Gaddafi or the Establishment of the Libyan Plight

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The owner of the 'Jamahiriya' in Libya, like the famous Syrian 'player', planted the seeds of collapse during the phase of claimed greatness. Today, Libya is geographically and institutionally divided; the promised elections did not take place, and the agreement among its parties under the auspices of the United Nations has yet to be tested, while the value of oil wealth is weakened by the rivalry of the two authorities. In the meantime, eastern forces attacked Tripoli in 2019, and a year later, a national unity government was formed, which was soon met with a rival government.

Since it was punished in 1969 by the coup of the then-Nasserist officer Muammar Gaddafi, its unity has not been a solid matter. In addition to the immense violence inflicted by the Italians on the Libyans, Libya was managed as three administrative units: Tripoli in the west, Cyrenaica in the east, and Fezzan in the south, and in 1934 it was nominally unified as 'Italian Libya'.

This does not mean that the Italians 'fragmented' the country, as its unity, during the Ottoman era, was fragile and superficial, and its administrative organizations varied according to regions. Thus, Tripoli, closely linked to Tunisia and Malta, developed as a Mediterranean commercial city, and Cyrenaica, closely linked to Egypt and the stronghold of the Senussi, grew as an agricultural region, while Fezzan, bordering Algeria, Niger, and Chad, was left to the networks of desert tribes and their caravans. By the end of World War II, Tripoli and Cyrenaica were placed under British control, while the French took over Fezzan.

Since the country gained independence in 1951 as a united kingdom under Idris al-Senussi, it has been burdened by the weight of its fragmentation. Between independence and 1963, it had two capitals, Tripoli and Benghazi in Cyrenaica. In 1963, with the abolition of the federal system and the strengthening of centralization, and to avoid 'Tripoli's hegemony', Al-Bayda, also in Cyrenaica, was chosen as the seat of government, and the matter was not resolved in favor of Tripoli until after the 1969 coup. This further increased the dissatisfaction of the Cyrenaicans, who traditionally favored the Senussi, accusing the Gaddafi regime of concentrating power and wealth in Tripoli, more than the previous regime was accused of concentrating them in Cyrenaica.

The fact is that Al-Sanusi was obsessed with creating a national loyalty that would bridge the disparities, but he took conflicting and somewhat experimental paths to achieve it. Initially, he constitutionally acknowledged the differences, and each province enjoyed a degree of local legislation. However, in 1963, he preferred centralization over the federal formula, and the discovery of oil in 1959 prompted him to adopt a unified management of resources and planning for developmental policies.

Indeed, oil revenues were used to establish infrastructure, build hospitals, schools, universities, and government administrations, and education achieved tremendous leaps. However, the social transformation resulting from oil was not accompanied by the establishment of institutions and the creation of a political society. Thus, the 'political' actors were limited to local and tribal leaderships, and the parliament, which emerged with independence, was not associated with a competitive party system.

In the climate of Nasserism, Libya faced accusations of having military agreements with Britain and the United States in 1953 and 1954, at a time when it relied on Western aid and its oil had not yet been discovered. This campaign was embraced by youth groups and officers, one of whom was Gaddafi, who overthrew a regime that had not closed off possible reform opportunities nor firmly shut the door on them. The new authority remained exclusively in the hands of Gaddafi, who acted like a demigod and considered parties a form of dictatorship, despite expanding the 'popular committees' in 1973 as a form of direct governance, before transitioning to the 'Great Jamahiriya' in 1977.

The society was sterilized to become a barren land with nothing but the leader, his absurdities, his peacock-like behavior, and his cosmetic operations. Repression was the regime's law through killing, torture, disappearance, and detention, and the massacre at Abu Salim prison in 1996, where 1,200 prisoners were killed, was one of the peaks of its coercive behavior. Additionally, the economy recorded the highest levels of dependence on oil revenues, as Gaddafi squandered much of the income on supporting armed militias and 'national liberation movements.' In the 1970s and 1980s, he waged a foolish war with Chad, exacerbating tensions with the United States and European countries. In 1986, Libya, accused of supporting terrorism, was subjected to American airstrikes before being sanctioned for seven years following the Lockerbie crisis in 1988. However, in 2003, Gaddafi was forced to settle for the Lockerbie crime, paying $2.7 billion in compensation to the victims. By the end of the year, he abandoned a program he sponsored for weapons of mass destruction, fearing a fate similar to that of Saddam. While his relationship with Western countries improved, his relationship with his people deteriorated. Indeed, the revolution broke out in early 2011 in Benghazi, turning into a popular uprising tinged with civil war. With NATO's intervention at the end of the year, Gaddafi was killed after 42 years of absolute rule.

A highly centralized system was built, viewing the slightest indication of difference as a threat to unity, aware of the growing sensitivities of the East-West and Sahara-Coast, even in the dark. It is well-known that the southern desert, specifically where the Tuareg, Toubou, and other ethnicities reside, has not ceased to complain about the marginalization from the north. The regime, which was famous for destroying institutions much more than building them, relied on networks of guaranteed loyalty by bribing with oil revenues, especially among the Qadhadhfa, Magharha, and Warfalla tribes. This explains how its fall was coupled with the rise of local armed networks, the division of the state, and the emergence of competing authorities amidst a flood of militias and foreign interventions in a bleak Libyan scene.

Quoted from "Asharq Al-Awsat"