Levanon could soon house the new Prime Minister after the main political players reportedly reached an agreement but on the streets people are still angry so is a new government the answer and what about the calls to overhaul the entire political system this is inside story. Hello and welcome to inside story im dead you know its almost a month since protests erupted right across lebanon yet a solution to the political crisis hasnt been reached there is some hope for a new government ofter 4 parties nominated the former finance minister to be the next leader but that decisions lots of people protesting outside mohamed suffered these house calling him a thief and demonstrators are still blocking roads in beirut they want the political system overhauled and the yukon amee their lives to improve. So lets take a look at how lebanon reached this deadlock protests broke out in october with demonstrators saying they cant afford even basic necessities the Public Services are a mess and government corruption is to blame by the end of the month the Prime Minister side of the resigned president michel is still in place and some marched in support of him the protests have frozen the countrys already struggling economy banks have only opened a few times since the crisis began cash is severely restricted and overseas transfers nearly impossible in the last few days violence flared with a protester being shot dead the 1st fatality since the rallies began. Well comments made by the president havent really helped in a t. V. Interview he said people who arent happy with any of the decent leaders then let them immigrate but he did try to assure the lebanese people the new government would work to implement reforms and he agreed to change the makeup of the next government one of the protesters main demands one of. My guni i will not bring back a government like the last one and not with the same conditions the people in it will be techno politicians and if its not like this then it will not have political coverage and it cannot deliver the policies to parliament because it will be lacking popular representation and will not maintain relations with Foreign Countries its members may be from the old government or not but i would prefer them not to be parliamentarians. Im joined now by our guest from beiruts we have come and was named hes a political analyst and economist common is the former World Bank Advisor to the lebanese Government Finance committee joining us via skype from zadok does i mean why was these a political lecturer at the American University of beirut and jamil specializes in divided societies within a state and back again in beirut is happy because hes an independent journalist and founder of news website beiruts report that showcases Investigative Journalism in beirut thanks very much for joining us on inside story have a over to you 1st saw the reports out of lebanon on seemed to suggest that the consensus on mohamed to suffer the the former finance minister emerged in a meeting that took place after 80 met with representatives of hezbollah as well as. If the news of his appointment is confirmed why is the scene as provocative as were seeing out on the streets. Well this is exactly what protesters have said they dont want theyve been very clear that they want to government that is independent of the current ruling parties of lebannon the parties have ruled lebanon for the last 30 years plus that have basically been former militia parties some of them are led by billionaires and you know again this candidate is one of the wealthiest men in love but on represents a lot of what this protest is about its about returning the government to a transparent way a way that you know billionaires are leading the country of people are very their people in them are living on 2. 00 a day so how is it that we have all these billionaires lining up to become Prime Minister the wealth gap and love are as one of the main economic problems that people are facing today thats why theyre on the streets and he also is involved in a lot of big deals with property deals that are a lot of question marks about how he made his money and question marks about abuse of his position hes been a minister before i mean he is a member of the wealthiest club of men in lebannon so this is exactly what protesters are actually fighting against a common what is the thinking behind this decision should it go through. Well are they looking for a consensus Prime Minister because so far Prime Minister hariri does a one the job at this point everybody seem insisting on having him as the upcoming new Prime Minister for some reason hes refusing to accept i dont know what pressure he has but in the end you need somebody whos a bruised from. Saddam how do you really and he will be accepted by the mainstream im not sure at this point if he has acceptance and what is been circulated in the media is true at this point but in the end whoever can to be a Prime Minister and he has a lot of a lot of hard work ahead today our economy is not there when very well as not functioning very well whoever can be a Prime Minister he has to face the music of that high service of that that today we have also downgrade from major. Credit institution for that country and for the Banking Sector as we have a bank in fact that has been shut down for almost a month and we have a lot of problems corruption we have people on the streets and we have different groups that they have different opinion how to take the country forward but in the end the clock of our that hasnt stopped and the point is very clear critical need really a surgical operation im not sure we have this person who the Country Trust who can make this big decision in the end who has to