Since the 1980s, Lebanon has been afflicted with yet another political disease: the phenomenon of the bimbo billionaires. They are usually very wealthy Lebanese who had made their fortunes in the Gulf in the 1970s and who develop political ambitions and they buy their political leadership in Lebanon by bribing: 1) key people in the corrupt intelligence-military apparatus of the Syrian regime (I mean, you were able to buy `Abdul-Halim Khaddam with crates of oranges); 2) bribing Lebanese journalists and/or buying your own media in Lebanon; 3) buying the electorate. Of course, if that is not sufficient, you may always resort to sectarian agitation and mobilization: the last refuge of a Lebanese scoundrel. Rafiq Hariri was the most famous example but he was not the only one, and I will admit that Rafiq Hariri (unlike his son, Sa`d) is not a bimbo. In fact, he was a shrewd politician with great skills in sectarian agitation. But among the bimbo billionaires are Muhammad Safadi (a business partner of Prince Turki who when he ran for parliament in the 1990s did not even know what May 17 Agreement was as his campaign manager told me), `Isam Faris (who pays a $100,000 to have his picture taken with famous American former presidents and secreataries of state and whose son is active in Republican politcs in the US), Najib Miqati (whose business empire is run by his brother, Taha, who is very close to the Syrian regime altghough Miqati plays on both sides), and the subject of this post, Fuad Makhzumi. This guy went back to Lebanon after making a fortune in the Gulf from a variety of ventures including allegedly hefty defense "contracting", and when he did not get anything from Hariri, started to compete with him. He opened up schools and vocational training centers and according to employees forced all his workers to join his farcical National Dialogue Party. When I was in my first year at elementary school at IC in Beirut, he and Walid Jumblat were in the last year of high school and I still remember them both (Walid rode in my school bus then). Makhzumi was looking for a role, any role, and it just happened that there was no place for him as a Sunni political aspirant in the March 14 camp, so he joined the opposition camp. He becamse a small insignifant memeber of the March 8 camp and a staunch ally and supporter (there were rumors of financial support as well) of Hizbullah. And don't think that corruption is a symptom of developing countries only: any wealthy person from anywhere around the world, can buy access in Washington, DC. I remember when I was a student in DC how a friend of my father (a wealthy Lebanese Maronite small-time leader, Henri Sfayr) bought himself access in DC. He set up shop at the Willard Hotel and paid a consulting firm in DC which arranged for him to meet key people in Congress and even in the White House. Makhzumi has done that and has allegedly put former people in in military and intelligence branches of the US government on his payroll. And he goes to Washington, DC and pontificates on Lebanon and some of his ill-informed audience members take him for a "Lebanese leader" with insights on Middle East politics. He spoke yesterday at a closed forum which included big shots from the previous administration, including Donald Rumsfeld among others. It was a closed session but at least one member of the audience shared with me the details. The guy spoke exactly the way he expected his audience to want him to speak and went on about Hizbullah and its sinister domination of Lebanon--while in Lebanon he is a stuanch supporter of Hizbullah and always praises the "resistance" as he refers to Hizbullah while in Lebanon. In other words, he is one of the crooks of Lebanese politics who is trying to buy influence in Washington, DC, the way Rafiq Hariri started to spend millions in Washington, DC back in the 1980s when he hired former Sen. Charles Percy to run his American political operation. He is also close to Syria and I am told Makhzumi did not criticize the Syrian regime at all in Washington, DC. What bothered me the most about his lousy talk yesterday from what I was told about it is that he (like the typical native clown who wants to clown for the benefit of the White Man) kept making fun of Arabs: As another audience member reported to me: "Several times he denigrated arabs and middle easterners as bad, corrupt, unreliable, and would look at rumsfeld for approval and laugh at himself like he was apologizing for being arab. It made me squirm, like he was a house nigger." The funny thing is that this guy has no chance to make it in Lebanese politics and has no skills or talents whatsoever. But after the Hariri example every wealthy Lebanese thinks he can become another Hariri forgetting that Hariri's fortune was much bigger than theirs and that Hariri had Saudi AND Syrian support.
