Libya an example of what is good for the West is good for us

By Billow Kerrow　

Libya's strongman Muammar Gaddafi is adamant that he will not relinquish power, and has directed his supporters in Tripoli to kill protestors overrunning his 'kingdom’.

He blamed the revolution against his leadership on Osama bin Laden’s terrorist group, accusing the latter of ‘brainwashing’ and even ‘drugging’ the youth. His son warned of a civil war and bloodbath, and the threat of takeover of the nation by Al Qaeda. He has used all means to kill thousands of his own people, including bombing of civilians using jets, in order to retain power.

A country of 6.4 million, with a per capita income of $14,000, Libya has abundant wealth of natural gas and oil. It pumps over 1.8 million barrels of oil daily, and has a GDP of close to $100 billion.

Yet, Gaddafi has wasted his country’s fortunes on many misadventures, and misspent the resources to seek illusive fame. Unemployment among the youth is more than 30 per cent, and it is estimated that a third of the population lives below the poverty line. The average age of his countrymen is 29 years, all born in the 42 years Gaddafi ruled through terror and abuse of power.

There are no political parties, no elections since he took over through a military coup in 1969. Gaddafi is the king and, through his family, he has managed how the oil wealth is spent.

With the bloated delusion of grandeur that he so often fancies, he developed the ‘Green Book’ few ever believe in. The ‘Jamahiriya’ or state of masses ruled the country through a militia of local councils, whose membership he has now directed to kill all protestors. About a million of the civilians are armed in a country where the state officially promoted tribal order.

In 1999, the UN lifted sanctions imposed earlier over the Lockerbie plane crash his regime reportedly planned. That began the thawing of relations between him and the West. And in 2003, he paid off billions of dollars in reparations for the Lockerbie victims, and renounced the use of violence and weapons of mass destruction.

He then pledged to join anti-terror war alliance. Enough! The West kissed him on both cheeks and ‘accepted’ him into the international community. Soon, big energy deals were being signed between his country and Europe. The British liberals loved the tyrant’s son, Said, for the huge donations and praised him for ‘development of democracy’.

For long, the West held out to the Third World their deep conviction that democracy and freedom are inalienable and universal human rights, and argued that infringement of these rights would constitute oppression and injustice. For the Arab countries in North Africa, democracy and freedoms were considered oppressive to the ‘just’ rulers friendly to the West. These regimes promoted official violence, human rights violations, torture, repression, and abuse of power and called it the ‘war on terror’.

In Egypt, it was a de facto one-party state as main opposition leaders were routinely jailed before sham elections on terror-related charges. In Tunisia, the anti-terror law was used generally to crush budding opposition parties. Their ousted President alleged in January that the protestors were terrorists! The current Algerian regime has killed more than 200,000 people since 1990 when the election won by ‘Islamists’ was cancelled by the military. An emergency rule declared then was in rule for 19 years, to allow the regime to use extra-judicial means to eliminate ‘terrorists’.

The Obama Administration is fearful all their friends in Arab ‘anti-terror war’ league will collapse; Obama this week unabashedly contextualized Algerian regime’s lifting of the emergency rule as ‘reforms’! Although the UN has long criticised global anti-terror policies, it is now trendy to cite political opponents as terrorists in order to retain power. You can then be allowed ‘Dogs of War’ to defend your regime. And you can also ‘rent’ your nation’s security forces as mercenaries to fight America’s ‘terrorists’. Of course, just until the people say it’s enough and revolt!