“Democratic Gathering” Chief, MP Taymour Jumblatt, stressed the importance of trust as an essential component of any relationship, be it personal or professional, noting that “trust leads to dialogue, and dialogue to settlement, and settlement to a solution to any problem.”

He added: “The country is collapsing because of its system, the quota system, and the government is responsible for mismanaging the financial crisis over the past years, and nearly most institutions have witnessed downfall…Then Covid-19 spread and the Beirut Port explosion made it difficult for the younger generations to trust the government in any matter related to politics.”

The MP’s words came during his participation today in the “Annual Symposium Gathering” organized by the “St. Gallen University” in Switzerland, in which activists from around the world took part in a session devoted to tackling the challenges of confidence facing young politicians.

“We are currently living in a very tense situation, because the political parties do not agree with each other, the political leaders do not trust each other…Unfortunately as well, even the civil society parties do not trust each other, as they do not agree on a common program or a common vision to move forward towards the future, but they do agree on one thing, which is the difference between the political elite and the rising generations, namely that this system must change one way or the other,” affirmed Jumblatt.

“The problem is that we live in the Middle East, and change does not happen overnight. Rather, it happens through patience and perseverance, and what we need for people like me from the rising generation is to return to an economic system that guarantees social justice, and allows the emerging generation to dream more, and the only way for that is through dialogue between the political parties, or some of them, and the civil society as well, to plan for the future, to learn from the mistakes of the past and to know the mistakes that we have made in the present,” Jumblatt maintained.

He referred to the challenges facing him as a young politician that hinder his efforts, namely in terms of being perceived as belonging to the current political system, which is a problem in itself. “I have to prove to them that I can change from the inside out; therefore, I have to introduce reform into my party as well as into the whole country. It will be a long and arduous road, but the only way to reach a solution is through dialogue, and I have to start at least somewhere,” he corroborated.

Responding to a question on how to build this confidence through his experience, Jumblatt said: “The only way now in order to move forward is to convince people that there are actual intentions to carry out political and economic reforms.”

He emphasized that “at the national level, the most important thing is to form a government that is in harmony with what the international community demands, and to hold elections based on a non-sectarian vote law to give all parties of civil society and younger generations an opportunity to enter parliament and determine their political future.”