you don't know the case agreed. to do many times it's fun having. made he his son goes head to head we've done visa maria. back on al-jazeera. struggling with a failing economy inadequate public services and the metal some attention of two rival regional power has many lebanese hopes recent elections might provoke reforms to help solve their problems but in a country where power is apportioned along sectarian under nasty. little ever seems to disturb the status quo we went to find out why.

in may twenty eight hundred eleven and went to the polls it was the first parliamentary election in nine years and there was one question on many observers minds was it to be politics as usual or would growing concern over the country's myriad problems affect the outcome. there was that at least a hint of change in the the first time a grassroots movement known as the civil society coalition was fielding hundred hits against lebanon's long established sectarian parties. on the other you see you see his view of the middle. on this and not explore the idea. but apathy was the biggest winner but it has turned out it was less than fifty percent despite general discussed way

of aspiring unemployment and faltering basic services it seemed few lebanese believed the route to solutions mais through the ballot box. other than board because the from launching the sham you will be of course will be lending our assumption was that people were fed up after nine years of having the same parliament people would go and call it seems that this was not the case are we at the point where people both give anymore in the all to miles of an election that promise much but to live at least two to the six million citizens we've been to investigate why lebanon's distinctive political setup appears so dysfunctional and resistant to change. in twenty fifteen lebanon's capshaw beirut the first of several demonstrations against huge mounds of uncollected garbage that were piling up in the city. soon

the rallies were attracting over one hundred thousand people as fury grew over the state's fadia the authorities squashed the protests in doing so a movement that would later attempt to challenge the country's unique political system. as the most religiously diverse country in the middle east lebanon has tried to prevent any one group from dominating by setting up a parliamentary system known as confessional ism in which each of the main sects holds a position in government a president must be maronite christian the prime minister's sunni muslim and the speaker of parliament shiite muslim. nouri hightail and was a candidate for civil society in the elections but being born armenian orthodox she could only stand against others of that section had district this is what we are

trying to fight that this is not sustainable the vision you are dividing people according to their religion or to their sect and this is the only identity you are enforcing while they should visit this is on its function with the same rights and responsibilities. lauri's district of fear is one of the roots christian heartlands still influenced by the legacy of the she dismay and leader of the right twinky to a party during lebanon's fifteen year civil war which ended in one thousand nine hundred ninety. she was president elect for three weeks before he was assassinated in one thousand nine hundred eighty two. the. power being passed from father to son is a common feature in lebanon stein mastic politics although he was only four months old when his father was killed nadeem is a prominent member of the kids at a party. over.

their families which i think. you can call it inheritance you can call it the easy way to do things but what i believe is that i believe in the same cause of the moment i have the same values and ethics of doing politics. christian are part of the. people of lebanon and of course we cannot live in lebanon if we don't get into them the freedom and the security. was the defender of the question during the civil war when we were doing our election campaign in the spa region people would say that as shafi a without the. white male has popularity here and they see him as the continuation of that political ideology. they speed between all the communities between the sunnis and the street between

the christian and the muslim street between. all of this is based on the fact that no one trusts the community the system guarantees government posts to all the main policies but it can also mean politicians are placed on accountable and free to dispense patronage as they like. over citizens were mistaken by voting to some people just because they offer services or money i believe that the confessional system in lebanon has. destroyed. by were. under confessional ism if the government call into a way to provide state welfare citizens are forced to turn to the sectarian leaders for help it's how lebanon has run for generations. today these people are all awaiting an audience with say more lot one of the main candy of lebanon streets community it's

a family tradition usually we always open the house chooses to receive. either for financial assistance or jobs and sister don't have a stable government to provide jobs this is working to. these people have come in for financial help to cover medical bills and support with that children situation fees and. jobs. the troops are an offshoot. they may have. five percent of the population but some fighting hard for this say they are still a force in. his role as leader of the main druze policy from his father he is unexpectedly candid about why i don't want to be in politics but i have to show it to my father and to my family history which have been basically working in politics for more than four hundred years the family business we don't want to exist at some point so we all were always fighting to stay in

power it's almost like if someone in the community and we always come back to us for help or for assistance unfortunately another one hundred and go to the other camp to. come to us for help he always comes back to his roots. basically every political party is responsible for his own people the system of the country is built even myself and my father we're all accountable but nobody is going to. against anyone not trying on a confessional ticket getting into parliament one of the few who managed it is billionaire. he's convinced the confessional system has done the country more harm than good. that has more equality in this country politics economists think social

