One day the country's government would be a direct democracy of locally appointed councils, the next it would be based on tribal rule, and the day after that Qaddafi might announce national elections that he would later cancel. First labor unions would be promoted to greater power, then academics, then clergy; all three would be, at some point during his reign, outright abolished.
Within political and social bodies of every kind, Qaddafi would play one official off of another, promoting sons above their fathers, pitting the members of too-powerful families or clans or unions against one another for resources, splitting so many allies and creating so many feuds and petty rivalries that it was nearly impossible that any two Libyans could come together to ask one another if there might be another way.
Economically, oil-rich Libya should look more like Dubai than the poor, under-developed nation it has become. Qaddafi's Libya produces 0. Yet the average Emirati is three times as wealthy as the average Libyan, according to IMF data on gross domestic product at purchasing power parity per capita.
Why are Libyans poorer on average than Mexicans while Emiratis richer than Americans? The country's oil wealth financed Qaddafi's lavish lifestyle, true, but perhaps more than anything else the self-proclaimed Leader of the Revolution used the money to maintain his own unlikely rule.
It was more than just patronage, though Qaddafi often used high-paying jobs and contracts to buy off enemies and to turn alliances into bitter rivalries. He developed enormous projects to give people hope for the future and then cancel them at the last moment -- usually blaming some enemy, foreign or domestic.
At times, he would knock down or rebuild the Libyan economy itself, secure that oil wealth would keep flowing. Though he never published an academic article on the subject, his actions could at times give the impression that he may have been one of the world's great experts in revolutions and democratic uprisings. At almost every turn, when the end of his rule should have been inevitable, he found a way to cheat the fate that nearly every theory of revolution says he should have fallen to long ago.
When the middle class grew too strong, he abruptly changed the currency, collapsing personal savings. When businesses became too powerful, he opened up more government subsidies to shut them down.
When government leaders and ministries earned enough influence to potentially challenge his rule, he shifted their power to popular councils. One year he might free political prisoners, the next put them into mass graves. The militia groups loosely allied with GNA denied attacking civilians, saying instead they targeted trucks carrying equipment and ammunition for eastern forces trying to take Tripoli.
Published On 28 Apr More from News. US journalist Danny Fenster jailed for 11 years in Myanmar. All foreign-language street signs were removed. Because the menus must be printed only in Arabic, waiters in hotels must translate aloud the list of dishes to non-Arabic-speaking diners.
Thus began a year reign marked by both violence and vanity. When he traveled, he insisted on staying in a Bedouin tent. It had to be big enough to accommodate his entourage, after all, including 30 or 40 members of the Amazonian Guard : a female security force comprising women who swore an oath of chastity and served wearing makeup and high-heeled combat boots.
Meanwhile pro-GNA forces have been engaged in a five-month battle, backed with US airstrikes, to capture the coastal town of Sirte from Isis. This article is more than 5 years old.
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