The beginning was with Pr. Salim Daccache, President of Saint Joseph University of Beirut, who announced the launch of the forum, noting that “the Lebanese today aspire to a capable state that assumes its responsibilities and provides its residents with what is available to all human beings in the democratic world including the elements of good governance such as the rule of law, accountability, integrity, transparency and access to information.”
Pr. Daccache added: “The time has come for the birth of a ‘Republic of Good Governance’ in Lebanon. Without it, Lebanon will remain a failed project overburdened with wars and crises resulting in mass emigration of its skilled sons. We will remain mired in corruption, chaos and clientelism and will finally declare the death of the homeland.”
Pr. Daccache stressed that good governance is the solution, “and because it is so, we will continue our endeavor at Saint Joseph University to spread its principles and what the Observatory of Public Function and Good Governance (OFP) have been doing since its establishment is the best evidence of this endeavor.”
Then MP Yassin Jaber, head of the parliamentary sub-committee for studying the public procurement law, gave a speech in which he pointed out that “this initiative comes at a time when we mostly in need to demand the achievement of good governance after we tried everything in the past decades and this is what brought us to this collapse,” stressing that "there is no good governance practices in Lebanon.”
Jaber pointed out that “the importance of this initiative is that it stems from the Saint Joseph University, and today we need to entrench among our youth the importance of good governance.”
Mr. Jaber invited everyone to work together “to achieve good governance by building a state of law and institutions,” adding that “unfortunately, over the years, and despite our work in the parliament in the past on dozens of laws that constitute a structure for real reform, the problem remains in the failure of implementing these laws.”
He continued: “The problem in Lebanon today is how we can make sure that every legislated law will be implemented, so we proposed a few years ago to establish a Parliamentary committee to follow up the implementation of laws, to put in the necessary effort in implementing them and establish the institutions responsible for their application.”
Mr. Jaber stressed that “the return to good governance is a mandatory path out of the crisis we are suffering from, and the first item in any program to support Lebanon is to implement reforms,” calling for a partnership between the Observatory and the Parliament for the largest possible cooperation so that young people can learn about what is happening in the Parliament.
In turn, MP Georges Okais, who stressed his optimism in this forum, pointed out that in Lebanon, we need all dimensions of good governance that are managed for the benefit of the people in their development, institutions in their performance and effectiveness, and the optimal method of governance in democracies.
“Good governance presupposes the participation of the people in decision-making, the effective provision of government services, respect for human rights and a transparent, productive and accountable government,” MP Okais claimed.
MP Okais also wished the forum, through close communication with the Parliament, to carry out monitoring on 14 axes, including the e-government, because of its great importance for the development of Lebanon, and the fight against corruption in it, as well as the judiciary independence and human rights, and the transparency in the management of public funds and all aspects of sustainable development, offering support to the Observatory to monitor these legislative axes.
Dr. Malte Gaier, Director of the Konrad Adenauer Foundation in Lebanon, thanked Saint Joseph University, welcoming cooperation with it for the benefit of the Foundation, the University and the Lebanese citizens. He additionally spoke about the forum, which takes an important place in the Foundation's objectives in Lebanon.
At the end of the forum, Pr. Pascal Monin, Director of the Observatory of Public Function and Good Governance (OFP) at Saint Joseph University, delivered a speech in which he stressed “adherence to cultivating the concept of good governance in the minds of young people, especially students, through Saint Joseph University values.
He added: “The launch of the forum from the heart of Beirut, which exploded with the port explosion on the fourth of last August, falls within this framework, and represents a message of firm and strong faith from Saint Joseph University, and from the Observatory of Public Function and Good Governance (OFP), that the resurrection is inevitable, and that life always returns stronger and more glowing, and that Beirut does not die.”
Professor Monin concluded: “Lebanon has paid a high price as a result of the absence of good governance, and has been replaced by the logic of quotas and clientelism that brought us to the bad situation we live in. It is not surprising that all the recipes for a solution, including the French initiative, focused on the elements of this provision as a condition for advancement. Based on this, the new government should put good governance as the basis of its work and governance program.”