The un-dismissible interior minister governs autocratically and executes the orders of his Syrian godfather.

One could easily compare Michel Murr with Driss Basri, the despotic former Moroccan interior minister. Or even to Fouché, Napoleon's terrible Minister of Police. The Lebanese deputy prime minister, interior minister, and minister of municipal and rural Affairs (as well as member of parliament) is a fearful man, if one is to believe his adversaries. And they are numerous. His own brother, Gabriel, describes him as "a real dictator, a careerist, a liar, a schemer." "A man fearing neither god nor man" asserts a former Minister. During his six years in power, Murr has generated tremendous antipathy. "I wish we could ask the Lebanese people in a referendum, and we would see that nobody likes Michel Murr--not even his supporters, who first and foremost are afraid of him" assures deputy Rasheed el-Khazen.

A docile executive

Michel Murr has achieved revenge for a political past overshadowed by other Maronite leaders, like Pierre Gemayel, during the 1960's and the 1970's. Today, he is the strong man of the regime. During his ascension to power, he was never afraid of turning his coat with the wind. "Anti-Syrian in the beginning of the war, vigorously pro-Syrian under the Pax Syriana, he is a docile executor of the orders from Damascus," his brother says. Murr has rusted the state machinery, imposing his security agents in key offices in the administration and the judiciary. In addition to posting his man in the presidency of the State Council, he also changed the legal base required for its function. As Minister of the Interior, he controls the majority of security agencies (including the gendarmerie) whose interference in the electoral process is strongly denounced. He is still in charge of administrating the elections, despite numerous calls for his resignation following the 1996 elections, which were tainted with accusations of fraud.

The coming to power of Emile Lahoud as president in 1998 further strengthened Murr's power base. Murr and Lahoud are both heavily supported by Syria. The two men are also connected by family ties--the President' daughter is married to Murr's son, Elias. Hardly installed in power, the new president declared war on corruption. The 'change' swept most of the political class, including Rafiq Hariri, the billionaire ex-Prime Minister, and a thorn in the eye of the president. But Murr stayed in business. Even better, the head of state gave him both his trust and expanded his political power. The Prime Minister, Salim al-Hoss, who counts himself as one of Murr's adversaries, had to tolerate him in his government. The executive leader according to the Constitution was no longer in charge. "It is not the cabinet or the head of state which governs, but the almighty Michel Murr. The big boss to whom President Lahoud subcontracted the country," says Druze leader Walid Jumblatt.

Common enemy

For Emile Lahoud, Murr is indispensable. He possesses the official secrets of the controversial Hariri period, in which Murr was an independent actor for four years. In particular, Lahoud uses him as a counterweight to the other strong man of the regime, Jamil Sayyed, the head of the General Security Department, one of the most powerful security services. Sayyed has teamed up with Gen. Ghazi Kanaan, the head of Syrian [military] intelligence in the Lebanon, and both of them are said to not always bother reporting to the president.

Finally, Emile Lahoud and Murr have a common target: the deputy and opposition leader, Nassib Lahoud, himself a remote cousin of the president. He is one of the few democrats found in Lebanon after the war. A man to be brought down. On Sunday, in the first phase of the legislative elections, one of the fellow candidates of the super-minister was none other than the son of the president, Emile Jr., who competed with Nassib Lahoud for one of the Maronite seats in Metn--the "Christian heartland." Murr did everything to oust Nassib Lahoud from the game. The minister likes to scornfully repeat: "He suffers from a complex, of which I am the cause. I recommend therapy."

Blackmail and Intimidation

His brother Gabriel, who directs the private Murr TV station, recounts that following the airing of an interview with Nassib Lahoud, Michel swore to close down the TV channel. Along the same line, Michel Murr threated to order an inquiry when Nassib Lahoud presented the Prime Minister with a list army officers and policemen working for the minister's election campaign. Powerless, Hoss has had to stay clear his interior minister. During the campaign, Murr launched a merciless electoral machine, steered by his son Elias, against his opponents. "All state resources were taken advantage of, from data banks to civil servants," denounces Gabriel, who followed his 1996 campaign. Nassib Lahoud accuses him of tapping his telephone line, as well as the ones of his partisans.

Murr also takes advantage of his control over the Ministry of Municipal and Rural Affairs and its funds in order to control the civil servants who have become the launching pads for his electoral campaign. He pressures voters by conditioning public services on the return of votes for him. And he does not hesitate to use threats. In 1998, in his village of Bteghrine, "nobody dared to run as a candidate in the municipal elections against his daughter, Mirna. Some people even received death threats," confirms one of his former supporters.

Once again, Michel Murr described the legislative elections as "free and democratic." Decorating his immense portraits, his election slogan proclaims that he is "a man of decisions." Without illusions his adversaries ironically state: "He is docile compared to the only decision-maker: Damascus."