Gaddafi: From Brother Leader to Tyrant
As events unfold in Libya many are questioning the mental health of Col Muammar Gaddafi. Eden Yoseph looks at the bizarre and flamboyant leader who has now turned against his people in an attempt to stay in power.
Eden Yoseph, Researcher, Peace and Security Council Report, Addis Ababa Office
In his first televised speech on national television soon after the revolt against his regime started, and even as he seemed to be losing control over much of the country, Col Muammar Gaddafi of Libya repeatedly mentioned that he was not a president about to step down ... not a president to leave his post, but rather a revolutionary leader. Gaddafi is the longest serving of all current non-royal national leaders and he is one of the longest serving rulers in recent history as he has been in power for the past 42 years.
It has been reported that Gaddafi loyalists have used indiscriminate and excessive force and lethal weapons against peaceful protestors in attempts to preserve their leader's hold on power in areas where he is vulnerable to defeat.
Appropriately, many have questioned the mental stability and sanity of Gaddafi. He has been characterised as a bizarre and, in some ways funny, if not absurd, but flamboyant head of state - a leader who poses a threat to the majority of Libya's people. Consequently, the world observes events in Libya with serious concern.
Muammar Gaddafi has a way of doing and saying very odd things. For example, at his 'coronation' ceremony in 2009 he pronounced himself 'King of Kings' and even brought local chiefs to testify on his behalf in affirmation of his grandness at the 12th African Union (AU) summit in Addis Ababa. Ahead of the summit in February 2009, Gaddafi held a public ceremony in Libya in the presence of over 200 African traditional leaders. There are many more examples of his eccentricity, evidenced by his Bedouin tents erected in New York and Addis Ababa and the entourage he maintains, including the bevy of well-trained female bodyguards, that attend to his security and other needs.
One of Gaddafi's more startling comments was prompted by the actions of Somali pirates when he described the situation off the coast of Somalia as 'a response to greedy Western nations, who invade and exploit Somalia's water resources illegally. 'It is not piracy, it is self defence.' If they (Western nations) do not want to live with us fairly, it is our planet and they can go to another planet, he said.
As opinionated as he is, Gaddafi has also made comments about the AIDS virus, characterising HIV as 'a peaceful virus, not an aggressive virus'. Showing a homophobic streak and apparently unaware that drug abuse and transfusions of contaminated blood can also transmit the disease, he declared at the AU summit in Maputo in July 2003, that "if you are straight you have nothing to fear from AIDS".
Some of Gaddafi's speeches and actions have also cast serious doubt about the genuineness of his commitment to a 'pan-African' ideology. There is a contradiction between his views on African unification and his brutal actions against immigrants from 'black Africa'. His consistent pitch for the formation of a 'United States of Africa' has generally received a mixed response from other African leaders.
Gaddafi nurtures a grand vision for the African continent and has advocated for a single African military force, a single currency and a single passport for all Africans to enable them to move freely within the continent. This doesn't apply in Libya though. He also wants the total Islamisation of all of Africa.
In 2002, after a visit to South Africa, Gaddafi reportedly planned to travel by road through the continent. At the time the Sunday Independent newspaper reported that his 'excess baggage' on arrival in South Africa included 400 security officers and bodyguards, 60 armoured vehicles, one container ship full of goat carcasses, two Boeing 707s, one giant Antonov plane, plus another aircraft, 27 sub-machineguns, 48 AK-47s, two 46-seater buses, rocket-propelled grenade launchers, an electronic jamming device and $6m in cash.
Gaddafi did not start out as the dreadful tyrant he is now portrayed to be. He came to power in a bloodless coup d'etat against King Idris on September 1 1969. At that time he wanted to become the 'Che Guevara' of Africa, and used to declare that Libyan society was "ruled by the people." For this reason he did not initially seek a grandiose title or supreme military rank, preferring to retain the rank of colonel.
It all went downhill after 1973 when he introduced his famous "Five-Point Address" on the occasion of the Prophet Mohammad`s birthday, calling for suspension of all existing laws and the implementation of Shari`a; purging the country of the "politically sick"; creation of a "people`s militia" to "protect the revolution"; the introduction of an administrative revolution; and the implementation of a cultural revolution.
As we witness the gradual downfall of the Brother leader Muammar Abu Minyar al-Gaddafi, an important era in Africa's history is drawing to a close. However, Libya is rich in the spirit of its people, its cultural history and its abundant resources. Maybe the end of Gaddafi is but the beginning for Libya.
