BEIRUT: With 17 weeks having past since President Michel Suleiman issued the call for a government to be formed by Prime Minister-designate Najib Mikati, four out of 10 Lebanese citizens polled by the Daily Star said they had lost hope that Mikati would be able to come up with a Cabinet lineup that would win approval in the politically fragmented country.

In a Daily Star online survey of 200 people, 39 percent – the largest group of respondents, said they thought a new government would “never” be formed. This negative view stood in sharp contrast to the 23 percent who expected a new cabinet to see the light of day within a month. Thirty-two percent believed it would take 3 months for a government to be born.

Besides the stark disappointment speaking through the numbers, the survey also was flooded with comments of outrage at the political class’s “selfish” behavior.

“Enough is enough. Stop being selfish and do what is best for the country. You’re making Lebanon a laughing stock in the eyes of the world. Please unite because unity is force,” wrote one participant.

Some respondents went further and clad their disappointment over the long wait for a new government in sharp sarcasm and a hint at who they thought is at fault in the delayed government formation

One person said the government would be formed “whenever we get permission from our beloved friends in the area.”

The Cabinet will be formed “as the Syrian situation settles,” wrote a reader. Another said: “When the Baath party falls.”

Political analysts and opinion writers in Beirut also expressed suspicions of foreign influences as being behind the systemic failure of the Lebanese political process – and the pundits don’t seem to be holding out much optimism either.

“I think it will take some time,” said Ali Hamadeh, editorialist for An-Nahar newspaper and a member of the political bureau for the Future Movement.

“On the one hand, you have the problem of the current events in Syria. On the other hand, there is a block against the formation of this government because of how it’s seen in the West and the rest of the Arab countries. Any government formed by Mikati will be seen as a puppet in the hands of Syria and Hezbollah. Everyone here is in pause mode, waiting for what will happen,” Hamadeh said.

May Chidiac, Lebanese journalist and former anchorwoman, doesn’t even want the new government to be formed under the current leadership.

“I hope it will not be formed because I don’t want to see the March 8 coalition take control of the country,” she said. “I consider the way they are handling the government formation now will be the same way they will handle the running of a government lead by March 8,” she added.

Chidiac, who narrowly survived an assassination attempt in September 2005, has frequently expressed her suspicions of the alliance between Hezbollah and the Free Patriotic Movement of MP Michel Aoun, both part of the March 8 coalition which forced the collapse of caretaker Prime Minister Saad Hariri in January 2011.

She alleged that the March 8 coalition deliberately delaying a new government, saying the grouping was “already preparing for the 2013 elections and the delays are meant to buy time in hope to be in control of the whole country… so I really don’t trust them.”

The disillusionment extends to the cultural scene.

Commenting on the results of The Daily Star online survey, Lebanese pop singer Madeleine Mattar said she no longer followed the ongoing “soap opera,” in a reference to rhetoric surrounding Lebanon’s lack of government formation.

“They say we need to see what happens in Syria or Pakistan. What does that have to do with us? Or they say it’s about this file or that file … They’re not thinking about the needs of the people,” Mattar said.

“Why should I think about them when they’re not thinking about us?”

--Additional reporting by Fadi Chahine and Simona Sikimic