Libya isthe world’s nightmare and right now, there is no clear clue to the end of the
long night. The Berlin Conference fails, like that of Moscow failed before. Noconference will work that is going to use the same orthodox methods of hidingthe truth about motives of the parties involved in the conflict, sinceMu’ammar’s deposition and murder in 2011. Vladimir Putin and Khalifa Haftar arepart of the problem. But what was Emma Macron doing in Berlin?Can thecause be a solution to the same problem? What more do the French wantfrom Libya?Becausethe actual whims behind the different interests in the conflict remainhypocritical, no orthodox model like the current time wastage for more killing willwork because of democracy, for which reason Ghaddafi was deposed in thatmanner. So far, nothing points to the real, working way ahead, and the tangleonly kills more innocent.
Of coursepeace will elude Libya as long as God wants because a leader who held hispeople in peace and without needs and wants for over forty years, is murdered,painfully by the use of his own people, beneficiaries of his social welfare, inthe name of freedom and personal liberty. The blood on the hands and on themurder floor is still fresh.
And, yes, noorthodox model will work because democracy or its universality is blind to thefact that it has some inherit weaknesses, shortcomes and inadequacies asexposed in the American double-standards, pretense and false claimsdemonstrated by the Trump Impeachment Inquiry to, now, Trial, in relations tothe Quid Pro Quo over Ukraine as thedefining factor enough for Trump to be trumped.
The worldwill not see peace – and, yes, that is the perhaps goal, no peace for the worldever – until the limits, inadequacies and hypocrisy of democracy and theselective judgment and application of its values across cultures and peoples isboth understood and selectively used. Democracy has come to stay as the mostpopular system of rule, okay. For most countries, it is the honest alternativefor the current international system. But it must not be blind to certainfabrics of indigenous, local systems.
Butlessons from its excesses and shortages tell us that its application and usemust be selective and creative in respects of certain inherit peculiarities ofhost societies where it has to be the only option. That is the lesson the worldmust learn first.
Any ideathat supports the notion that democracy is a convention that must be enforcedon any people in any place is false and inept, meant to ensure endemic wars andkillings in the world.
That iscrazy and difficult idea to expect from a system that is blind arrogant to anyopposite idea to its legitimacy, and that is reason we should stop pretendingand wasting the world’s resources on Libya if peace is not the goal.The conceptof this proposal for an unorthodox model for Libya begins with the idea of re-understandingLibya and its society as unique among all people and societies of the world,different and remarkably distinct from even the neighbouring Arabs themselves.
Yes,Libyans are Arabs. But Start to understand them as unique by marking out thedifferent dialects of the Arabs, peculiar to almost every Arab nation. Theproblem of the world is compounded by this simple lack of recognition,understanding and brutal refusal to respect a person or a people’s right ofdifference and distinct features of their living and environment.
This issomething, I am afraid, for which Ghaddafi was hated, pursued, deposed andmaimed.The right to think, behave, act, move and associate is a freedomenshrined in the laws of the lands but it is the most precarious fallacy whichholds the world and nations against themselves. Throughout his life as awestern, British-educated exuberant youth and as a leader, Mu’ammar ignoredpopular culture and modernity and lived a Bedouin life – lived in castles,farmed and reared animals.
We saydemocracy is about choice but those who choose to be unique to their chosenways of life are not free even in their families. And this, more than anything,is the world’s only albatross which forces strange values on those who hate thevalues only to push them into the wall of terrorism. Theories, maxims, sagesand idioms are only ideals today’s reality cannot respect. If Muslims who findthemselves in Rome must behave like the Romans, will they eat pork also? No.Can the Romans force them? No. This is the simple disrespect that creates ourmajor conflicts.
The firstperson who understood the uniqueness of Libya as a modern-inclined countrydeeply rooted in traditional enclaves was the late Libyan leader himself. Theoil money did not blind him from the very place, culture, values and etiquettesthat gave him birth. That is the idea absent in the two set of leadership since2011, and there may not be anything different soon.
All thepresent political leaders are paying for their hypocrisy and pretense about thetruth of this Libyan reality truth and unique system which is in conflict tothe one straight, one model democracy always enforces. For all the years,Mu’ammar lived that example and demonstrated it among his people in Libya, andwhere he was sought, needed, invited or asked. He did not force it on anyone,any people.
