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Viewing cable 06BEIRUT922, MGLEB01: POLITICAL ORGANIZING ON CAMPUS: A MIRROR

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Reference ID Created Released Classification Origin
06BEIRUT922 2006-03-23 13:45 2011-08-24 16:30 UNCLASSIFIED//FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY Embassy Beirut
VZCZCXRO9309
OO RUEHAG RUEHBC RUEHDE RUEHDF RUEHIK RUEHKUK RUEHLZ RUEHMOS
DE RUEHLB #0922/01 0821345
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
O 231345Z MAR 06
FM AMEMBASSY BEIRUT
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 2707
INFO RUEHEE/ARAB LEAGUE COLLECTIVE
RUCNMEM/EU MEMBER STATES
UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 BEIRUT 000922 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR NEA/ELA; INFO R, NEA/PPD, NEA/PI - KIRBY, DRL - 
BIRKLE, ECA/PE/V, ECA/A/E 
 
 
E.O. 12958:    N/A 
TAGS: PGOV KPAO KDEM KMPI SOCI SCUL LE
SUBJECT: MGLEB01: POLITICAL ORGANIZING ON CAMPUS: A MIRROR 
AND PREDICTOR OF NATIONAL POLITICS 
 
Summary 
------- 
 
1. (SBU) SUMMARY:  Student politics in Lebanon mirror the 
country's national political scene in intensity, 
organization and confessional breakdown.  Highly structured 
partisan organizations with motivated and dedicated student 
members compete in time-consuming university elections to 
demonstrate the strength of their party and dominate 
political allegiances on campus.  This process both confirms 
and reinforces confessional political affiliations of young 
Lebanese at an early age, making the goal of a cross- 
confessional Lebanon even more difficult.   END SUMMARY. 
 
All Parties on All Campuses 
--------------------------- 
 
2. (SBU) According to youth activists from Free Patriotic 
Movement (led by Michel Aoun), Future Movement (aka Future 
Current, led by Sa'ad al-Hariri), Lebanese Forces (led by 
Samir Ja'Ja') and Amal Movement (led by Nabih Berri), all of 
Lebanon's major political parties are well-organized and 
active on the country's university campuses.  Typically, an 
executive leader and deputy -- usually 20-something 
volunteers with university political experience under their 
belt -- work with a student cabinet on regional and 
functional issues.  Regional leaders coordinate activities 
with campuses in their home district or alma matter. 
Functional leaders direct contact between the party and 
students.  The Amal Movement replicates the structure of the 
Lebanese government, appointing student "ministers" to 
follow specific issues and regions.  In both cases, direct 
lines lead to the regional, and even party, leader. 
 
3.  (SBU) Student party leader positions are unsalaried but 
greatly sought after nonetheless for ambitious young 
politicos.  Although none of the regional, functional or 
campus leaders are female, young women have more 
representation in on campus political activity than in 
national politics.  Young women are represented in all 
parties, on all campuses; they play an especially dynamic 
role, albeit still at a secondary level compared with their 
male colleagues, in the Free Patriotic and Future Movements. 
 
Campaigning on Campus 
--------------------- 
 
4. (SBU) Some universities, including USG-supported American 
University Beirut (AUB) and Lebanese American University 
(LAU), ban political parties on campus.  But, innocuously 
named clubs often become virtual parties with known 
allegiances.  AUB students in their most recent elections, 
for example, knew that candidates for the 93 seats on the 
elected Student Representative Committee (SRC) belonged to 
two lists mirroring those of the parliamentary elections -- 
regardless of the use of pseudonyms and student club names: 
"You vote either pro- or anti-March 14," explained a senior 
business student, referring to the alliance of Hariri- 
Jumblatt-Samir Ja'ja'-Qornet Shehwan that took its name from 
the mass cross-confessional demonstration of that day in 
2005. "The elections this year are all about proving a 
point," said another student, carrying an orange banner (the 
color adopted as a trademark by Aoun's Free Patriotic 
Movement). 
 
5. (SBU) At AUB, for example, elections for the SRC are held 
in early November. Even the AUB's official publication 
"AUBulletin Today" acknowledges that AUB student elections 
"have never been separate from the country's political 
sentiments. Not unlike in the May-June Lebanese 
parliamentary elections, this year's candidates were divided 
into two large groups, with some independents trying their 
luck against the big fish." 
 
