Up for Grabs

Volume 2, Issue 9- February 25- March 3, 2011
International Tribune

Shots have been fired and heard all around the world. Hundreds if not thousands have been killed in the streets of Tripoli and Benghazi by the military and police. Buildings have been burned and insurgents are in full swing.  When an embattled leader has to resort to foreign mercenaries for support to quell a domestic revolution, this is a real ominous sign. Which way will Libya go?  It appears that Qaddafi will rather take his country down with him than peacefully relinquish power that he has been firmly holding for the last 42 years. After all, he has said that he would "die a martyr".   Après moi, le déluge?

Qaddafi has been ruling his country with systematic repression and had instilled fear in his hapless people.  As in almost all dictatorships, Qaddafi has dreamily expected his own descendants and family to succeed him and rule Libya, if possible, for decades to come.   Under Qaddafi, Libyan society has stagnated and political activism has been drastically curtailed. After over a decade of isolation during the international sanctions, Libya had not developed a strong civil society.  There is a weak middle class and the majority of the population are poorly educated in spite of the country's oil wealth.  The current generation now in their late 30s and early 40s are ill-equipped to transition and to assume major responsibilities in a new democratic regime.  This is a major challenge in a post-Qaddafi Libya.

        

It is beginning to look like that no matter what happens, with or without Qaddafi, Libya’s future is up for grabs.  Lawlessness and anarchy are settling in and even foreign mercenaries are interfering in the current national crisis. Fear has descended all over the nation.  Libyans are now running for their lives crossing the borders to Tunisia and even to some parts of Europe just across the Mediterranean. 

Thanks to the power of the internet and satellite television, Libyans are aware of what a democratic society looks like.  And, as the recent week has shown, Libyans of all social and religious backgrounds are willing to take risks in order to create a free and judicious society.  They are tired of decades of tyranny and hungry for a change.

Removing Qaddafi will be the relatively easy part in this saga. The most difficult one will be the future of Libya post-Qaddafi era.