and locations of the two countries.

In order to achieve this agreement, certain steps and plans need to be implemented, some are immediate, and others are to be achieved in the medium and long range.

  1. Now, and since all issues arising from the civil war are to be closed, starting with the amnesty of political key figures, the demolishing of all the obstacles before citizens who had to work and respect the Lebanese law and regulations, the return of the displaced to their villages and cities should be completed and their file closed once and for all.
  2. Implementation of equality: fair and just treatment and justice should be established among all through effective ways and procedures that will demolish and prevent the abuse of power and position.
  3. Sectarianism and secularism, in the political sense, had proved to be a tool for corruption that will lead to more political influences of the leaders. We believe in multi confessions and religious sects, for it is one of the vital signs for a coherent nation, but at the same time political sectarianism had misled the true definition of multi confessionalism, which had reflected inappropriately upon the religious sects. To this end, we, at the National Dialogue Party, aim to demolish political sectarianism and its implications as per Al Taif Accord in order to unify the Lebanese citizens and find a clear definition of nationalism, hence, demolishing the traditional misuse of power and leadership through religious affiliation.
  4. Fighting corruption in all its manifestations especially governmental employment, bribery and abuse of position that affect the economic situation.
  5. Implementation of a new modern and just parliamentary electoral law that would guarantee the right and just representation of the people, which would eventually lead to a proper and serious dialogue in the nation. In this respect The National Dialogue Party aims and supports a new law through the proportional representation, that would ensure the equal and just representation for both the Muslim and Christian sects, as per the Taif Accord, with the possibility of dividing Lebanon into fourteen electoral zones, nearly equal in the number of voters irrespective of the number of regions and the governorates. With the priority of running the parliamentary elections in two intervals only, or based on the electoral district (or Qadaa) to ensure proper representation.

The National Dialogue Party’s recommendation of the above mentioned electoral law is based on its belief that this will lead to a proper and coherent parliament that is chosen by the people, hence it will be eligible to establish and lay down the bases for proper, just and sincere institutions that all the Lebanese aim for whereby all the citizens are respected and equally treated. But this dream and ambition cannot be achieved with the current institutions, due to the fact that the country is led by a group of leaders who have not been fairly elected.

My fellow citizen:

The National Dialogue Party, aims at attaining its objectives, and would spare no effort to achieve its end, we had laid in your hands the summary of our program aiming that we find in your thoughts an addition to our journey in order to reach our goal towards a true and just Lebanon

Best regards,

Fouad Makhzoumi
Chairman and Secretary- General of the National Dialogue Party