Beirut, June 30, 2016: In the framework of the national initiative / open discussions and round tables, the Civic Influence Hub (CIH) organized a dialogic Iftar in Four Seasons Hotel on Monday 27/06/2016, in which participated a large number of effective figures of the civil society, such as movements, economic stakeholders, syndicates, universities, municipalities unions, media, religious figures, judges, high level officers as well as CIH board of Councilors members and Administration.
The dialogic Iftar, set by the CIH as a continuation of communication with all active forces of the civil society since its beginning in 2012, and that consistently gathered for deep thinking during open discussions on Lebanon’s problems, reformative priorities, proposed joint actions, after an in-depth study of the outcomes of the first three meetings with the civil society associations and movements, economic stakeholders and liberal professions syndicates, unconventionally started with a program at 7:00 pm with the Lebanese national anthem, followed by the speech of the CIH Chairman, engineer Fahd Saccal, who stated: “The aim of CIH is to promote the actions of social responsibility and strengthen the civil society’s organization so that the balance of powers with the State is reestablished, through a real watchdog.”
After Saccal reviewed the statistical and conclusional outcomes of the civil society’s meetings with the economic stakeholders and syndicates, as part of the national initiative/ Open discussions, he launched the round table entitled: “the Constitution, the State and Conviviality” while assuring that the Hub insists on moving forward with the reformative initiatives with all vital forces.
A documentary entitled: “Towards a national productive and Federative pact” was projected, and then a critical approach about the national public affairs and the national initiative was presented by the political writer Mr. Jihad Al-Zein, saying: “the high necessity of directly settling the social issue is not just a lecture that I will spare myself from delivering and repeating, it is a structural pre-requisite for any reformative initiative coming from businessmen, especially the one claiming its independence from the Lebanese political politics. I don’t mean the Lebanese politics in general, but the Lebanese political interference in politics.”
Afterwards, the vice-chairman Dr. Mounir Yehya, along with two Board of Councilors members and the national initiative committee presented an honorary shield for Mr. Al-Zein.
It is noteworthy that the Iftar took place in the launching evening of the CIH’s first round table entitled: “the State, the Constitution and Conviviality” in which will participate around 30 figures specialized in the Constitution, and legal, economic, diplomatic, social, cultural and political affairs. This round table shows that CIH insists on analyzing deeply the structural failures of Lebanon, in order to create a clear roadmap of change with the living forces.