From a kidnapper to a kidnapped leader

Out of all the Arab Spring countries, Libya may be the most likely to succeed, even after the kidnapping, or detainment of their Prime Minister Ali Zeidan. Life is based on relativity, and the chaotic situation in Libya today is the fruit of four decades of systematic destruction of the state and society at the hands of an eccentric and violent tyrant. We should not compare Libya to any other country; we should compare Libya today to Gaddafi’s Libya.

The Prime Minister returned to work unharmed, and the kidnappers said they were only applying the law, as they suspected he was corrupt. This can only be considered a point in favour of post-revolution Libya, as the Prime Minister was accused of something that may or may not be true. However, where were such accusations during the reign of the tyrant who was known for kidnapping operations that resulted in the disappearance of the captured, like in the case of the Shiite leader Musa Al-Sadr or hundreds of other opposition members in and out of Libya.

Anyone released from prison requires psychological and physical care as well as rehabilitation, and we are now facing societies who have just been released from a large and scary prison. Until today, there is no explanation for many of Gaddafi’s crimes, such as his kidnapping of his opposition’s cadavers from refrigerators and his strange sexual behaviour in the form of raping young girls and women. Moreover, YouTube is full of pictures of his public executions. Today Libya is considered an arms barrack, but we have not seen any acts of revenge or brutality. There is some chaos, but it is on the verge of subsiding.

There is no difference between a condemned kidnapping that was resolved quickly and peacefully and between the kidnapping of President Mohamed Morsi who no one knows anything about since he was taken by an armed gang. However, the double standards are apparent here, as what the gang, who were rebels that fought Gaddafi’s regime, did and what Colonel Abdul Fattah Al-Sisi did was the same thing, but the world described the Libyan action as a kidnapping and the Egyptian action as isolation. There was no blood shed during the Libyan incident, but an estimated 5,000 people were killed in Egypt.

If the Arab Spring countries were left alone, then the transitional phase would pass by quickly and with few losses, but the counter-revolution is active, fierce, and brutal. What is protecting Libya is the balance from the fear due to the fact that everyone is carrying arms, which makes Libya’s revolution similar to Yemen. That is why the situation there remains a lot better than having a repeat of the Egyptian coup model. Libya, whose people knew nothing of order and who called for the establishment of order collectively condemned the kidnapping, despite its extreme political division. On the other hand, in Egypt, we find an invitation to commit massacres and then cover them up and justify them once they are committed. In a few years, Libya will be a political and economic success story because the Libyans have proven their amazing ability to tolerate, co-exist, and accept, and has not attempted to seek revenge, despite the presence of arms. Gaddafi’s ugly death has happened before with Mussolini in Italy, and the act was a spontaneous reaction, not an organised massacre such as those in Egypt at the Republican Guard headquarters and in the Al-Nahda and Rabaa Al-Adaweya squares. Today, we are witnessing Gaddafi’s relative, Abdullah Senussi, being given a fair trial, even though he is responsible for the Abu Salim Prison massacre. I would like to remind everyone that the Islamists were the victims of that massacre, and they are the ones holding the arms today.

Fortunately for Libya, they went from the reign of a kidnapping leader to the reign of the kidnapped leader.

Yasser Abu Hilalah is the bureau chief of Al Jazeera’s office Amman, Jordan.

The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Monitor.