6. (SBU) Campaigning on campus isn't, however, about 
improving campus life but rather an opportunity to 
demonstrate a party's strength on campus as an indicator of 
its national importance.  Party activists know that their 
ability to win on campus boosts their standing-and future 
prospects-in their party.  A Lebanese Forces activist in his 
late twenties boasted that his success on both on Christian- 
majority Fanar campus of national, public Lebanese 
University and Jesuit, French-language St. Joseph campus, 
earned him public praise from his party's leadership.  Other 
Amal Movement organizers spoke proudly about their success 
 
BEIRUT 00000922  002 OF 003 
 
 
in increasing their position on the AUB campus.  Winning 
elections also gives authority to organize on-campus events 
in line with a political ideology. 
 
7. (SBU) Many students bemoan the time elections demand 
while boasting that their grades often suffered because of 
their intense involvement.  One senior Free Patriotic 
Movement activist bragged he'd taken seven years to complete 
his three-year undergraduate degree because his involvement 
in student politics had caused him to fail so many classes. 
Similarly, a Lebanese Forces Engineering student claimed he 
stayed a sophomore for four years in order to keep his 
position with his party and the popularity he believed 
accrued from it. 
 
Early Recruitment 
For Lifetime Loyalty 
-------------------- 
 
8. (SBU) Political parties start recruiting adherents as 
early as high school.  Although some university activists 
criticized this effort to solidify party allegiances so 
soon, they also acknowledged the race to capture political 
market share by signing up younger and younger voters. 
After all, one late-20s Future Movement activist told us, 
"Everyone is doing it."  Almost universally, representatives 
from all parties told us that their aim was to "get to them 
early to mold them."  Said one, "We want to encourage them 
to think like us. to teach them through a certain lens." 
 
8. (SBU) At public Lebanese University, for example, where 
appointments for deans and department heads are determined 
with political/confessional considerations in mind, student 
party activist are not infrequently given student lists to 
facilitate recruitment to political parties.  At other 
universities (all private), obtaining access to student 
databases, appeared remarkably easy for party activists. A 
former Lebanese Forces student representative claimed that 
party loyalists in the office of the registrar or working in 
the IT department were ready to help. "By regulation, 
universities distribute the lists to all candidates two 
weeks before the elections, but having them two months 
earlier makes the whole difference." 
 
Information Flow and Funding 
---------------------------- 
 
9. (SBU) A primary goal of campus political organization is 
to create and maintain channels for information to flow from 
party leaders to their supports.  A recent meeting of 150 
university-aged Aoun supporters recently north of Beirut was 
part pep rally, part information dissemination.  The subject 
of this particular meeting was outlining reasons behind 
Aoun's recent agreement with Hizballah.  As many of the 
young party faithful read neither newspapers nor have 
regular access to the internet, meetings such as this are 
important to strengthen party cohesion. 
 
10. (SBU) Parties fund campus activities in different ways. 
The Future Movement provides the most generous financial 
support to its campus Hariri Future Youth groups.  Other 
campus groups, with less financial support from their 
parties, raise funds through social events or by soliciting 
donations from supporters. The funds cover election costs 
and maintain enhance name recognition and reputation: "You 
should always remind the students of your presence and let 
them feel your support," a young partisan explained, adding 
his party passed out stress balls with the party's logo 
during exam time.  He asserted party funds were also used 
for providing air-conditioners to classrooms and 
photocopiers to departments. 
 
11. (SBU) Student political organizers all volunteers are 
often motivated more by ideological than professional goals. 
Although students may remain active in party politics after 
university, no established way exists for moving from 
student political leadership into the actual bureaucracy of 
the party.  Nevertheless, for some, party involvement holds 
out the hope of political connections that may eventually 
promote professional success. 
 
12. (SBU) COMMENT:  The unique nature of Lebanese 
political organizing, particularly with youth, presents 
both challenges and opportunities for advancing USG 
democracy.  The young age at which parties begin 
 
BEIRUT 00000922  003 OF 003 
 
 
recruitment underscores the importance of our 
engagement with high school students, through USG- 
funded programs such as the ACCESS English language 
scholarship program and recruitment for exchange 
programs such as YES and MEPI leadership programs.  Our 
FY 2005 Single Country International Visitor Leadership 
Project, "Young Lebanese Leaders and the U.S. Political 
System," not only introduced nine youth leaders of 
political parties to U.S. party politics, but also 
promoted cross-confessional, cross-party dialogue and 
relations that continues one year later.  Embassy 
Officers will continue to seek out avenues to engage 
with student leaders, including young women, to promote 
better understanding of the democratic process and to 
discuss reform and democracy. 
 
FELTMAN