The Libyan leader claimed he was clinging to power to prevent tribal conflict
Hisham Matar
( Hisham Matar is the son of a prominent Libyan dissident and author of the Booker shortlisted novel In the Country of Men.)
guardian.co.uk, Monday 21 February 2011
"The current pro-democracy uprising in Libya is not even a week old yet the scale of the carnage and loss of life is already greater than that in Tunisia and Egypt. Security forces and hired mercenaries have left hundreds dead and thousands injured. The internet has been down since last Wednesday. Many places have not had mobile phone coverage, and now it has become impossible to contact anyone anywhere in Libya.
It is under these circumstances that, in a desperate attempt to cling to power, Colonel Gaddafi decided to unveil his most presentable son, Saif al-Islam. The young Gaddafi gave a speech to rival the absurdity of all his father's speeches. Through a long and rambling stretch, during which he either wagged his finger at the camera or stared blankly at the table in front of him, a table that seemed to stand too high and too close, he offered one threat after another.
One of his most repeated warnings was that of civil war. According to Saif al-Islam, without the Gaddafis Libya would descend into an "endless war". Why? Because the tribal character of Libyan society exasperates and demands such a war, he claimed.......
And although these tribes, their traditions and nature, have promoted provincialism, Libyan history has not shown them to be a cause for civil wars. In fact, the opposite is the case, they have provided national stability through some of Libya's more turbulent chapters and created regional and national structures of power that weren't as aggressively hierarchical as Gaddafi's. It is for this reason, shortly after his military coup in 1969, that the colonel decided to play the tribes against each other.
Using the tribes to divide and rule is not the only trick the current heir to the blood-drenched throne has learned from his father. His PR-coached reformist jargon suddenly gave way to the familiar grammar of dictatorship: threats and rewards, barbarism and bribery.
And now we see the horrible finale unfold, exposing the grotesque nature of a regime that is willing to hold on to power regardless of the consequences. There are reports of planes firing on demonstrators in Tripoli and Benghazi. The death toll is rising.
The Libyan people are witnessing the last lashings of a dying beast. He has oppressed them for 41 years. Forty-one years of disappearances, summary executions, theft and corruption, and 41 years of humiliation."
Hisham Matar
( Hisham Matar is the son of a prominent Libyan dissident and author of the Booker shortlisted novel In the Country of Men.)
guardian.co.uk, Monday 21 February 2011
"The current pro-democracy uprising in Libya is not even a week old yet the scale of the carnage and loss of life is already greater than that in Tunisia and Egypt. Security forces and hired mercenaries have left hundreds dead and thousands injured. The internet has been down since last Wednesday. Many places have not had mobile phone coverage, and now it has become impossible to contact anyone anywhere in Libya.
It is under these circumstances that, in a desperate attempt to cling to power, Colonel Gaddafi decided to unveil his most presentable son, Saif al-Islam. The young Gaddafi gave a speech to rival the absurdity of all his father's speeches. Through a long and rambling stretch, during which he either wagged his finger at the camera or stared blankly at the table in front of him, a table that seemed to stand too high and too close, he offered one threat after another.
One of his most repeated warnings was that of civil war. According to Saif al-Islam, without the Gaddafis Libya would descend into an "endless war". Why? Because the tribal character of Libyan society exasperates and demands such a war, he claimed.......
And although these tribes, their traditions and nature, have promoted provincialism, Libyan history has not shown them to be a cause for civil wars. In fact, the opposite is the case, they have provided national stability through some of Libya's more turbulent chapters and created regional and national structures of power that weren't as aggressively hierarchical as Gaddafi's. It is for this reason, shortly after his military coup in 1969, that the colonel decided to play the tribes against each other.
Using the tribes to divide and rule is not the only trick the current heir to the blood-drenched throne has learned from his father. His PR-coached reformist jargon suddenly gave way to the familiar grammar of dictatorship: threats and rewards, barbarism and bribery.
And now we see the horrible finale unfold, exposing the grotesque nature of a regime that is willing to hold on to power regardless of the consequences. There are reports of planes firing on demonstrators in Tripoli and Benghazi. The death toll is rising.
The Libyan people are witnessing the last lashings of a dying beast. He has oppressed them for 41 years. Forty-one years of disappearances, summary executions, theft and corruption, and 41 years of humiliation."
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