Thursday, April 09, 2009
Bimbo Billionaires of Lebanon: the case of Fouad Makhzumi
Since the 1980s, Lebanon has been afflicted with yet another political disease: the phenomenon of the bimbo billionaires. They are usually very wealthy Lebanese who had made their fortunes in the Gulf in the 1970s and who develop political ambitions and they buy their political leadership in Lebanon by bribing: 1) key people in the corrupt intelligence-military apparatus of the Syrian regime (I mean, you were able to buy `Abdul-Halim Khaddam with crates of oranges); 2) bribing Lebanese journalists and/or buying your own media in Lebanon; 3) buying the electorate. Of course, if that is not sufficient, you may always resort to sectarian agitation and mobilization: the last refuge of a Lebanese scoundrel. Rafiq Hariri was the most famous example but he was not the only one, and I will admit that Rafiq Hariri (unlike his son, Sa`d) is not a bimbo. In fact, he was a shrewd politician with great skills in sectarian agitation. But among the bimbo billionaires are Muhammad Safadi (a business partner of Prince Turki who when he ran for parliament in the 1990s did not even know what May 17 Agreement was as his campaign manager told me), `Isam Faris (who pays a $100,000 to have his picture taken with famous American former presidents and secreataries of state and whose son is active in Republican politcs in the US), Najib Miqati (whose business empire is run by his brother, Taha, who is very close to the Syrian regime altghough Miqati plays on both sides), and the subject of this post, Fuad Makhzumi. This guy went back to Lebanon after making a fortune in the Gulf from a variety of ventures including allegedly hefty defense "contracting", and when he did not get anything from Hariri, started to compete with him. He opened up schools and vocational training centers and according to employees forced all his workers to join his farcical National Dialogue Party. When I was in my first year at elementary school at IC in Beirut, he and Walid Jumblat were in the last year of high school and I still remember them both (Walid rode in my school bus then). Makhzumi was looking for a role, any role, and it just happened that there was no place for him as a Sunni political aspirant in the March 14 camp, so he joined the opposition camp. He becamse a small insignifant memeber of the March 8 camp and a staunch ally and supporter (there were rumors of financial support as well) of Hizbullah. And don't think that corruption is a symptom of developing countries only: any wealthy person from anywhere around the world, can buy access in Washington, DC. I remember when I was a student in DC how a friend of my father (a wealthy Lebanese Maronite small-time leader, Henri Sfayr) bought himself access in DC. He set up shop at the Willard Hotel and paid a consulting firm in DC which arranged for him to meet key people in Congress and even in the White House. Makhzumi has done that and has allegedly put former people in in military and intelligence branches of the US government on his payroll. And he goes to Washington, DC and pontificates on Lebanon and some of his ill-informed audience members take him for a "Lebanese leader" with insights on Middle East politics. He spoke yesterday at a closed forum which included big shots from the previous administration, including Donald Rumsfeld among others. It was a closed session but at least one member of the audience shared with me the details. The guy spoke exactly the way he expected his audience to want him to speak and went on about Hizbullah and its sinister domination of Lebanon--while in Lebanon he is a stuanch supporter of Hizbullah and always praises the "resistance" as he refers to Hizbullah while in Lebanon. In other words, he is one of the crooks of Lebanese politics who is trying to buy influence in Washington, DC, the way Rafiq Hariri started to spend millions in Washington, DC back in the 1980s when he hired former Sen. Charles Percy to run his American political operation. He is also close to Syria and I am told Makhzumi did not criticize the Syrian regime at all in Washington, DC. What bothered me the most about his lousy talk yesterday from what I was told about it is that he (like the typical native clown who wants to clown for the benefit of the White Man) kept making fun of Arabs: As another audience member reported to me: "Several times he denigrated arabs and middle easterners as bad, corrupt, unreliable, and would look at rumsfeld for approval and laugh at himself like he was apologizing for being arab. It made me squirm, like he was a house nigger." The funny thing is that this guy has no chance to make it in Lebanese politics and has no skills or talents whatsoever. But after the Hariri example every wealthy Lebanese thinks he can become another Hariri forgetting that Hariri's fortune was much bigger than theirs and that Hariri had Saudi AND Syrian support.