conditions think. of sectarianism forcing people to go forward. to even get the basic rights that combination force people to go for. the state as one of the richest men in lebanon could fund his campaign and ways groups like the civil society. the people that they had the cause like the civil society that they really believed that they had a message to send out they couldn't even get it out unfortunately here it's not anymore the causes that you are fighting for political program is for police politicians and they were mostly for lease you don't buy the too expensive that ruling class did not want somebody to come in unless you can afford it in my case i can't afford it. during elections politicians often use like who political agents named as election these are individuals who mediate on behalf of candidates to

secure very. sophina hass was wonderful at mass to me selection he reveals just how the system works some people used to give money and as you know most of the people are in need of money because of the present political situation and start from one hundred dollars per person to fifteen hundred per person to give his . people in poor state they came to us asking for money but we told them this is against the law on the other hand if you cannot pay for their rent we can support you. but the most important thing. is. we were very very very busy. to feed told us he'd mash over a thousand people for help. foundation claims to have been supporting families long

before the elections including running soup kitchens but his sure it didn't hurt his candidacy equally many voters are just as willing to take advantage. of a policy will help the. military. police and. critics say lebanon's distinctive constitution inevitably lends itself to abuse and is the main reason why the country is often cited as one of the most corrupt in the middle east it's almost always been the politicians but. it takes time i mean. this is a much wealdstone show here opiates for the select few who are able to make the

political system what to their advantage these impressive new skyscrapers are a good example a staggering eighty percent of lebanon is cursed has been privatized but activists say much of this development is illegal civil society campaign and. takes us on a trip to explain why. one of the most controversial developments is this resort recently despite several legal rulings against it.

so. the result is just one of many enterprises spreading along the coast. home with. ma ma government. tells us that to add insult to injury the resort some restaurants routinely pump their waste into the sea. the like can walk. along. a kid and live. as the twenty fifth. problem with waste management is not. corruption and greed which he has responsibility. here on the

shoreline it's fishermen like now who are most affected he tells us he now struggles to earn a living from these contaminated. take us to a stretch of seems there's almost as much plastic. the ladykillers really act along behind. him perhaps by the nose and well you. know your.

little. know how did you not to vomit real. it would be so. inevitably is boiling over. to send a message to the government the fishermen hold a protest at one of the new coastal landfill sites. these were the government's response to the rubbish prices but the fishing community says that toxins leaking into the sea and now poisoning the router. that is the one who got it ok so your book that when you look at. the lights you go deep. into maybe you guys are moving. as it is he's the literal. you know you have to be old the police try to limit the protest come out of the you know what i mean. but the presence of the civil society candidate to win

a seat in the recent elections and the any politician tarion to turn up gives them posts today they're asking for their rights to fish at least but instead of fishing all day getting his garbage from this. is really about i'm thinking. about the outcome of the majority here hell yeah when i'm in the morning on the sole demand on something there then you're in a hospital again marching. but no no one is responsible this is one of them and the government on the same table and then when we go into the other he's responsible not me i would name every minister in this government and our name the president because they run the country. yet the question of who actually runs the country is a can to dispute and subject to geo politics lebanon's position between more powerful neighbors has always made it fun to outside influences. you have israel

on the once you have syria with a civil war you have. fighting proxy wars all over the middle east. and north of iraq also fighting because you have the u.s. and russia fretting for a piece of the parcel it's a miracle but just. today the dominant external players in the country are iran supports the shia muslim party hezbollah and its allies and saudi arabia which supports most sudanese and search in christian policies against hezbollah. things came to a head in news them by twenty seventeen when prime minister. was visiting saudi arabia and to the shock of his fellow citizens suddenly appeared on t.v. to make a statement for. the year. or she had. or doing. wrong left.

