At the conclusion of the “The Nation Quest” activity, the head of the “Free Patriotic Movement,” MP Gebran Bassil, affirmed his pride in the participating youth, saying: “You are young people who hold your heads high and I am proud of you,” stressing that building the state cannot be the responsibility of one team, but rather requires the cooperation of all Lebanese.
Bassil pointed out that learning about the history of Lebanon shows that it has always gone through crises, but it was able to withstand various stages thanks to young people who believe in it and are ready to bear responsibility, considering that the experience of the participants in the activity teaches them to accept profit and loss. He said: “Loss strengthens us, and we rise after each one of them, and we also achieved victories.”
He pointed out that the state is at the core of national concepts, and that when Lebanon was established, it became a state for all sects and components, considering that the participation of young people from different regions in the activity reflects “the true movement, with its Christians and Muslims.”
Bassil said, “All our game in the movement is to maintain the number of 10,452 square kilometers,” adding: “Today, Western air comes to us from the direction of Israel, and you are the youth of Lebanon, not the youth of Syria or Israel.”
He continued: “When Lebanon is attacked by Syria or Israel, no one has the right to talk about drinking tea in Syria or drinking beer in Tel Aviv. We drink coffee in Beirut and drink arak in all of Lebanon, and that is why you are proud of your Lebaneseness.”
Bassil considered that “the stage of defending yourselves has ended,” and that others must now be the ones who must defend themselves with regard to, as he put it, “employment and betrayal.”
In a remarkable position, Bassil attacked the performance of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, saying that “whoever does not know how to exercise sovereignty in a sovereign ministry like the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has no right to talk about sovereignty,” considering that the Minister of Foreign Affairs is not supposed to wait for the President of the Republic or the government, but rather impose his presence in international forums, adding, in his words, that he is “basking in the sun at the ATCL while Lebanon is being bombed.”
He stressed that the “current” is present today in the position of the “Lebanese National Opposition,” calling on its youth to be positive, and said: “We build, not demolish, and we do not disrupt positive plans for the Lebanese.”
In the context of his talk about the memory of the martyrs of the “Lebanese Resistance,” Bassil said that the occasion is celebrated by people with whom the “movement” disagrees politically, but he acknowledged that they have martyrs who fell, according to him, for the sake of Lebanon’s freedom, sovereignty, and independence, stressing that all martyrs will be honored.
He added that the martyrs of the Lebanese Army “are the martyrs of all of Lebanon,” considering that they were betrayed when the general amnesty was approved.
Bassil stressed that “the Free Patriotic Movement is the movement of legitimacy and the Lebanese army, and the movement of freedom, sovereignty and independence,” stressing that the army is for all the Lebanese and not for a specific sect, and therefore it must be preserved.
He touched on the “current’s” experience in the ministries, saying: “We entered ministries and worked a lot in them, but we did not succeed due to luck or those who prevented us from achieving,” while he considered that corruption “is widespread and has become a societal habit.”
Bassil linked his talk about corruption to the rules of activity, explaining that some of the participating teams violated the rules of the game, and therefore the organizing committee will remove them from the race.
He also stressed that the areas described as “peripheries” are in fact “the heart of Lebanon,” considering that the nation “is not a hotel,” and that its beauty lies in the struggle to build it.
Bassil concluded by saying: “We are the generation of Aoun, and you are the generation of struggle,” calling on young people to adhere to the values that he said were established by former President Michel Aoun, most important of which is love for Lebanon.
