On this day fifty five years ago, the nation’s constitutionally elected leaders were released from detention by French occupation forces after their commanders backed down and accepted the independence of Lebanon as a reality. Hence the 22nd day of November came to be sanctified as Independence Day.

But what happened to our independence?

Three events, taking place within less than a decade from that glorious day, would soon determine the future of Lebanon for the remainder of the twentieth century. Each event presented both a warning and a lesson to the Lebanese people and their political leadership. But no one was willing to learn.

The first event happened less than four years after November 22, 1943. The first general elections in the new era of liberty was openly rigged by the same leaders who were released from French custody on that day. What good is freedom won from the foreign occupiers when it is soon clouded by political corruption and denied to the people by their own leaders?

The second event followed shortly thereafter. President Beshara Khouri, one of the two main "fathers" of our independence, used the fraudulently elected parliament to amend the constitution in order to allow him to succeed himself. Political corruption was in full charge. It was the same constitution that was purged of articles submitting to the authority of the French mandate, triggering the detention of the nation’s leaders and paving the way to Independence Day. Its sanctity, hard won from the French, was compromised by the independence heroes. Thereafter, the repeated rape of the constitution was no big deal to openly corrupt politicians of much lesser standing.

In less than two years following, a bloody one came about, an omen of much more bloodshed to come. A maverick political leader who preached secularism, Antoine Saade, was brought before the military court for trial on rebellion charges arising from his political activities. He was tried without counsel, convicted and executed by a firing squad, all in less than twenty four hours. More frightening was the ability of President Beshara Khouri to obtain, that same night of the trial, the signature of Lebanon’s most senior judges on a legal document denying parole and authorizing the execution of Saade. Freedom, weakened by the compromise of constitution and political corruption, was in the process of being replaced by ugly repression.

Subsequently, Riad Solh, who, as prime minister, was the other "main father" of independence and shared the glory of Independence Day with Bechara Khouri, was assassinated by followers of Saade as part of several acts of revenge. Mr. Khouri was shortly thereafter forced to resign his office before being able to benefit from a full second term. But the politicians who replaced him were no better. Corruption, rape of the constitution and repression became standard political practice and the rule of law was no more. This is the political school of government that has dominated Lebanon ever since. The presidents, prime ministers, ministers and other leaders who succeeded each other since the regime of President Beshara Khouri, and almost without exception, have all been disciples of that school.

No wonder, then, that no one can, regardless of how hard he looks, find any evidence of independence on Independence Day! The causes are only too obvious; and the conditions that must prevail before the people of Lebanon are able to celebrate another independence day with true freedom and independence are no mystery.