femur. what the one hundred many in lebanon believe that was how the hostage by his saudi patrons and forced to resign because he was losing ground to hezbollah after international pressure heavy returned home and said he wasn't giving up office off the rule but he has yet to explain exactly what took place and we both know what happened to the president and now is that our prime minister was a person in saudi arabia then the prime minister came back after a month he said ok i'm not resigning anymore and business as usual. what's that. this is this. it's not normally the people who are in charge of the country i'm not in charge of them and they are protecting iran or saudi arabia by

sitting in the parliament with a stick that they are supposed to let you. distort the politics we tried repeatedly to get an interview with the prime minister for this film but our requests were declined his opponents to have their patrons and the leader of the hezbollah party say it. does not surely away from his reliance on iran not. much more. media fear. flows. hezbollah and its allies including the president michel long's party were the biggest winners in the recent elections we tried to speak with hezbollah as leader ship but we're told that they too were not giving interviews even filming from a car in

a hezbollah controlled area is problematic security is tight and outsiders are quickly spotted you know you never leave. your house i thought i was a. house member. now the man there are. some of us right now because michael doesn't palestine. and to israel is one of hezbollah's defining characteristics polish he did agree to show us the museum. close to the border with israel built on a former battleground the place is a showpiece of hezbollah's resistance to his radio tax. we are hearing sort of bunker. used by fighters or for this during the war in one thousand nine hundred ninety s. .

the first. iranian funs we're told gave hezbollah the means to fight israel more effectively than the last equipped lebanese army it's why for years now proposals that hezbollah's paramilitary wing should give up its weapons have devalued both the government and public opinion for its supporters hezbollah is seen primarily as a resistance movement and. why don't. more but the existence of a separate armed force under one political party worries many in lebanon if hizbollah has missiles that can defend lebanon was to stay with his blog why not transfer these arms into the lebanese army she said my life is handing over office today and leaving the political world where he has served for the last nine years

as a parliamentarian for the lebanese forces. a right wing christian party which gained in the elections the aspirations of the. shi'ite from iran to iraq to syria to lebanon is obvious. to the democratic system in the economy of this country this country cannot sustain if hezbollah maintains what they're doing they've had their impact. on the economy of lebanon and the proper governance of the system. i don't feel personally threatened by possible that's for sure but i know that my country is threatened by their presence and surprisingly hezbollah refutes such claims. well i mean. i don't know how him can live tisha and the doctors will love iran.

a lot of the want. in the absence of effective states well for hezbollah like most other political parties office services to its supporters including providing food for the poor. nothing much harder. the problem is that it was like. over if. not i'm on the ballot not a mafia one fifty i now sadly i've got going for a lot. of banks to defer i don't think. anybody in lebanon with all due respect the lebanese experts that work in the middle east in general in the gulf in particular. the economy the local economy six billion dollars

a year on this i don't know what contribution to my economy iran has done. given hezbollah's recent election successes it's made look like iran is winning the proxy war against saudi arabia. yet the history of lebanon is all about no one side ever becoming dominant and situation where we are living it's always going to be this balance between these different agenda because whenever one other you have civil war but maintaining this delicate take with librium through lebanon's confession the system has long been seen here is both a blessing and curse it's about identity it's always been about of them to love them i mean you still have to live just communities you don't have one living on you have left in the battles you don't have one for the future you have nineteen of them while the power sharing that somebody age in the current constitution might

have kept these different visions of life or at least prevented lebanon from returning to the dark days of sectarian conflict its critics say it's also led to stagnation clanton ism and corruption at the hands of an entrenched elite the government is stuck in gridlock the economy struggles and mismanaged public services failed to deliver few places to put somalis the stagnation better than the country's once proud railway system which used to connect three continents lebanon . rains stopped running during the civil war more than forty years ago and to party squabbles over responsibility and budgets have stopped them moving ever since although media christly this rusting that is still officially in receipt of public funds in reality it's now just a relic of better times a victim like so much in lebanon of the system that doesn't this will more than keep rivals apart a political dynasty is in place. to

train and equip the opposition in syria so they can help push back these terrorists people in power investigates how the us supplies soviet style weapons to its allies through private company spend the us government could wash their hands and say well we didn't know where it was caught so weapon that was supplied by the us government may well end off being pointed at us soldiers yes absolutely we pick it up less than two months off in the professional america's guns secret pipeline to syria on al-jazeera. we understand the differences. and the similarities of cultures across the world so no matter how you take it al-jazeera will bring you the news and current affairs that matter to

you al-jazeera. i'm sammy's a down in dark hole with a look at the headlines here in al-jazeera now venezuela's president nicolas maduro has survived what he's calling an attempted assassination while speaking at a military parade the incident was caught on state television showing the duty of being whisked away to safety just a few hours later the accusations began mike hanna reports this is a live broadcast of the ceremony on national television the camera begins to shake and president maduro looks into the air alongside his wife still year flinches as explosion sound before the feed is cut soldiers who had been on parade all seen the in panic number reported to be injured.