By Nandini Ray:
When in 1969, Muammar Gaddafi became the ruler of Libya, after successfully leading the military coup and overthrowing the King Idris I, he certainly wouldn’t have thought that after almost 42 years of being the supreme, he was not just going to be overthrown, but severely punished for being one all these years by the its own people. The Libyan protests, gradually to be known as the Libyan revolution began on 15th February 2011 on the streets of Benghazi seeking the expulsion of the Libyan Arab Jamhiriya, Gaddafi’s government. This uprising was finally declared a civil war which ended with the killing of the pseudo ruler on 20th October 2011. The final end to the Libyan crises came, officially, on 23rd October 2011, when the Libyan National Transitional Council (NTC) confirmed the death of Muammar Gaddafi and his son Moatassem Gaddafi, a Lieutenant Colonel in the Libyan army, during the battle of Sirte, the place from where Gaddafi was allegedly trying to escape.
Though the mission has certainly been accomplished by the anti government and other rebel groups of Libya but the fight to resist this change and bring peace and democracy in the region would always play its game to keep the NTC and the future government on its toes. Apart from the Arab nations and their neighbors, the most reactive countries in this discourse have been France, United Kingdom (UK) and the United States. In order to retain their supremacy, these mentioned governments haven’t been more covert with their objectives and ambitions and in this aspect, with major reference to the United States, they have in fact been successful enough to get away with their desires. In such outrageous cases, the involvement of foreign entities could never be ruled out and their inevitable manipulation in creating significant euphoria among the people as well are very important factors which need to be kept in order while deciding the fate of one’s nation when affected by a war. In most general aspect, when protests sting any nation in any part of the world, then as part of the international politics there will always be one or more nations who would come forward, either in support or against the nation’s government, and would also have the power to create significant change in the mentality of its people. This feature as such was also a part of the Libyan civil war and the nations involved have already been mentioned. The major attraction for these countries have been the presence of ample oil reserves in the Middle Eastern nations and hence their interests. But since enough has been said and done now, with the entire Gaddafi fraternity resting in peace, there seems to be no point as to how and why it all happened, after all the people of Libya feel happy and not scared of any more pains, killings and deaths all in the name of power and nation.
The liberation of Libya is considered as one of the most influential events in the history of Arab Spring, which has witnessed protests as well as resistance from the different governments in its territory. What needs to be learnt now is that the struggle to be free is not over, because it’s not just by killing one dictator, real freedom could be achieved as there are many more social dictators alive who can cause more harm to its people silently. But the most important card which came into play during the Libyan crises was the power which people have shown in them as they successfully overthrown the dictatorship and has taught the entire world to have faith in themselves as they have proved that they are no way less powerful than any of the leaders and are the real seeds of change in their country. Hence never to forget the famous saying-To bring a Change, first be the Change; and the countries in the Middle East have undoubtedly realized this in time.
Check out our complete commentary on the Libyan revolution HERE.