Lebanon is in the grip of unprecedented
process 1.5 million people that is a
quarter of the population have taken to
the streets over the last five days to
call for political and economic reform
you can see the sheer size of the
protest here in Beirut smarter Square
yesterday on Sunday the protests were
triggered in part by a plan to tax calls
on whatsapp and other messaging services
but have turned into a revolt against a
weak government ailing services and a
looming economic collapse a nationwide
strike is being observed today you can
see how empty the streets are here roads
are blocked too and the cabinet is
meeting reportedly to approve a new set
of measures they hope will satisfy the
protesters it's like your life now a two
favorite just to show you the pictures
there right now you can see people
blocking the roads there have been there
protesters out on the street as well in
force today and in amongst the door was
our correspondent Ronny Rohan who gave
us the latest from there first thing
they wanted was to block any attempt by
the government any further attempt by
the government to raise taxes of the
kind that disproportionately affect poor
people wasn't just the what's up tax but
it was a series of proposals by the
Cabinet that's part of the protests to
begin with and people came out very
angrily against any kind of tax that
disproportionately affect poor people
and any attempt by the government to
solve the very deep structural problems
and the Lebanese economy simply by
extracting more money from the people
after that it developed into something
much bigger developed into a
concentrated attack on the very nature
of the political system and also calls
for the resignation of the government of
the President of the entire Parliament
as well as new elections
lots of demands coming out from the
street not just in Beirut but across the
country and the government right now
under intense pressure government dude
to bring an end to these protests round
me because the president has said I feel
the protesters pain there any policies
they can put in place that would there
have been in the government the
government stepping back from these
taxes is something that would be
sustained if they were to leave the
streets they know that it is intense
pressure that has forced the government
and they also know that if they were to
come off the street it's quite likely
that the government would feel that the
pressure is less now and that can maybe
either resort that was thinking about
earlier reform seriously but there's
also question about what kind of reforms
are needed for example the protesters
may not necessarily agree with the kind
of reforms by the government higher tax
on the profits of the banks is something
definitely that's very popular but other
measures like privatization for example
would probably divide people more than
unite them more the the people on the
streets might not trust the government
itself to carry out any such reforms
given the level of waste and corruption
that everybody knows exists in the end
Lebanese system so it's very difficult
to think what the government might do
today to get people off the street