Muammar Gaddafi’s regime has fallen; a deranged oppressive regime has been toppled. [Under his rule], the people of Libya enjoyed neither safety nor dignity. A Libyan friend once told me that he was ashamed, when asked about his nationality, to acknowledge that he was Libyan, as this statement was often met with ridicule. However, today for the first time, my friend can proclaim his Libyan nationality with pride thanks to the great achievements made by the Libyan rebels, saving the country from the rule of one of the greatest tyrant of the modern era, Muammar Gaddafi. The Colonel was set to mark his 42nd year in power on 1 September, a date commemorating the blackest month in Libya, as it was the month in which Gaddafi first came to power. I do not who to blame for this bizarre tyrant’s rise to power!
When Gaddafi’s supporters first rose up against the just King Idris, and chanted the slogan “better King Ilbis [the devil] than King Idris”, were their calls [for freedom] ever realized? Did they achieve what they wanted when this unprecedentedly evil tyrant came to rule them? Or should we blame Gamal Abdel Nasser for telling the Libyan leader that he reminded him of himself and dubbing him the guardian of Arab nationalism? The only one who recognized the danger and revealed the truth was the late Egyptian President Anwar Sadat, who used to describe Gaddafi as “the lunatic of Libya”. This leads us on to one of the gravest errors committed by the former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, who threw himself into the arms of Muammar Gaddafi and agreed that the Egyptian government would “buy” from him. By doing so, Mubarak dishonored the Egyptian media and labor force [in Libya] without ever being called to account for this.
Gaddafi squandered his country’s vast oil wealth in personal projects, whilst his country remained subject to underdevelopment and darkness. He entered into absurd political ventures with the aim of highlighting his destructive ego. It became clear that an insight into the life of Gaddafi did not require a political scientist, sociologist or economist, but rather a psychiatrist to examine the man’s diabolic, narcissistic personality. He was also skeptical with regards to religion; he invented a new Islamic calendar, and ravaged conventional interpretations of the Quran. He tried to leave his footprint in political ideology by developing the theory of the Jamahiriya, which turned out to be nothing but a flagrant joke and farce. He tried his hand at writing books and poetry, all in a continuous effort to prove his presence on the international scene and achieve personal goals, in order to cover up what must be the greatest inferiority complex in contemporary history. His record in terms of terrorism; with assassinations alongside arrests and torture, is frightening and horrific. No Arab country was spared, and this is not to mention the terrorist attacks and groups he funded in Europe, Asia, America, and Africa.
His rule will be considered by historians to be blacker than September, a flaw in human history, not just that of Libya. Everyone is responsible for “accepting” this insane man as a ruler, and dealing with him seriously, instead of isolating him and removing him by any means possible. Finally the hour of truth came, and God decreed to remove him from his position. The voice of the Arab people, who are today experiencing their happiest days in their modern history, announced to the world that they would no longer accept any alternative to freedom, pride, dignity, and just governance, and that they wish to contribute to political decision-making like the rest of the free world.
The Libyan scene is the latest scene in the dazzling and wonderful Arab Spring. The threat of a repeat of the Libyan scenario – with this being used as some sort of scarecrow for other regional states – is an extremely ridiculous and unrealistic idea dreamt up by the “teetering” Syrian regime. Truth is manifest, as is falsehood and so “if a nation one day resolves to live, [then] fate is bound to respond.” This saying has ceased to be just a poetic line from our Arab heritage, or the slogan of the Tunisian Revolution. It has transformed into a rallying cry for all the Arab peoples who have risen up in search of the dignity that they have lost, the freedom that they have never tasted, and the pride that they have only heard tell of. The heroic Libyan freedom fighters confirmed this once again when they saved the world from the mad criminal known as Muammar Gaddafi, and restored Libya to that of a normal state!