{"id":20247,"date":"2012-06-12T11:46:22","date_gmt":"2012-06-12T07:46:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/?p=20247"},"modified":"2012-06-12T11:46:28","modified_gmt":"2012-06-12T07:46:28","slug":"power-vacuum-at-heart-of-troubles-in-libya","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/showcase\/power-vacuum-at-heart-of-troubles-in-libya\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Power Vacuum’ At Heart of Troubles in Libya"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Attacks on both the US and UK delegations in Benghazi, fighting in Kufra, the detention of four officials from the International Criminal Court \u2013 more evidence that Libya\u2019s weak transitional authorities are unable to impose law and order. The young men who took up arms against Gaddafi refuse to submit to the old men who now make up the National Transitional Council and the interim government.<\/p>\n

It is tempting to blame the revolution, or at least the revolutionaries, echoing the young woman who worked for The Guide (as she always called him) who told me: \u201cI have to tell you democracy will not work here. It\u2019s not possible with Arabs.\u201d<\/p>\n

In fact, the problem is lack of democracy. Until there is an elected government, these problems are likely to multiply. The elections for an assembly to replace the National Transitional Council have been delayed from June 19th to July 7th, but they still provide the best hope that a new government, appointed by the assembly, will be able to assert itself. \u201cIf we can get the elections done well then we\u2019ll have a government with a better basis of legitimacy which can act on these issues,\u201d said Ian Martin, the UN Special Envoy to Tripoli.<\/p>\n

Libya\u2019s was the only true revolution of the \u201cArab Spring\u201d, in which the entire apparatus of state was overturned. Not that there was much in the way of a state \u2013 Gaddafi invented parallel institutions so that he could use one to counter decisions made by another, to the point where no-one but him made decisions at all. Unlike in Egypt, where they are struggling to chip away at the seemingly immoveable pillars of the old regime, in Libya the whole edifice crumbled. It\u2019s Year Zero in Tripoli.<\/p>\n

The incidents of the last two weeks are a symptom of the resulting power-vacuum, but not necessarily connected. The problem is that everyone with a grievance is turning to violence or protest, not that Libyans share the same grievance against the new authorities.<\/p>\n

The Zintan Brigade detained Seif al-Gaddafi\u2019s lawyers because one allegedly had undeclared documents and a secret recording device. The issue is not the facts of the matter, but the Zintanis\u2019 failure to understand that by holding the foreigners they are damaging the country\u2019s chances of putting Seif on trial in Libya. Only after the ICC officials are released can the facts be established.<\/p>\n

Similarly, the brigade from Tarhouna which briefly occupied the airport last week do not understand \u2013 or do not care \u2013 that their actions jeopardise the whole country. The interim President Abdel Jalil has failed to convince Libyans that the interests of the nation must trump the perceived interest of any individual militia or region. Initially, his weakness was his strength \u2013 with his small stature and diffident manner, he was as great a contrast to Gaddafi as you could imagine. Now, however, the situation demands stronger leadership, which all Libyans regard as legitimate.<\/p>\n

The attacks in the east are of a different nature. Jihadi groups, probably angered by the drone killing in Pakistan of Abu Yahyia al-Libi, Al Qaeda\u2019s Number 2, are flexing their muscles. This is a much more serious problem, not least because it\u2019s reported that US drones are surveying suspected jihadi camps near Derna.<\/p>\n

Any attack on Libyan territory would most likely unite Libyans against the US<\/strong><\/a>, which would switch from ally into enemy in a single day. The current divisions are healthy. When 300 armed men flying black banners drove their armoured vehicles into the main square in Benghazi last Thursday, counter-demonstrators, including women, carrying the tri-colour Libyan flag pushed them out without incident.<\/p>\n

Anyone who thought that Libya would go from dictatorship to democracy overnight was dreaming. Elections in July will not solve all the problems nor quell all the violence. But after successful local elections in Misrata and Benghazi, and enthusiastic voter registration even in the fractious south, there is still a reasonable chance that Libyans can start to build a new state in the place of the ruins Muammar Gaddafi left behind.<\/p>\n

Lindsey Hilsum is the author of Sandstorm; Libya in the Time of Revolution<\/strong><\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

LINDSEY HILSUM, INFORMED COMMENT: It’s the absence of true democracy that has resulted in the myriad problems that Libya’s facing<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":20248,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[56,83,325,235,60,482],"tags":[169,125,18300,13264,5333,18332,8422,359,5110,471,18337,387,18302],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20247"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/84"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20247"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20247\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20248"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20247"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20247"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20247"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}