come and assume the power he has to be honest with the people and tell him about the size of the problem and how its going to be tackled and you have to b. P. People except in his vision because in there and a lot of people they missed trust their institution and they missed. The politician ok its a mess ok to me lets bring you in common seems to be suggesting that there is a real urgency for the situation in lebanon now though get the Foreign Ministers about on the side of the caretaker government has said that the formal consultations on the government will begin on monday and forming the government should not take long because the main parties agree on the need for fast formation so thats a positive tone coming out of the caretaker foreign minister but is there anything in and suffered these nomination that you see any factors that make his nomination unlikely and why is he not the person to unite the streets thanks for having me 1st when whats happening now the way the mounts that somebody might be the future Prime Minister is very alarming is that the you know if it doesnt show any change in behavior after. Theyve been doing business as usual basically if were going to because sharon and peace they should go and meet the president up to the public and nominate. Prime minister except that this time it when things as usual and they meet and act or. And they decisions and. And this is our only way to going to be. So and this is very and arming and im not sure it will eventually. Give you know the trust. Any Prime Minister led to let alone you know Prime Minister saturday because as your guests have already sent he sort of the things. That are in the balance and hes a marked by no youve been out and about in the streets not only in beirut but right across lebanon and what we hear from some protesters at least is theyre demanding a technocratic government how widespread is that call for a soli technocratic government and do you think its a realistic call for a country like lebanon. Well i think technocratic government to the protesters means they want to government that has ministers that know what theyre doing and a sense they actually have a background in the fields that they are supposed to be administering so right now our Telecom Minister hes an heir to a Chocolate Factory a lot of these people are businessmen they dont really have any experience in the fields in which theyre supposed to be working and theyre just political appointees so by technocratic i mean people who actually know how to do have an experience in this field but also are outside of the political circles of Political Parties and thats why the board so angered by the city because suffered it has been a minister many times in the past they want to see new faces but the idea of this not being a nonpolitical government i think is a myth because anybody who takes decisions in government is doing politics and come out of the president michel all and said that a new government must include existing politicians as according to him a technocrat government cannot define the policy of the country is he right to make that statement and how does a solely technocratic government navigate the political complexities off lebanon as well as hows it how does it deal with foreign issues. You have to look at the whole picture lebanon is a very complicated place and sometime you need a partition but not the partition that people used to do you need a new faces thats what theyre trying to get new faces but you need some people with a specialisation to run that country when you have a crisis you need people who really can assume power and who can project confidence in the country when you look at the Financial Sector we need people who can really assure the country seem like lebanon is coming after 911 where nobody knows where way gone economically and financially we have to have somebody who really understand the economic picture the political structure who have connections who can build trust we have a lot of trust building to work on when things go back to normal we live on ramadans we live on people who send us money and we build our confidence and our economy on their and their money their investment as very important to us now when we shut down the banks for for for almost a month what kind of message are we sending to those people who have been helping the country what picture we are sending to the International Community here i think is now more than ever we need somebody who really understand their product their position their specialisation to bring back the confidence that we actually lost that the days and the months and the years add are very difficult because the task is to rebuild and to structure the whole burden of that on lebanon is very complex and somebody who has to be honest to tell the people the truth so far we dont have disclosure and our Banking System we dont have disclosure at the Central Bank Everything is run by one man sure its not really the minister is the political. Environment in lebanon half the changes doesnt stop on a minister because something minister is the limit that sometime this month of buying a chairman hes more powerful than the president of the country and ok. Ok so how do you know not what the information. Having had that have to me and i mean youre nodding along with cam and you know politicians in lebanon have a lot at stake so this idea of new faces might be easier said than done actually im completely against the separation between whats that nikken and whats the. Last we understand. And the way you know. Is that we are. In terms of you know not that is an impression as never before now in the film and meet the political government in the sense that yes we need to manage