From 2000 till 2004, Lebanon witnessed the formation of two governments during the era of President Emile Lahoud before the extension of his mandate, chaired by Rafik Hariri, in which Issam Fares assumed the position of the Deputy Premier. The first government was formed in October 2000, and the second in April 2003 and it continued to assume its responsibility till November 2004, and I assumed in it a ministerial portfolio.

From my position as the Minister of State for Administrative Development, I had the chance to monitor, closely, the work of the ministers, and I was astonished by the huge tasks carried out by Deputy Prime Minister Issam Fares, and I discovered his three- dimensional personality: a successful businessman, a man of charity and philanthropy, and a statesman par excellence.

The most important accomplishment realized by Fares is that he transformed the Deputy Premiership from a symbolic position that lacks any legal or practical prerogative, a position that is devoid from any budget or office, into a productive and effective position though a dynamic, multi-disciplinary working group, without burdening the Lebanese State with any cost. That team included both ambassadors Fouad al-Turk and Abdullah Abu Habib, diplomat Fakhri Saghieh, Judge Abdullah Bitar, Engineer Mustafa Hajjar, and Dr. Abdullah Atie who took charge of the economic topics and the developmental projects, and Dr. Manaf Mansour, who wrote a book titled 'Issam Fares and The Ministerial Committees: For the State of a Nation', which I adopted as a reference for my allocution.

Except for errors and omissions, I counted 63 ministerial committee headed by Issam Fares between 2001 and 2004. Fares had only apologized for not chairing one committee tasked with chairing a report on sectarian divisions in the first-category public functions after the Civil Service Council informed him about its inability to provide him with a complete sheet of these functions!

In the details of the productivity of the ministerial committees, I note that 24 of those committees have accomplished their tasks, and the Cabinet approved their recommendations, and that five committees have completed their tasks but remained pending in the drawers of the Council of Ministers. Moreover, 17 committees have continued their work, and 16 others were returned to the relevant ministers. Only one committee, tasked with the establishment of Councils of development and reconstruction in the areas of Baalbek - Hermel, North and Mount Lebanon, has been postponed.

I took part with Fares in 13 ministerial committees which are: the IDAL project, the Municipality of Damur, the amendment of the Expropriation Law, the organization of the Ministry of Youth and Sports, the Consumer Protection Act, the Law on the Protection of National Production, the conditions of the Lebanese University, the size and expenses of the public sector, the acceleration of the judiciary, the Agriculture Ministry report on cooperatives, the amendment of some provisions of the Social Security Act, and the establishment of the pension system and social protection, the modification of work in the combined transportation, the surplus in the departments and public institutions, and the compensations of the workers in the barns of Beirut. I would like to point out at some of the committees chaired by Issam Fares, which I did not take part in and which had constituted hot controversial topics such as the renewal of the two cellular contracts, the waste and sanitary landfills, the settlement of irregularities on the marine property, the reduction of the medical bills, the works of the Council for Development and Reconstruction, and others.

Issam Fares made sure that the ministerial committees he chaired be formed by ministers representing all parties involved in the governments such as Elias el-Murr, Jean-Louis Qordahi, and Karim Pakradouni representing President Emile Lahoud, Ali Hassan Khalil, Michel Moussa, and Mohammad Abdel-Hamid Beydoun representing Speaker Nabih Berri, Bahij Tabbara, Fouad Seniora, and Samir el-Jisr representing Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, and Marwan Hamadeh, Ghazi el-Aridi, Wael Abu Faour, and Fouad Saad representing Walid Jumblat. Issam Fares insisted on the formation of the ministerial committees on this pattern in order to ensure the Cabinet's productivity.

Fares renewed, unabated, his call to hold the ministerial committee meetings until a consensus is reached on the debated topics on the basis that unanimity enhances the Cabinet's productivity. He was all ears to all opinions but devoted particular attention to the legal notes given by Bahij Tabbara, discussing in detail the data and figures presented by Fouad Seniora, meeting in most cases with the ideas of Marwan Hamadeh, dealing deliberately with Ali Hassan Khalil, and patiently listening to the arguments of Ghazi el-Aridi.

What surprised me most in working with Issam Fares is that he was neither traditional nor conservative in approaching things as it seems to many, but he was rational and reformist. He did not view the national consensus as a process of compromise between influential people sharing interests and benefits, but rather viewed it as a commitment to law, science, and balanced development. He called for the abolition of sectarianism and for the establishment of a political system on the basis of the non-sectarian parties that includes parts representing all sects and regions, appealing for the enacting of a new law for the parties to that effect.

In order to secure a better productivity of the governance and governments, he called for the separation between parliamentary and the ministerial portfolios and for the development of the rules of procedure of the Council of Ministers and their re-enacting in a new law, for the introduction of radical financial and economic reforms, fighting corruption and squandering, applying administrative decentralization, strengthening supervisory boards, and applying the policy of privatization provided it be preceded with sweeping reforms of the State facilities. Fares also bear in mind the involvement of women and young people in public life‏.

It is to say that, in order to improve the productivity of governments, it would be useful to act according to the experience of Issam Fares that should be institutionalized, so that the position of Deputy Prime Minister would not be confined to the person who occupies this position.

Issam Fares participated for the last time in the government that was formed after the extension of President Lahoud's term in November 2004 under the chairmanship of Omar Karami's government which resigned on February 28, 2005, in the wake of the assassination of Rafik Hariri. On May 9, 2005, he announced his decision not to run for the parliamentary elections and went out of the country, leaving behind him a successful experience, as well as scores of achievements, institutes, centers, and libraries, among which we cite as an example the Issam Fares Institute for Technology and the Issam Fares Center for Lebanon.

Fares' political aversion constituted a shock to anyone who knew him and a loss to the nation and citizens. He is an example to follow for all his contemporaries. He is one of God's gifts for Lebanon.