Michael Young represents so much of what is wrong with Lebanonese society. Maybe all, in fact. Here, he makes reference to the "majority":
Hizbullah doesn't need to break heads or burn property to make things very difficult for the majority.
And here, he goes out of his way to not address why this same "majority" refuses to hold a census, overdue since 1932. (Look near the end the linked text, in his response to "Lebanon is the problem" where he admits rambling on and on in his response, eloquently rebutting every point except the one regarding the census.)
The fact of the matter is, the Shi`a of Lebanon are illegally under-represented, per Lebanon's law, in their own government. Article 24 of Lebanon's constitution addresses directly this issue:
...the distribution of seats [of the Chamber of Deputies] is according to the following principles:
a. Equal representation between Christians and Muslims.
b. Proportional representation among the confessional groups within each religious community.
c. Proportional representation among geographic regions.
Aside from the baffling precept that Lebanon is a "democracy" with a minority Christian population receiving more than its fair share of representation, subsections (b) and (c) of the article above spell it out quite clearly. Without a current census, can the proportions of the population be accurately deduced? No, it can't.
Muslims are the majority in Lebanon. And the Shi`a are a majority of that majority. And yet, of the 128 seats, the main Shi`a parties hold but 29. So let's crunch a few numbers. What would equal representation between Christians and Muslims be: 128/2 = 64. Now let's say that the Sh`ia majority is the slimmest possible at 51%: 64 x 0.51 = 32 (rounding down). That means that, by Lebanon's constitution, the Shi`a are disenfranchised by, at the very least, three seats in the Chamber of Deputies.
That is, if you believe the assumptions above to be true. If you don't, it's understandable. But if you're honest with yourself, then unlike Michael Young, you should be calling loudly for a census, as each advocate of democracy, advocate of Lebanon, should.
Or, at the very least, stop calling Lebanon a "democracy". And stop - just stop - referring to the "majority", because no-one seems to know what that means.
