Is this a Republic, and is it Lebanese? Is the current scene a historical inevitability? Believe it or not, the Republic of Lebanon was never, throughout the eras, governments, and trusteeships, a futile republic. This might be the prevailing impression today in light of the current situation we have reached.

But the truth is different: In the midst of the Lebanese prevailing unabated divisions, and in light of the unceasing interactions, and in the peak of the continuous pressure, a man created an island of hard work and decision which he isolated around himself and around us. He lighted up the darkness of conflicts and drilled for himself and for us gaps in the estrangement that is prevailing among the presidencies, as if he were getting out of the then-prevalent Troika system a piece of true pluralism in an oasis of true democracy.

This man is Issam Fares. The oasis is the Sofil Office. The time is the mandate of President Emile Lahoud, and the frame is Rafic Hariri's governments. Dear friends, imagine the theater, remember the actors, watch the audience, and follow the scene: the political situation remains tense but pacific, and the economic jurisprudence economic is at its vehemence, but nevertheless not collapsing.

This is how my story started with the Deputy Prime Minister Issam Fares, I the Minister who witnessed many political eras and held multiple portfolios since the early 80s, I who am politically-colored, belonging to parliaments, allied to the regions, the rebel and the peaceful within governments that were marked by heated controversies and attractions in attitudes and opinions.

Nevertheless, I discovered after the eruption of a civil war with its internal and external chapters, and after the conclusion of agreements and pacts that closed the ranks without unifying them, and laid the foundations of reforming without realizing it, that few were the man who, from a position of responsibility, are able to carry out, manage, and program a foundational work in various fields, without imposing on their work the quota philosophy, the character of revenge, and the spirit of hatred and maliciousness.

Thus, over the years, since the year 2000, the liberation year from the Israeli occupation till 2005, when Lebanon got rid of the Syrian tutelage under the era of then-President Emile Lahoud, the governments of Prime Minister Rafic Hariri overcame the political regional tornadoes and the internal storms thanks to a unique innovation created by Issam Fares, that is the relevant ministerial committees, to which he devoted particular attention and which he competently managed, infusing the spirit of amiability, wisdom, and objectivity, and which Hala Issam Fares overshadowed with her refined taste and her familial tenderness.

Out of a sudden, the controversy that used to erupt within the Cabinet took a quiet and constructive path, as if the rhythm of the tense Lebanese Symphonic Orchestra has become courteous, its performance improved, and its music rose with the Chef of the Orchestra and the band who were given the most difficult pieces of music and the most precise roles to play.

Issam Fares, I met him within and outside the governments. We were reunited in family atmospheres before the fate took us to other reunions.

But I realized the person and realized the personality during those long hours we spent at Sofil, energetically devoted with our colleagues from different affiliations, in one hand, on the most fateful and controversial files. The secret behind this is the methodology of work, the relying on accurate figures, the permanent resorting to the law, the continuous hearing of the experts, and the endeavor to rise from public service to a real service of the public. Irrespective of the circumstances, the objective remains to revive the credibility of the state and to consolidate the institutional mentality, as it is clearly illustrated in the reference book authored by our friend Manaf Mansour, the glorious moments of which we cannot re-experience without the presence of Abu Michel (Issam Fares) among us.

Dear friends, since 1980, I have been holding various ministerial portfolios, and since 1980, I have successively joined a number of ministerial committees that were been dubbed 'the cemetery of projects'. As for the committees of the beginning of the Third Millennium, they 'reincarnated' the projects that were 'agonizing', when the controversy was heated, mainly between Presidents Lahoud and Hariri, before we were entrusted to come out with the appropriate solution.

The solution with Issam Fares was not simply a mere Lebanese-made solution. Indeed, the man was not complicated by the indistinctiveness of the prerogatives which he even deepened in practice. He was not frightened by the Serail's closed doors and rather made of his third floor at his Sofil office another Serail and an exceptional cell work. In our capacity as ministers and members of the committees tasked with studying the files and developing solutions, we used to meet there more than paying visits to Baabda or the governmental palace.

The cordial atmosphere was extremely favorable, and the office logistics were available- from the remarkable expert to the competent typewriter- to the family catering of Brumana's kitchens, with the sponsorship of our beloved Hala who helped her husband link between his morning business and evening business by providing comfort to the various ministerial committees he was running, one after the other, twice or three times a day.

Indeed, discussions were never subject to a tedious debate, and the results never bargained with righteousness.

From Jean-Louis Cordahi and Aasem Qanso, to Fares Boueiz and Ghazi el-Aridi, from Bahij Tabbara and Foaud el-Saad to Najib Miqati in the Ministry of Works and Fouad Seniora in the Ministry of Finance, to Marwan Hmadeh in the Ministry of Economy, to Mohammad Abdel Hamid Baydoun, and Basel Fleihan, and George Ephram- May their souls rest in peace- to the Governor of the Bank of Lebanon, and the head of the Civil Service Council, and the President of the Council for Development and Reconstruction and many others, no one was absent from Sofil, the unfaltering epic and the state's myth like we always dreamt of.

As for the files, they tackled all topics of security, foreign ministry, justice, finance, environment, works, transport, health, social affairs, administrative development, communications, and culture. They varied among financial reforming and legal reconciliations, and the arbitration decisions affected all structures, from the airport to the slaughterhouse, to the master plans, to the solid waste, and the establishment and operation of refineries as well.

All files were under debate, as if the state diverted all its affairs to the man who unifies not separates, who studies not postpones, who gives time not neglects. Was Issam Fares holding a magic wand? Of course, not! If he weren't an astrologer, he wasn't also a beginner. A political, economic, and humanitarian culture that is deep-rooted in a rich personal experience that is coupled with a permanent quest to mobilize and motivate the others' experience: a listener, an intervener, and an initiator. Yes, an initiator!

That's why the occasion calls me to repel a myth that has also came to some minds, the myth of enmity or stardom competition between Rafic Hariri and Issam Fares. Of course, I do not pretend a total correlation between the Premier who was martyred in the midst of his giving, and the Deputy Premier who is absent forcibly, also in the midst of his giving. However, I affirm that a correlation was organizing the chemistry between those two distinguished men in their national and humanitarian philanthropy. We were relieved with the formation of every committee and with the launching and activation of each mini-cabinet committee that represents the constituents of the Cabinet at a time when the Council of Ministers and the Ministers themselves were meaningful and the positions were important.

Rafic Hariri died in martyr, and will never come back. May his soul rest in peace!

As for Issam Fares, the decision is his. If we acknowledge that the scene is desperate and the souls are miserable, this would be an additional national and humanitarian reason for Abu Michel and the absent national leaders to return to Lebanon.