The Staggers

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With Gaddafi gone, we must support the re-building of Libya

The UK and France should offer their help in training Libyan officials.

By Zamila Bunglawala Published 22 October 2011 11:22

As 42 years of 'one-man rule' in Libya now ends with the death of Gaddafi, the National Transitional [NTC] Council have added momentum for their nation-building role but the task at hand is no small fete for any country, especially one that has no independent public or democratic institutions of any kind.

The expectations of the Libyan people are high, as they should be. Not only have they suffered from decades of despotic rule many civilians also risked their lives and took up arms to help overthrow the regime. The NTC now has to navigate the country towards political legitimacy and build a nation with transparent, independent, inclusive and democratic institutions, and move towards reconciliation in order to meet the demands of the many diverse tribes and clans in Libya.

But, how will they achieve this? Who will their future leaders be and how confident will Libyans be in the capacity of their new leaders to deliver real positive change? We should be under no illusion of how difficult and complex this will be. Even leaders of the NTC, though playing strong and decisive leadership roles in the rebel movement cannot escape their part in the Gadaffi regime - Mustafa Abdul Jalil himself was the Minister for Justice where he imprisoned many dissident Libyans.

Beyond the politics of leadership, there is the harder more day-to-day issue of transitioning towards and actually running a democratic government and forming independent public institutions. Earlier in the Arab Spring I wrote about the strong benefits of institutions like the London School of Economics in providing training for senior Libyan government officials in transparency, good governance and public service delivery. The programme itself was sound but sadly the process followed fell foul of university decision-making boards of avoiding association with regimes with human rights abuses.

Now that Libya must start from scratch in forming an Interim Government, holding democratic elections next year and then actually running a country of six million covering a large land mass, it is perhaps time to re-visit this issue of training, equipping and supporting new leaders and officials in Libya and other countries newly liberated in the Arab Spring. Even the long-established parties of the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats had to be steered by the Cabinet Secretary and senior civil servants on how to form and deliver a strong, stable coalition government in the UK.

Libya also has the added challenge of ensuring inclusion of the many tribes who were also loyal to Gaddafi as excluding them from a 'new Libya' will only marginalise and disenfranchise them, and risk possible future retaliation.

Just as the Franco-British led NATO push supported the Libyan people in their uprising and while of course Libyans will want overall control of the design and delivery objectives of their future public institutions they will establish, maybe the UK, France and other countries with strong, respected and independent civil services should now also offer their help in training Libyan officials to meet the many challenges of good governance, transparency, accountability and institutional set-up and national public service delivery, ahead of them.

On the up-side, if Libyan leaders and government officials transition well towards democratic governance, institution and nation building they have enough oil resources - tapped and un-tapped - to re-build Libya and distribute the wealth effectively through investing in national education, health, economic and civil society programmes. Lessons could be also learned from successful examples in the region of such of long-term national re-distribution, investment and institution building from countries such as Qatar, to meet the needs and aspirations of the Libyan people.

What is clear is that Libya has many challenges ahead of it and it is the role of everyone, including those who supported the NATO intervention, to now also help the transition towards a democratic, inclusive and well governed Libya.

Tags: Libya

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12 comments

Sat, 2011-10-22 13:05 — Hugh Markey (not verified)

Can well understand the qualms being expressed by the mostly Tory anti-EU brigade, division or army squaring up to Cameron.
But incorporating Libya as a member of the EU may be politically convenient but Turkey a long-time NATO ally and the most effective military force in Korea plus more recently acting as a brake on anti-Israel states in the Mid-East. will have something to say about enlarging the EU for a 'flavour of the month' brand new ally.
Admittedly the US took part in the early military fisticuffs in Libya but the major part of the conflict was an EDA operation. NATO minus the US!
The Tory anti-EU and UKIP squaddies can be excused for looking at the Libyan conflict and deciding they don't want EU intervention. No Way!
A 100,000 casualties, health & safety rules for the civilian population, dramatic social disruption, brown-field sites re-developed by aerial bombardment, regime-change by another name, natural resources depleted by foreigners - not a pretty outcome for those who still bawl out 'Rule Britannia' with gusto. TINA - oh, we don't think so.
We feel that including Libya as a EU member may take this continental grouping in the wrong direction.
All North African states will be anxious to follow in Libya's footsteps. You can imagine, no doubt, how the influx of Islamic states will effect the Napoleonic Code and the Common Law. And Israel can hardly be excluded if such a development comes about.
It is pretty clear that the Libyan citizen would much prefer to emigrate to the USA; those Rangers hats, baseball caps, and mirrored sun glasses, not forgetting Yankee accents and advertising legends make it all too obvious that the American Dream is still alive and well.
Geography, however, is a fact of life and Europe is just across the Med.

V for Victory

Sat, 2011-10-22 14:18 — Peter (not verified)

The very least that the UK and France can do is provide medical care and compensation for all the Libyans injured and bereaved by the brimstones, pavement busters, scalp-ers etc that they have rained down on Libya during the course of enforcing a no-fly zone over Benghazi.

