The following are excerpts from a speech by former Lebanese Prime Minister Salim Al-Hoss, which aired on New TV on May 23, 2005

Hoss: Even the jungle has laws, but politics in this country are a lawless jungle.

When will the good and free people revolt against those who manipulate the people's destiny, against the control of political capital over decision-making, and of political feudalism over their will? When will we be free of this slavery? Since the elections Beirut the capital seem predetermined in favor of an artificial, even odd, list, whose members have no common denominator, I have only one option: to refrain from participating in pointless elections. I am not convinced of the legality of elections that do not express the people's free will, and that are decided by a torrent of emotionalism, ethnic elements, and political capital. "Political capital" is a euphemism for bribery.