step or yours according to their expertise but we need but it is the citizens we need an army army. That serves the interests of the society and not only the very few and by very few i mean but efficient and their cronies so any sense yes yes we definitely need it but if they get government it can be serious decision that theyre not. There to serve the interests of the society and the shape of dicks reshape the economy in a way that citizens are center stage of the policies and not the interests of the earth sector or the Banking Sector or that we process has made us we are. Yes go ahead go ahead ok you need to put a a government heavy heavy but how how will that idea filtering down on to the streets of beirut well i mean i think we have to be careful not to miss missed all of jais these these roles as if you know only certain politicians in lebanon can do them and if the politics that we know is the only politics that can be done the politics that we know is business men who have no background in certain fields being given portfolios so there are plenty of lebanese within this activist movement within the country that are very skilled at all the fields in which love on these to have Decision Making happening and administration so there are plenty of people out there the problem is that they spent 3 weeks and they came up with a guy who was part of the same club he was a serial minister had been minister many times in the past and we had know his face very well so who actually protesting outside his house right now in the protests is a reaction has been immediate that they will not agree with this so i think the partners will be willing to accept people who do politics as long as we have some separation between the parties that have run this country for the last 30 years and the government we see now and they also want to see some transparency they want to see corruption measures we want to see people have a track record of fighting corruption we dont want as they dont see business men who have a track record of being involved in a lot of questionable deals so what will happen on monday had the when the consultation to begin and lets just say that suffer these named the protesters reject this the streets reject this what happens then they already have rejected it if you hear people on t. V. Speaking you know right now theres constant coverage of the protests and and the protesters are speaking to the cameras and lawyers have been on strike the doctors are strike on talk a little right now a caretaker government until now right is it going to continue down this path with this suffer the or what happens. I think i think theyre going to have to respond to this anger on the streets and the people have proven that every decision they dont like theyre going to the streets to to express themselves about that and theyve theyve as soon as the Prime Minister would step down they werent satisfied that they want to keep going to want to keep going so they want to see a new faces in there so many people out there theres so many new politics will a Political Parties that are growing in lebanon there are so many people who could who would do these jobs but its really surprising that they have completely turned their back on the protesters demands and gone away gone along with business as usual the tamil speaking of the protestors lets just shift gears for a moment because a couple of days ago we did see that one of the protesters was involved in an incident in which he was shot in the head by a soldier. The soldier we understand who fired is under investigation in the army says that this was just a stray bullets but regardless of what exactly happened there now that blood has been spilled on the streets of lebanon because of this revolution some people are calling it not how dangerous is this. This is very dangerous and we need to realize why we have resorting to violence why dismiss it as what to buy is because effectively this is one of many that are the system thats been put in place since the stand up the civil war this system is based on 3 main barriers violence is one of them and also they control over the imaginary they controlled you know they convinced us and what sort of a member of the state is very weak or only for them to establish their own state and their own networks it would serve only a ban on interest and the 3rd pillar as they. Begin to order over. After that extraction and the community Banking Sector where as there is a good example this can form so yes the system eventually of sorry strike correct violence is the way to start that that evolution should do everything in order to develop structures and study that it to. The protesters on the street in order to. Gain attention you know i am inspired a system there is an accusation that the protest movement is being hijacked by the political powers and by the who are those who work for the political power as do you believe that and have have you seen any of that. Well i dont know i dont know whether this is true or not but what i know what i saw on the street is people they have to deal with and they have personally princes and conductors but even if you are not in the open an inference you need that as a warrant something also should last combined are are struggling to make their ends meet and where that we all need infiltrators or not i dont really you know this conflict i can get across is that people have previous is an arm and they are expressing collectively because the links are common over to you we saw as well earlier this week that the French ForeignMinistry Representatives have come to lebanon and theyve met with officials to discuss the situation there how do you read this visit is a is it a can consultative