Reflections on Libya

Louis EA Moyston

Saturday, March 19, 2011

The Middle East, as the area is called, is rife with political turmoil. Mass groups and armed insurgents are rising with expressions of demands for change. In his recent Reflections on Libya, Fidel Castro makes the distinction between the events in Tunisia and Egypt and the Libyan exception. Castro notes that Libya is number one in its standing in the Human Development Index in Africa; it has the highest life expectancy on the continent; it provides quality health services and education for its people and facilitates thousands of foreign workers to meet the labour demand created by the policies of the state: projects related to social and economic development. The resistance against the Libyan regime is of a different nature from Tunisia and Egypt.

It is important to note the role of the foreign media and NATO countries in the demand "Gaddafi must go!" while the struggle in Libya is for democracy. What is the real situation in Libya? Is it really a struggle for democracy or a radical response to a "fossilised" revolution?

In making sense of the crises in the Middle East, it is important to understand the emergence of Arab nationalism and its response to foreign conquest; secondly, to its rejection of old monarchical arrangements in the Middle East. In relation to colonialism, Libya, for example, suffered much under Italian colonialism. Nearly half of its people were wiped out by the fascist Italian coloniser. Arab nationalism found its root long before the end of the First World War under the Ottoman conquest, but the frustration of being carved up into mandates by Britain and France inspired new meaning of Arab nationalism in the early decades of the 20th century. Abdel Nasser's 1952 overthrow of Egypt's King Farouk created a most significant moment in the life of Arab nationalism. A young Colonel Gaddafi in the Libyan army was so inspired by Nasser that he overthrew Libya's King Idris I in 1969. It was a revolution informed by Arab nationalism that created a Baath socialist counterpart in Gaddafi's "Green Revolution". In the process of the establishment of this revolution, Gaddafi expelled the American military for its strategic air base in North Africa and nationalised the oil industry. There is a noticeable relationship with different variations of socialism associated with the rise of Arab nationalism. The combination of both has proved most effective in uniting the different tribes and nationalities in the region.

The debate in some circles rages that the "fossilised" Libyan revolution may have been responsible for the insurgency against the state. The views state also that the situation is similar to the development of Stalinist USSR as opposed to the thinking of Lenin and Trotsky's view of the permanence of the revolution: the ability to renew itself. There is another view that the insurgency may have been inspired by the decline of the East-West/Cold War and anti-imperialist politics. There is also the thinking that Gaddafi's recent capitulation to the West in terms of his privatisation policies has also inspired radical Islamic and new nationalistic politics. In light of the Saudis' intervention in Bahrain's mass uprising, could it be that they inspired and support the insurgency against long-time enemy Gaddafi? These events are far from the mass uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt; they resemble the tribal leaders in Somalia with anti-aircraft artillery and multiple rocket launchers on pick-ups - these events appeared to be informed by planning, especially among the various tribes and not just the mass response to a "burning" person in the capital city. The events in Libya resemble a slice of the recent history of Somalia: Siad Barre capitulated into the spheres of the US and the West. He was removed by the resurgence of tribal forces' armed pick-up trucks with rocket launchers and the works. Today, Somalia is an entity with several tribal enclaves and the country's pirates rivalled the history of Henry Morgan and others in this side of the world.

Is this a bankruptcy and a requiem for Arab nationalism in Libya? How is the idea of America's call for democracy seen in Libya? In his Reflections on Libya Castro cites Abeir Imneina, professor of political science at the University of Benghazi, on the calls for democracy and the idea of nationalism in Libya today. According to Professor Imneina, "There is a very strong feeling of nationalism in Libya today... There is also a feeling that this is our revolution and it is up to us to forge ahead." She expressed her fear of the US effort to plant democracy in the region as she recalled the invasion of Iraq to impose democracy. The invasion of Iraq involved the killing of hundreds of thousands of innocent people. There were no calls of crimes against humanity and neither the American leader Bush, nor the British Prime Minister Blair was called to the International Court of Justice for those crimes. The rebels in Libya have the right to rebel and the state of Libya has the right to defend itself. The defeat of the rebels in Libya is critical to the prevention of another Somalia and another Iraq in North Africa.

thearchives01@yahoo.com

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Reflections on Libya