The people of Lebanon are breathing more easily after the departure of Mr. Hariri and his team. But it is not easy to deal with the Hariri legacy: blundered public wealth, a public debt in the order of $20 billion, a 52% budget deficit, and a culture of corruption which topped world scales.
This legacy leaves the new Lahoud regime and its first government under Dr. Hoss in an unenviable position. The combined effect of the obligation to service the public debt and the budget deficit is such that of every dollar spent by the government, aside from debt service, 85 cents have to be borrowed!
There is no national income accounting in Lebanon, and hardly any reliable statistics exist. The ever mushrooming public debt continues to consume public wealth and citizens' savings. The official ministry of finance figures under Hariri were often fabricated and mostly misleading. Public spending always exceeded the budget figures. So when they spoke of a $6 billion official budget, extra expenditures in the order of at least $2 billion were kept off the books. When Hariri's crony, former minister of state Saniora, left the finance ministry he made sure that most of its sensitive files disappeared.
Finding a way out of this deep financial crisis will take a lot of knowledge, imagination and guts. Mr. Hariri is waiting in the wings and will not spare any effort to make the near-impossible mission a certain impossibility.
During his six years in power and the more than a decade earlier when he worked hard to be appointed prime minister, Rafik Al Hariri used money as a tool of politics and vice versa. He continues to directly or indirectly control a very influential media empire. Just as an example he owns the Future TV station and is the largest shareholder in the daily An-Nahar, dictating its editorial and news policies. He is widely believed to have illicitly appropriated vast wealth through the power of his office.
If Hariri's illicit wealth from Lebanese sources is indeed in the billions, and in some estimates exceeds $10 billion, he must be brought to accounting. The money should be returned, whether in the form of cash or assets, to the Lebanese treasury in conformity with the law. This will be a welcome first step towards paying back the Hariri-accumulated public debt.
Had Hariri been innocent from wrong-doing, he would have published his accounts, again in conformity with the law.