Miqati: Not Everyone Preaching Reform is Necessarily a Reformist

Prime Minister Najib Miqati on Tuesday hit back at Change and Reform bloc chief MP Michel Aoun, without naming him, saying “not everyone preaching reform is necessarily a reformist!”

“People have the ability to differentiate between those seeking to put the country’s interest above all else and those continuously seeking to build personal loyalties,” Miqati said on the social networking website Twitter.

He stressed that accountability should be “according to (legal) norms and not for the sake of revenge.”

Earlier on Tuesday, Aoun slammed the government’s performance, saying it might collapse “if it continued down this path.”

Aoun has repeatedly accused Miqati of turning a blind eye to alleged violations by high-ranking state employees loyal to ex-PM Saad Hariri’s Mustaqbal Movement.

“True reform happens through actions, not rhetoric and slogans, as structural reforms begin first with changing the mentality, and then through modernizing laws and legislations,” Miqati tweeted in Arabic.

The premier reiterated that he believes in political centrism “as an approach and a practice.”

“I am ready, with the silent majority of the Lebanese, to put an end to the policies of corruption, distribution of shares, nepotism and lack of accountability, inside and outside state institutions,” Miqati added.

“After accomplishing the integrated, structural raft of reforms, and achieving accountability, let us see who will remain in the arena,” the premier challenged.