Sat, 2011-10-22 15:16 — Anton Jury (not verified)

Lets wait to see if NATO has just been used !

Sat, 2011-10-22 18:38 — madasbalooons (not verified)

In the meantime that idiot Hammond is telling businessmen to pack their suitcases and tout for new orders, before anybody else gets there.Talk about jumping in with both feet.The man has a negative IQ.

Thu, 2011-10-27 21:13 — USHI

We the British,French, the US plus our partners in crime have massacred everyone who did not leave Sirte in time. The city is unusable. The banked money, the gas, oil,water and strategic position of Libya is more valuable than the 6 million Libyan people themselves. We have conducted a campaign of massacres and terrorism against the Libyan people with our terrorist partners AND many mercenaries from a group in Egypt, the Afghans and many from Qatar. Guantanimo has many inmates released specifically TO terrorise the Libyan people. Without exception we have massacred children and families. Hospitals and patients, even children's hospitals have been targeted. The Libyan people ALL supported Muammer so what is the life of the 6 million of them who in the vast majority still support their Jamahiriyah, their own government with democratically elected representatives of the people in govt? I have been researching for hours each day to discover who the rats are and who the Libyan people and Muammer are. I have had direct reports from Libyan people who are terrified of the NTC and nato, they cannot surrender for they are slain en masse if they do, children, women, and men with their hands tied behingd their backs. I think of the rats as the Libyans call them, as Libya.s family butchers in the very worst sense. Find me on facebook if you want to search for the reality amidst the very obvious lies.

Sat, 2011-10-22 21:32 — maxinemf

Re-building of the New Libya has started in London with the appointment of Amal Tarhuni. Who is she exactly? Apparently she is a relative of a prominent member of the NTC. That is how she came to be appointed to the post of political attache in London. So what is the difference between the Ghadafis and the NTC??? Remind me again. She gave an interview to the BBC on the murder of Ghadaffi and refused to acknowledge that Ghadaffi was murdered. So much for the new Libya.

Sat, 2011-10-22 22:19 — Mrs.Josephine Hyde-Hartley (not verified)

In my view there's only one rule that's most becoming of the birth of any real democracy- that would be concerning the abolition of the death sentence.

It's surely the most logical way to reduce future costs all round in terms of real human values ie justice - thus setting a good example for all nations.

Never again should ordinary members of the public need to run the personal risks involved in rescuing state functions -like eg revolutions -in the name of progress. It's quite wrong to set citizens against citizens in the way we have seen in Libya - ordinary members of the public should never have to effectively become judge and jury, where others can't help in their locality on the ground -it's not fair.

Thu, 2011-10-27 23:11 — catycat (not verified)

You are continuing your pro west-NATO propaganda without having the decency to at least try to get to the truth. What NATO did to Libya and to Gaddafi is nothing to be proud of. NATO behaved like NATZI just because they had the power!! NATO is a TERORIST Organisation bullying the small but oil/gas rich countries and if their government don't obey they use UN (another corrupt US controlled organisation) and they invade sovereign countries like Libya. yOU AND ALL mAIN STREAM MEDIA should be ashamed of your dirty lies promoting a war and praising crimes against humanity!!! ALL of you are a bunch of LIERS!! Shame on you !!!!

Fri, 2011-10-28 00:17 — Mirjana (not verified)

Today's world economic development is such that every inhabitant of the planet can provide enough food, free education and health.This was the case in Libya, but it was in the way the world colonialists who think that the world needed a bloody democracy.The world needs a sufficiently powerful organization to oppose to them.Will it ever happen I don't know...

Sun, 2011-10-23 00:04 — swatantra

Of coursewe must; there's money in it.

Sun, 2011-10-23 01:07 — Fraziel1

No we should not. It has nothing to do with us. let them decide for themselves without us interfering. Posted this earlier and it was then deleted. Nice to know censorship is alive and well at the New statesman.

Wed, 2011-11-02 16:37 — fiona (not verified)

Articles like this one, and the stand New Statesman took against the socialist regime of Jamahiriya (means direct participation of the people, not so called democracy of the West, where the participation ends at the ballot box, and the voters have no power over the elected governments' actions afterwards) made me cancel my subscription. You have joined the corporate media by taking the side of the monarcho-islamist rebels, who not only sold Libyan wealth to the West, but also have been massacring black Libyans and black African migrant workers since the beginning of their CIA paid and backed so called rebellion. You portrayed those power hungry lynching mobs as 'democracy loving' freedom fighters. As John Pilger says, "the journalists are guilty of war crimes". because your lies and distortion of truth led to tens of thousands of Libyans losing their lives. The appalling lynching, sodomising of Gaddafi by a bunch of bloodthirsty scumbags brought no outcry about 'Geneva Conventions' from you, except a feeble voice, not a strong condemnation. How could you condemn the actions of the rebels you supported, without admitting you have been duped! Zamila Bunglawa and NS, you are also guilty of war crimes! You have Libyans' blood on your hands! Now you can celebrate the Al Qaida ruling Libya with Sharia Law as well. What a disgusting article, and what a disgusting magazine NS has become!