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Not to sound like a rabid Hariri fan, because I'm not, but the man, though accused of cronyism and corruption, actually did something for Lebanon, which is MUCH more than can be said for any politician currently in Lebanon. Granted, our standards for judging politicians have dramatically decreased when we have to defend corrupt politicians, but at the same time, I can't help but cringe when I think about Lebanon's potential state of affairs had Hariri not stepped in and taken charge.
Yes, the man "doubled" the debt (actually it's more than that but anyway), but you have to place this in context and understand why he did so. Lebanon was just recovering from 17 years of "civil" war (I use that term loosely since it was more of a free for anyone to settle his debts on Lebanese soil type of war) and the country was completely destroyed and ravaged. The economic situation was dire, amongst so many other things. Infrastructure needed to be rebuilt from scratch, the services sector, which constitutes 75% of the Lebanese economy, was non-existant, investor confidence had to be restored and so on and so forth. He basically decided to apply trickle-down-effect economics, where the government would borrow heavily in order to rebuild the country, especially the essential infrastructure of the country, in the hopes of creating jobs domestically and attracting foreign investment from outside. Furthermore, Hariri was an extrememly influential businessman, who had very powerful friends whom he convinced to invest in Lebanon, specifically Beirut, which he proceeded to rebuild from scratch.
The effect of all of this borrowing and re-construction resulted in the desired effects when we examine areas of the economy such as the banking sector and the tourism industry, not to mention the results on the ground (see Beirut downtown). Never has there been more liquidity in Lebanese banks in the past 20 years, largely due to the fact that Hariri, with Saudi connections, was able to attract rich Arab businessmen from the Gulf to invest in our economy. The tourism industry was booming over the last two years, again mainly because people from the Gulf were coming in droves (September 11th also played a role). According to the Ministry of Tourism, over 1.2 million tourists visited Lebanon over the past year, an increase of over 30% from the previous one, and a 50% increase from the year previous to that. And then of course, with regards to the spiralling debt, he managed to sign the Paris 2 deal which gave the government over 3 billion $ to play with once France and some Gulf countries agreed to participate in the reconstruction effort.
But most importantly in my opinion, he was someone that represented Lebanese interests rather well around the world, and had great drawing power both on a political and business front. His presence will be missed, as he always gave a similee of stability to an otherwise chaotic Lebanese situation.
So all in all, his record is indeed a mixed bag, but at least there is a substancial positive side to his legacy, which is MUCH more than anyone can say about any other Lebanese politician currently running the government. So in that sense, I completely disagree with people attempting to lump him into the "Atrocious Middle Eastern Politician Clan" - see 1 down, countless more to go. In fact, he is one of the very few Arab politicians I would not have lynched or at least shot at very close range, had I had the opportunity to do so.
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