When he visited China in the 1980s, so the story goes, Qaddafi plucked up courage to ask the Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping about a possible federation between Libya and China. China's supreme leader, who was then presiding over a country with over 900 million people, pondered for a while and asked Qaddafi how big his country was.

Told that Libya's population at that time was only a paltry three million people, Deng put his arm around Qaddafi and said rather affectionately: "When you next visit Beijing, why don't you bring them along with you."

Although outsized by China, the Libyan leader has never been deterred by the geographical limitations of his country or its tiny population. A country where oil accounts for about 90 percent of export revenues, Libya has used its riches to make vast strides in improving education, health and the social welfare of its people. Qaddafi, who has been in power since September 1969 in the aftermath of a military coup ousting the pro-American King Idris, is also one of the world's most unorthodox political leaders.

The traditional concept of government has been abolished in Libya where Qaddafi has theoretically handed over power to his people. Under this arrangement, there are no ministers and cabinet officers, only "secretaries". Ambassador Janaka Nakkawita, a former Deputy Permanent Representative in New York and currently our envoy in Abu Dhabi, recounts an anecdote of a Sri Lankan envoy based in a neighbouring country arriving in Tripoli to present his credentials to the Libyan "government".

When the envoy called the foreign office to arrange for the ceremonial presentation of credentials- as practised all over the world - he was told that since every Libyan is a "leader" in his own right under "people's power", the Sri Lankan envoy can hand over his credentials to the first person he meets on the street when he gets out of his hotel. Last month the 54-member Organisaton of African Unity (OAU) was disbanded and replaced by the African Union (AU), established on the lines of the 15-member European Union (EU). Qaddafi was partly responsible for the concept of the AU, although his original proposal was to establish a United States of Africa (USA) mimicking the real McCoy. Since his accession to power, Qaddafi has been on a US political hit-list.

Libya is still one of the countries designated by the State Department as a "terrorist state"- along with Iran, Iraq, Syria, Sudan, North Korea and Cuba. Qaddafi incurred the wrath of the United States for his onetime support to the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO), the Irish Republican Army (RA), the Moro National Liberation Front in the Philippines, Beider-Meinhoff in the former West Germany, the Red Army in Japan and the Dhofar rebels in Oman. However, he has now severed links with virtually all of these organisations and is playing the role of an elder statesman in Africa and the Middle East.

But his past keeps shadowing him all the time. Last week, a leading human rights organisation appealed to African nations to reverse their decision to nominate Libya as the next chairman of the Geneva-based UN Commission on Human Rights. "Countries with dreadful rights records should never be in charge of chairing the Commission on Human Rights," said Rory Mungoven, global advocacy director for New York-based Human Rights Watch. "Libya's long record of human rights abuses clearly does not merit such a reward," he added. But a spokesman for the Libyan Mission to the United Nations refuted the charges made by HRW. "They are entitled to their opinion," he said. "Ours is an open society. We have nothing to hide and we are not in violation of human rights," he added.

Moreover, he said, Libya's nomination had been endorsed at the highest levels of government - at a summit meeting of more than 50 African leaders in Durban, South Africa last month. "Human Rights Watch has no right to interfere in a decision taken by sovereign nation states," he added. Under a time-honoured system of geographical rotation, Africa has the right to nominate its candidate to chair the commission when it begins its next session in Geneva in March next year.

Since this informal arrangement is respected by all member states, Libya is expected to be elected by acclamation and without a vote- a clear victory for Qaddafi and a political endorsement by his peers.

Back to Top

Back to Columns

Copyright © 2001 Wijeya Newspapers Ltd. All rights reserved.
Webmaster