The following is the English translation of Nadine Moussa‘s presidential plan. Due to high demands, an English translation was urgently needed and the following translation was done by volunteers Pia Francis and Taline Khajikian in response to that need. It was republished here with Moussa’s permission. To suggest mistakes and how to improve them, please send me an email to joey@ayoub.ch

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Candidate Nadine Moussa’s Goals for the Presidential Elections

This presidential plan aims at accomplishing the following goals setting the path for achieving a long-term vision that aspires to make drastic changes in Lebanon:

• Achieving national sovereignty across Lebanon
• Building a state for all citizens based on the reign of righteousness, law and social justice while supporting civil peace
• Enhancing the sense of patriotism amongst Lebanese people, expatriates, men and women equally
• Exploiting the natural resources such as gas, oil, water with total transparency and distributing them amongst all Lebanese people equally to enrich the citizens as well as encouraging expats to return to their country and to invest in it
• Accomplishing security, including political, military and social security
• Reorienting the economy towards an economy based on knowledge and creativity, in addition to offering educational, learning and teaching opportunities to all citizens and investing in their human capabilities that are abundant inside and outside Lebanon
• Adopting the decentralization policy that ensures local sustainable development, preserves natural resources in accordance with ecological standards and invests local resources, talents and capabilities
• Replacing rivalry with the feeling of pride regarding the diversity and reinforcing our cultural, educational and religious heritage, while considering it as one of our national resources

The Characteristics of a Strong President:

The Lebanese citizens agree on the fact that our country needs, at this point, a strong president with a representative status which identifies with them and their issues and is capable to build the institutions.

A strong president: the president’s power lies in his/her competence, integrity and courage in addressing the main issues and facing corruption and corrupt people.

My legal background and my experience in civil volunteerism as well as my work in developing laws and legislations strengthen my ability to run for the elections. My academic and professional experience, in addition to my spotless record and the fact that my hands are free from blood or the public’s money support my candidature.

This candidature in itself represents courage and a leap that strives to breach the political class and break the patriarchal, sectarian and feudal trait that is incarnated in the political game.

A strong president is a president that resembles his/her country. Consequently, if we want a free, sovereign and independent Lebanon then we shall choose a male or female President that possesses these qualities.

A president with a representative status: some question my representative status of the Christian community.  I do not strive to represent a certain religion or sect. I aim at representing all Lebanese people. I represent the overwhelming majority, in all the neighborhoods, villages and cities, the far north and the far south, and the expatriates. I am a Lebanese civilian that follows the green signals communicated only by the Lebanese people and not those transmitted by other countries.

A president that identifies with the civilians and their issues: my candidature aspires to relieve civilians from their pain their daily suffering: I spend three hours in the traffic every day and I’m scared the electricity might go off when I’m in the elevator. My candidature incarnates a mother that is worried about her children and is worried they might immigrate. A mother that feels insulted and feels the burden of injustice when she realizes she is a second class citizen and cannot pass on her nationality to her children because her husband is not Lebanese. My candidature is a lawyer’s reaction that suffers from the humiliation in conducting transactions and the failure of laws, as well as the political pressures exerted on justice.

My candidature is also a civilian’s reaction suffering from corruption and corrupted people that deal with this country as if it was merely a product to buy and sell and not a social contract between its people that agreed to serve it and invest in its humanitarian, natural and cultural resources.

A president that is able to build institutions: to end our daily sufferings, we need non-paralyzed institutions similar to those built by President Fouad Chehab adopting the virtues in the Chehaby plan while excluding its vices.

The Promises of the Presidential Mandate: 

Candidate Nadine Moussa pledges to achieve the following promises during her mandate.

1-     The first promise is personal, easy to achieve with little effort. It shall aim at lifting the bank secrecy on my personal accounts, those of my relatives and my staff. This step represents the beginning of the fight against corruption which is spread in our political class.

2-     To form a government that has two priorities: maintaining security and holding the parliamentary elections  7 months following the start of my mandate, in accordance with the new electoral law, preferably based on proportionality

3-     To stimulate the new parliament to start a legislative workshop to issue executive laws that organize the state’s work, following the necessity to go back to the constitutional reform program and the issuance of executive constitutional laws. The Constitution is the framework, however it might need executive laws :

• A law organizing the presidential departments and their work
• An electoral law to ensure the parliamentary system, the monitoring and the accountability
• A law organizing the work of the council of ministers, as it constitutes the executive power
• A law organizing the Prime Minister’s departments and their work
• A law achieving the judiciary power’s independence, while maintaining the concept of the separation of powers and subjecting the officials and the civilians to the rule of law
• A law organizing the LAF in accordance with the Constitution and the National Agreement
• A law organizing security apparatuses (army intelligence, general security, state security and their links to all the authorities)
• A law organizing the state’s administration (the ministries, the administrations and the ministries’ structure)
• The administrative decentralization policy
• A law re-organizing media outlets

4-     Calling for a national convention that adds together all the national components to get back to the prevailing social contract in Lebanon, in order to discuss and lay down foundations for a modern state socially, economically and culturally. This invitation shall not only include leaders of political parties that are in majority warlords.  Consequently we may ask a primary question: how do we expect a warlord to create peace? This national convention combines the elite representing the civil society and economic, syndical, youth, intellectual, academic and artistic institutions, as well as the political and the public administration experts.

5-     Caring for human rights, adopting three of the most urgent social causes and pressuring the parliament to issue a retirement plan, health insurance for all the citizens, free education while activating and expanding the Lebanese University’s role as well as eliminating all the laws that treat women with discrimination.

6-     Working on amending the law related to oil and presenting a draft for the plan regarding the issuance of a law tackling the exploitation of natural resources and distributing 50% of its revenues to the Lebanese people and the other 50% to the state.

7-     Tightening the relationship between the president and the people. The presidency’s aim is to serve the people, like any other public job. The people are the main decision makers and we shall implicate them and encourage their intervention in the political process. In this context, I commit myself to (1) creating a presidential website that allows everyone to address public issues and vote electronically. (2) Involving civilians through a weekly online session, informing them with transparency about the achievements accomplished, and the reason behind failure of some while stating my position regarding the weekly events and causes. (3) Dedicating one hour weekly to directly chat with the citizens via Twitter. (4) Dedicating half of my salary to establish a work crew in the Presidential Palace constituted of young people under 30, and encourage them to participate in the political scene and play a national and natural role as decision makers.

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