Libya is currently witnessing a very strange set of facts. Col. Hefter, an almost comical figure who returned to Libya in 2011 from his forced retirement and exile in Langley Virginia, who has reinvented himself as a self-styled General and military adventurer who is battling Islamist and allied militia in and around Benghazi. Tripoli is witnessing heavy fighting which has killed dozens, heavily damaged the main airport in the capital, Tripoli, and has caused massive misery, injury, and death among the civilian population. Oil, which is the lifeblood of the economy, is flowing at reduced rates and is yet to recover to normal production levels after the head of the Petroleum Facility Guard, Mr. Jadhran, decided he knew better than the central authorities and started a mutiny under the guise of safeguarding the oil resources and demanding reform. Added to this mix are the secretive activities of Mr. Mahmoud Jebril, the purported head of a political party who acts more like a James Bond villain straight out of Central Casting.
Libya is on the verge of a general civil war and in the midst of all the violence and anarchy, elections were recently held for a successor to the General National Congress which replaced the National Transitional Council which was formed in 2011 during the revolution against the regime of Col. Gadhafi. This new body has started holding closed door meetings far from the historical capital of Libya apparently in an attempt to satisfy Eastern Libya's demands for more power and relevance in Libyan power politics. While the desire for privacy on the part of the novice Congressmen and women is understandable, it will feed the ever present Libyan rumor mill which in the era of social media is now digitally enhanced and moves at light speed.
The Central Authorities of Libya have failed to deliver basic services to their constituents. They have steadily increased public sector expenditures and have helped grow the monster that is the militia/paramilitary culture which is the source of so much trouble in post Jamahiriya Libya. How did the 2011 revolution produce such a surreal state of affairs? Well, a full answer to this complex situation is beyond the scope of this blog but will attempt to address some issues that have contributed to the current state of affairs. First and foremost, the structure and design of the institution of the GNC dominated government itself is a major problem. Libya, with no history of real democracy with free and fair involvement by citizens in running their own affairs decided on a 200 person legislature which would then select a Prime Minister who would pick his or her own Ministers to manage the various Ministries of state. There was no clear cut delineation or delegation of powers between the "President" of the GNC and the Prime Minister. The Prime Minister was not the leader of a political party or the leader of the group holding the most seats in the GNC. This was and is a recipe for disaster. Instead the voters should have been given the right to vote for a national President with real executive powers including the ability to veto legislation passed by the GNC. The "bully pulpit" of a single executive is important to help inform and shape public policy as the often absent members of the GNC were not up to the task. The GNC also failed to decide upon a date certain for the end of their term. They apparently thought they should work until a Libyan Constitution was approved by the voters.
A Constitution is extremely important but there was and is no need to wait for a formal constitution to clearly state and enforce a set of basic rights that each citizen has. The Libyan social compact doesn't need to be a formal document but the average citizen needs to be told what they can and should expect from the temporary authorities so they can also determine what the post constitutional authorities have to build upon for the more permanent societal and governmental structures. As I write this, the constitutional convention is supposedly hard at work crafting the rough draft, the committee also seems to value their secrecy which may be security related but again, their silence breeds speculation which doesn't bode well for stability and a smooth process of approving and ratifying the constitution at some point in the future.
One of the more intractable problems facing the Libyans is the growth of the militias which sprouted up during and after the 2011 revolution. There is some evidence that individual members of the GNC or even the Prime Minister helped to fund and lead them. Most militia members were given a monthly stipend from state coffers. Why was the state financing such a violence prone group of men? The answer is not clear and of course there are various reasons but one of the main ones could be that the GNC didn't want to trigger further violence by stopping the payments which in effect were a form of extortion. But one of the consequences of this is that the official armed forces were not the only ones with military grade weapons, uniforms, or state sponsorship. One city even tried to follow the example of the tribe of Gaddafi and tried to monopolize any training offered by foreign powers so as to increase their own military prowess at the expense of regional rivals. Is there a solution to the militia problem?
Perhaps a general amnesty for those that want to turn in military weapons and hardware should be announced. All militias and persons who wish to join the national armed forces should be allowed to join the official armed forces after a rational vetting process. They should be given basic training and then an agreement reached with a foreign power to provide air support in order to decommission or destroy any other non-state armed formation which refuses to stand down or is engaged in violence.
Finally, I hope that the new legislature doesn't fall into the same trap and lose sight of the goals and aspirations of the Libyan nation. They are the representatives of the people and must work to improve the lives of the people of Libya and have to overcome the tribal, generational, religious, and regional differences that so far have caused Libya to become a place that is to be lamented instead of celebrated.
