Issam Sawaya was elected as Jezzine's Catholic lawmaker in June 2009. Three days later, he gathered Jezzine residents, kins and friends to a reception in his hometown Kfarhounah.

With the attendees gone, Sawaya vanished into thin air. With no single statement having been released or delivered by said lawmaker, Google's search engine gives in.

Sawaya is currently living and working in the United States, occasionally visiting Lebanon whenever patriotic needs arise. His achievements in Jezzine are restricted to aid that fail to compensate for the man's absence.

Sawaya's colleague within the Change and Reform bloc jokes around telling that it would even take MP Michel Aoun w a few seconds to recall the man's face, while the Parliament's security guards would certainly require him to hand identification documents proving that he is truly a lawmaker.

He is an expat-deputy and so his candidature is as much useful as a handbrake on a canoe, albeit he is unlikely to be get another seat at the Parliament's as Aoun has already displayed a penchant to name another candidate for a list depicted as dead wood in the sea of recent turmoil.

The Sawaya case should serve as morale to all parliamentary blocs and decision-makers that must revise the basic regulations that any lawmaker must abide by; the least of which is living in Lebanon.

Last but not least, Issam Sawaya receives a monthly salary from the parliament while his mandate is more like a Houdini-like vanishing act.