sort of visit or are the is the International Community trying to sway the path that this revolution is on because that is also an accusation that has been put forward. Well we need the International Community to come and help and friends already promise and that they can but some contribution loans to lebanon this is but the condition that we have to act certain reform from 18 months up to now we havent really enacted any reform we need in lebanon really really we need a revolution in terms of reforming the law because we have a lot of layers of fat in our system and those layers of our sat fat are preventing us from making a good laws when we need when we call in the International Community i. M. F. World bank and the french the american to come but the lebanese who are open helping lebannon those lives overseas we have to give them something in return we have to give them a real reform government who will really they can trust that they have a government that probably wasnt as a problem with the International Community or National Donors and said that for example that you that you mentioned isnt the problem there that its going to give the International Lenders a significant amount of power over political as well as Economic Life in lebanon and that in fact is something that some of the protesters are saying they dont want. Well what the protests are wanted a real reform they want to fight corruption there is a true protest are on the streets and i have to say their revolution and some part been hijacked by the Political Parties some of the Political Party who are corrupt in this country trying to sway the revolution from its mandate to bears through people who want to change and theyre the Political Party who tried to carry on that change in the end this country if it needs to survive has to make a major surgical reform on law if you bring any government from anywhere d from a from from the world with the current laws that we have you not going to be successful in to making a change a real change and bring the country out of the pain it has in terms of that servicing that that the lack of confidence. The major corruption that we have in the end you need somebody who are really strong on their field and have eve youve written that lebanon is seeing a free speech revolution unlike a few other places can you explain that. Well i mean this is very interesting because on the airwaves today weve seen an incredible free speech that has been blossoming right now weve seen hundreds of people every week speaking on t. V. Its an open mike on television theyre allowing any protester to speak about their claims their personal problems and so many scandals and so many personal issues or come to the surface weve never heard that before usually our television is dominated by the speeches of politicians the problems of politicians and not the problems everyday people so now are saying all through out there and i mean and this is the greatest i mean answer to this idea theres a conspiracy from the protests because we dont we dont see Political Parties we see people hundreds and thousands of them on television in the streets we see doctors and lawyers students protesting so theres evidence that this is actually just Common People and not actually any Political Party so we should actually hone in on that every night and the squares there are lectures there are teachings there are real democracy happening in the streets and despite all of the economic problems this is the one kind of shining light it seems right now in this revolutionary atmosphere do you see a Silver Lining in this atmosphere how do you see this all playing out whether its really great to see in a really nice i mean to being able to express themselves freely and it is based and a community in which the cost is and it just i would like to. Talk about one point which is we dont really need new dollars now and then and what we need is an independent judiciary and. So this is where arms the more so that manger you know decision that should be taken and the coming months seriously adopt it now that respects the end of the judiciary system from the minute without it whether we have the most beautiful law its not going to explode this ins with always have you know a say when it comes to the judges and then judges and we need to grant immunity for the judges and that is one of the interviews and that is one of the issues in fact the protest has been putting forward this need for an independent judiciary but come a final words to you on how you see this all playing out. Well its going to be a lot of pain to come but we will overcome we look down on you know been seen a lot of thing more horrible than what we see today that people has spoken we have to listen to them we have to implemented shaynes good change because the country its at a critical position financially and economically and politically i think the change will come but with a lot of pain all right on that note to have to leave it there thank you very much for joining us out of lebanon. And thank you for watching you can see the program again any time by visiting our website aljazeera dot com for further discussion you can go to our Facebook Page thats facebook dot com forward slash a. J. Inside story you can join the conversation on twitter our handle is. Story for myself and the whole team here in the hop but i for now. It is. 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A price increase unlike any other ever seen before in the Islamic Republic arrangements will come up to the news and they were shocked that the price of petrol is now up 200 percent the government announced it at midnight friday morning and the iranians have been reacting across the country so