THE iron grip of Muammar Ghaddafi on Libya is loosening. In the wake of successful uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt, the people of Libya on February 16, rose to overthrow the 42-year old dictatorship of Colonel Ghaddafi who seized power in a military coup in 1969 when he overthrew King Idris I and declared Libya an Arab republic. He immediately began to scheme and consolidate his power. He built his rule on a cult of personality and a network of family and tribal alliances. Fancying himself an intellectual, he wrote the Green Book in which he espoused an incoherent vision of a socialist Libya. Armed with substantial oil revenue he was for a time able to call the bluff of the western world. With no opposition at home he was free to indulge his every whim and caprice. His sons and friends benefited enormously from the oil largesse, although 60% of the Libyans remain poor and subsist on less than $2 a day. The revolt has gone on for two weeks during which the region around Benghazi has liberated itself from Ghaddafis misrule. As at the time of this editorial the entire country seemed to be falling piece by piece into the hands of the opposition. A notable exception to the blitz is Tripoli where Ghaddafi and his sons are holed up and where pro-Ghaddafi supporters have garrisoned the city and are shooting at random on anything that moves. Ghaddafi has said he would open weapons depots to arm his supporters and make Libya a red flame, a burning coal. The Libyan revolution has been the most bloody in recent times. Estimates of between 2000 and 5000 dead have been mentioned. Thousands have been wounded with all hospitals and morgues are full. Ghaddafi, determined to kill the Libyan people whom he describes as rats and cockroaches has vowed to leave no stone unturned in his bid to remain in power. He has threatened to burn Libya rather than surrender. He is alleged to be recruiting mercenaries to shoot at his own people. He has already deployed hundreds of tanks to fight the Libyan people to the bitter end. He rants and raves, accusing the youths of being under the influence of hallucinogenic drugs or al-Qaeda or Osama bin Laden. Yet he is offering $400 per person to the same drunken youths to shoot at fellow Libyans. Like a drowning man, he clings to every straw. He accuses the Islamists of wanting to seize Libya. He blames everyone for his travails except himself and his sons. Ghaddafi has been a bad leader. For 42 years he has suppressed all dissent in Libya which he claimed was run by committees of his self-imposed revolution. He has no officially designated position and therefore no successor. His Army is deliberately fragmented and answerable to his sons. Should Ghaddafi go today, there is no one to take over. Around the world, Ghaddafi is notorious for sponsoring state terrorism in the 70s, 80s, and 90s. He was implicated in the horrific Lockerbie plane disaster and the serious sectarian violence in Ireland. In Africa he was involved in many of the wars that ravaged the continent including Sierra Leone, Liberia and Chad. He twice called for the dismemberment of Nigeria into a so-called Moslem North and Christian South. His best friend in all of Africa is Robert Mugabe, an advanced octogenarian who has remained in power for 31 years and who hopes to win another election next year. It is clear that Ghaddafi, like previous megalomaniacs before him, has become delusional and paranoid. He wonders why his people are asking him to go when the Queen of England has been in office for 57 years and the King of Thailand for 68 years. He is now completely lacking a sense of reality and must be stopped at all costs before he kills all his people. If he is in a position to listen, the African Union, the Arab League, the European Union, and the United Nations have all condemned his actions. The United States and Australia have imposed targeted sanctions on the Ghaddafi family and their cronies and Britain has withdrawn diplomatic immunity. The Security Council in a unanimous vote has agreed to refer Colonel Ghaddafi and those carrying out his bloody orders to the International Criminal Court on charges of crimes against humanity and additionally it endorsed wide-ranging sanctions against the regime. The Libyan military have been deserting in large numbers. Ghaddafis ambassadors all over the world have turned against him. With his people against him and the whole world up in arms, Ghaddafis options are looking very limited. The Italians, former colonial masters, have concluded that he is finished. The wind of change is blowing across the Maghreb and sooner or later that wind will blow to parts of sub-Saharan Africa. What we have witnessed so far in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, Yemen, Bahrain, Jordan, Iran and counting is a cry for justice and the establishment of a system based on fairness and the rule of law. Previous thinking that the Islamic Arab states were immune to popular democracy has been shown to be false. We are now seeing that the quest for freedom is a universal human instinct. In previous editorials, we had warned that the continued rulership of one man is not good for any society even if benevolent. A society ought periodically to renew itself by turning up new people and new ideas. This is what the crisis in Libya is all about. It is a wake-up call for all those sit-tight leaders in Africa who are resisting change. It is also an affront on misgovernance. With the whole world supporting the just demands of the Libyan people, it is imperative on the people to bite the bullet and save themselves by saving Tripoli.
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