It all started with this video edit, posted by @ayamserious on Instagram. It’s edited so that it looks like Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri is singing Justin Bieber’s “Despacito”.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BWXs9wZBcdl/?taken-by=ayamserious

A couple of hours later, Hariri liked the video on Instagram, and ayamserious posted this:

https://www.instagram.com/p/BWYB8wihJu_/?taken-by=ayamserious

We often forget that some politicians in Lebanon aren’t in their eighties, and that Hariri is younger than some of the other politicians’ time in power over the past 4 decades. I guess he watched it, laughed, and liked it, as most of us would do if someone did a funny video clip, tweet or status about us. I can think of a couple of politicians who might think it’s an international conspiracy targeting their reputation if they saw the same thing.

However, other relatively young politicians can’t take a joke in Lebanon, and following the below status, Fidaa Itani was summoned for investigation, and it seems was withheld for a different, unrelated matter in police custody. Mouthpieces loyal to the FPM, which the FM heads, said that he was released after removing the part that the Lebanese Foreign Minister didn’t like.

Under the new president and government, arrests and arbitrary detention have spiked significantly, with all parties involved denying they are behind it. Despite a memo by the Justice Minister to stop arresting people for freedom of expression cases, the judiciary seems intent on bullying those not in power, at the behest of those who are.

Lebanon, a beacon of free speech and press, is becoming similar to most other Arab countries, where rulers take advantage of their immunity and impunity to punish dissent, and hide behind wanting “accuracy of information” as an excuse to throw people in jail over a tweet or status that their think skin couldn’t handle.

What’s Funny

What’s funny is that the “hip”, “cool”, “moderate” FPM has become increasingly autocratic, with 400+ people being prosecuted in one-go a-la-Egypt style, by a minister who enjoys immunity from prosecution. What’s funnier still, is that the FPM used to call the PM and his party “ISIS” just a few months ago (before agreeing to vote for the current president that is). It’s funny the party with “free” in it has become experts at forcibly silencing dissent, while the people they accused of being ISIS in suits, can take a joke.