Even ininclining socialism, Ghaddafi was not blind to the fact. He used aquasi-socialist system based on the Green Book and was pragmatic to therealities of the differences at the grassroots, because every rule, likedemocracy, is about the people and must be with them, based on their existingculture, values and traditional system. They are heartful, selfconscious,unapologetically proud, belligerent and can be, defiant and moby on theslightest offence.
The Arabsare different people, and their culture contrasts in sharp snaps with others.And most Arab nations, check, are still pre-modern, even with oil wealth andpermeation of popular culture, they are still, predominantly as local as the rsounds in their use of English words. I find that too obvious to say, sorry,except for the few ubanites, the many educated city dwellers whose hearts havebeen softened by elements of popular culture of the blue jeans, ice cream, fastfood and hamburger.
It isinsensitive to assume all Arabs as heartdeath as those we know swallowed bywesternization and modernization. The majority are still in deep connect withtheir ancestral roots and values. And this is the misunderstanding that willkeep Libya in endemic ruin, because, for all the years of Mu’ammar, Libyans hadall needs met, but the population was held in control from all the elements ofpopculture that corrupts and destroys the social fabrics of conservativists. Sothey have no requisites for the values of democracy and the implications ofrights, freedoms and privileges and what they can do with them.
The Arabsand Libyans Bedouin extracts have crude, grassroots loyalties to theirfamilies, tribes and the traditional leadership which the clan lords now enjoyto brandish clan might and fuel enclave controls and trigger local conflicts. Thereis nothing superior to that among the people at the moment to ask for ownershipof a nation which is absent in real terms. Why then are the truces ignoringthis deep local fabric of the Libyan society on which the Libyan nation mustrest?
Libya is themost distinct Arab society. It is based on tribe or clan system, making almostevery extended family a force to reckon with, and in the current reality, everyclan is platoon with a warlord, fighting and defending its interest. Imaginethe nestle of interest then in the vast country where, the problems compound tolack of access to free food, shelter, clothing, education and the rest. Whileall that was lost, the world media is not reporting any comparison to show theextent of ruin and the human tragedy existing.
Theproposed model for Libya should be unusual. There should be a caretakergovernment to be called under a sole administrator, a Libyan military officer,serving or retired in order to sweep off the impression of freedom and rights.The y are the very problem. With freedom and rights negotiated and advancedunder any democratic impression, there will be no submission to a centralauthority, and clan might will ever prevail over any weak will of a centralauthority, whatever the structures there may be.
Thesecurity of the country should be centralized in just representation of all thekey clan forces to be led by a soldier of common repute, with a standing in allsectional eyes – respected and respectful – who has previous record forjustice, peace, tolerance and understanding. In all the stages and organs ofgovernment and security, there must not be a foreigner or foreign-inclined or astooge of the west or east. They must be educated Libyans of repute who servedwith dignity and integrity since the Ghaddafi years.
Thecaretaker should be given a long term enough for entrenching a good perceptionof a government of a new system credible to get the will and submission of theclan leaders and their followers, to repose a renewed confidence in an emergingcivil society ripe for the opening of strong democratic institutions capable tobe pillars for eventual peaceful democratic process to make a renewed nationunder a new name reflective of the true historical features, cultures andsettings of the society.
In allthese, there must be no open or hidden hand of any nation – western or eastern.The process of the conception and implementation of the new caretaker systemmust be entrusted to, and deposited with, the United Nations. There must be adistance that must be real and conspicuous from the Arab League, any nation –no matter the previous or current ties with Libya – and resources for fundingthe entire process must come from the beleaguered Libyan purse, even if ingradual stages.
On no account should any help, offer or donation in any form be accepted from any organ, body or person. Not even from the UN itself. This is to shut out any immediate or remote claim to the UN or Libya from vesting any form of immediate or remote interest. Even with all this in place, Libya will be back in peace only if God’s sentence for the world system, the country and its people over the gravest mistake of 2011 is served. Until then, the theatre plays on.
Hassan Alhaji Hassan can be contacted on 08032829772/08050551220 (text only with full names and address)a[email protected]
The views expressed in this article are the author’s and do not necessarily reflect WikkiTimes’ editorial stance.
