Kamal Joumblat

Kamal Joumblatt

Kamal Joumblat was born in Moukhtara-Lebanon in 1917 in a leading druze family that produced the most renowned Arab leaders through out the history of Mount Lebanon. He was still a young boy when his father Fouad, Caimmacam (or the ruler) of Chouf region, was assassinated in 1931. Kamal and his sister Linda were raised under the watchful eyes of their mother Nazira, who was famous for her wisdom and strong personality. The mother played an important political role after the death of her husband.

 Kamal finished his elementary and high school studies in Lazarus Fathers Institute in Aintoura. He loved studying science and arts and was fascinated by philosophy. Moreover, he had unique personality traits, which showed the high moral and humanistic values implanted in him. A story says at that time he secretly took charge of paying the expenses for the education of some poor students in his school from the money that his mother used to send him and without her knowledge! On the other hand, he did not show any real interest in politics. That was clear from the direction of study he took when he started in Sorbonne in France in 1939. He got involved in research and study of sociology, civil education and psychology instead of law as his mother expected! After the start of WWII he had to cut short his study in France and return to Lebanon. Then his mother had to ask the help of a family friend to convince Kamal to go back to studying law. Finally, he had to comply with her wish and finished his law degree in Saint Joseph University.

 The year 1943 marked the beginning of his involvement in politics. His cousin died and he was forced to replace him in the elections. He won and became the deputy of Mount Lebanon. Shortly after, he took charge of the ministry of Economy & Agriculture and then Interior Affairs.

    Kamal Joumblat was against the existing political system, which was based on religious and sectarian affiliation or confessionalism. The power and positions in the government were distributed on a sectarian basis instead of qualification and national democratic representation. Moreover, the administration was corrupted where employees get rich in illegal ways. In the parliament Kamal Joumblat pushed for a law that would stop the illicit enrichment by taking investigations against any suspected employee.  He set to fight robbery and misuse of authority in the public offices. On the other hand, Joumblat set projects to help rural and poor regions in the country by building schools and necessary infrastructures. He was known to come to his office in the ministry with no guards and securities and would not hesitate personally to meet citizens having problems or need. This behavior from a minister or big political figure was not known before in Lebanese history.

   Believing that one person alone could not correct the corrupted Lebanese system, Kamal Joumblat set to establish a party that organized the work of people to achieve national goals like liberty and social justice and bring to power qualified men and elite. Together with other educators and politicians the Progressive Socialist Party - PSP was established on May 1, 1949, International Labor day.  By declaring the PSP charter on Labor Day, The Founders emphasized that PSP was a party established to serve the workers and to build a true democracy in a society living in freedom, peace and human rights. In the name of PSP, the Arab Socialist Parties were called for the 1st convention that was held in Beirut in May 1951. During that time Joumblat was already married and had his only son Walid.

 The PSP party started to have support from citizens in different parts of Lebanon. It had a major role in the Lebanese political life to lead in the resistance and struggle against misuse of the authority, which was manifested in the falsification of votes of the national elections as happened in 1947 & 1952. PSP led other parties in the movement known "white revolution". The movement was aimed against Bechara El Khoury the Lebanese president at the time, as leading corruption and tolerating misuse of governmental power. This pushed to his resignation in 1952 and coming of new president Camille Chamoun.

 At that time, Lebanon was sensitive to political movements taking place in the neighboring countries and in the region. However, The new president tried to connect Lebanon with Foreign coalitions that were aimed to attack the newly Arab liberal movements that were rising up like Jamal Abdel Nasser's. Joumblat led a fierce struggle against the new president's policy, which grew up in 1958 to be an armed revolution and which ended with resignation of Camille Chamoun and coming of a new president Fouad Shehab.

With same spirit of revolution against all special privileges that small minorities had in the Lebanese political system like the Maronites, he led "National Struggle Front" in the national elections in 1960 and won 11 seats in the parliament. Kamal Joumblat had an active role in all governments after that as well as in the parliament and took charge of many ministries like National Education, Work & Planning, Interior Affairs. Meanwhile, the Palestinian issue started to take a part in the Lebanese life with thousands of refugees settled in Lebanon. He supported the National Palestinian cause and backed - up its struggle. He regarded it as a main national issue where its solution starts by giving the right for all refugees of going back to their home country.

 The involvement in Lebanese politics was not the main concern of Kamal Joumblat. He mentioned several times that after 7 pm and till 9 am of the next day he rarely talked politics. Instead he got into his favorite study and research in science, literature, poetry and philosophy. He was interested in Indian philosophy and did several trips to India where he used to meet philosophers and Guru. He left many books describing his spiritual experiences as well as books on medicine, poetry, politics and literature. In addition, he published over a thousand of editorials in both Arabic and French in addition to a daily opening article in the "Al Anbaa" newspaper, which he founded. 

 In 1972, he was awarded "Lenin's Peace Decoration" from the former Soviet Union. At that time, PSP with other Lebanese parties formed a coalition known as The Lebanese National Movement. It aimed to unite the social forces in order to correct and reform the Lebanese political and economical system through a program prepared by Kamal Joumblat. However, the exterior intervention had a role to plot a conspiracy against Lebanon and start the bloody civil war in 1975. For this war to continue for over than 15 years it had to remove a man like Kamal Joumblat. The assassination was prepared on March 16, 1977, while he was going to Beirut in a village called Deir Doureet on Mount Lebanon.