The Young Men Who Ousted Gaddafi

Libyan nationals, whose average age is less than 25, are expelling the “leader” who has ruled for 42 years. The movement is dominated by young people, the generation that grew up after the limited reforms of the late Qadhafi regime.

In Libya, with a GDP of $14,000 per capita, it is clear that the standard of living was not the root cause of the revolution. The authoritarian reform process was as outdated and disorganized as the hairstyle of the “big pompadour”, which was so unpredictable and unpredictable. The young people of the post-reform generation, the “eggs of reform”, eventually hatched the revolution.

Taha Ben Mbah, a 21-year-old Libyan youth, no longer has to memorize Al-Qadhafi’s theory of the “third way”, nor does he have to write five sentences in praise of Al-Qadhafi in his exams. This summer, everything has changed.

The era of the most famous “pompadour” in Libya and the world is over.

Taha goes on duty every day at the Fatah building next to his home, receives an AK47 from the fighters from the Zlitan region, who are also his new friends, and guards the building in his American-style uniform and a pair of big-headed leather boots, and he’s already caught two thieves.

Now Taha, and his friends, call Gaddafi “Barsha Fasufa” (Arabic for “big puffy head”). It is the only nickname he has had in his 42 years in power. It was written in song lyrics, on walls and in cartoons. There are posters of a bald Gaddafi on the streets of Tripoli.

“He has messy hair.” Taha told Southern Weekend that this is the most direct reason why he, and so many younger people, hate Gaddafi. The once iconic revolutionary image of Gaddafi as “leader of the revolution and elder brother of the Libyan people” no longer resonates with this generation of Libyans who love European soccer and American Coke.

Gaddafi’s big pompadour makes it easy for younger people to recall his equally messy reign over the past four decades. “His thoughts and behavior are as outdated as his hair.” After commenting on Gaddafi’s hairstyle, Taha continued.

In a sense, this is indeed a war of “haircuts”. On the Bani Walid front, the favorite battle cry of the same young soldiers was: We will give Gaddafi a haircut.

In the early spring of 2011, the country, whose average national age was less than 25, sought to oust Gaddafi, who had ruled them for 42 years. Young people like Taha became the mainstay of this movement. The paradox of history is that they are the new generation that grew up after the limited reforms of the latter part of Gaddafi’s rule.

The Taha generation, now carrying AK-47s, was barely ten years old when Libya embarked on limited economic reforms after 2000. Over the next decade, they experienced the post-9/11 era of counter-terrorism, the globalization of the internet, and the world becoming flatter and flatter in everyone’s eyes; new ideas, along with European soccer, Hollywood movies, Google, Apple, and Facebook, flooded into this once closed and stagnant country. While the “big pompadour” remained fickle, the authoritarian reform process was as messy as Gaddafi’s haircut, the “elder brother of the revolution” finally lost the patience of the majority of the people, and finally, Taha and his contemporaries, the Libyans, the Libyans, the Libyans, the Libyans, the Libyans, the Libyans, the Libyans, the Libyans, the Libyans. Taha and his contemporaries, the Libyan “eggs of reform”, finally hatched the revolution.

“The Egg of Reform”

Taha was born in 1990, a year when the battle between the two camps, the Soviet Union and the United States, was coming to an end. A year later the U.N. sanctioned Gaddafi for the Lockerbie air disaster, and the price of everything in Libya began to rise, houses, food.

Unlike his elders, Taha had no idea how attractive Colonel Gaddafi was when he was young, or why the tall man walking in front of Gaddafi in the black-and-white photo (Egyptian President Nasser) was considered the great savior of the Arab world. Taha also has trouble imagining what Libya would have become in the 1970s when it offered to merge with Egypt and Syria. After the Arabs left the war with Israeli Jews all to the Palestinians themselves, Gaddafi turned from eastward to southward, pinning his historical significance on the African renaissance.

So for Taha, the Europeans were no longer colonialists, and the United States and the Soviet Union were no longer kingly empires. Taha’s family got a satellite dish and started watching TV programs from overseas. When Taha was a boy, the United Nations was bad and wouldn’t let the Libyan people have enough to eat or wear, but by the time he was in junior high school, Saddam Hussein, another dictator of the Arab world, had burrowed into a hole in the ground, and Libya and the United Nations were reconciled. Taha could watch Al Jazeera at home. In three more years, when Taha started high school, Americans were already allowed to do business in Libya, and Gaddafi and Rice had cordial meetings. Taha’s idea of America was no longer the America that bombed Gaddafi’s mansion, but the America with Apple and Facebook.

Gaddafi no longer calls for a cultural revolution as he did in the 1970s, opposes people learning foreign languages to see the world, and does not create new trouble in the international community, or at least is no longer at war with Algeria and Egypt. In the words of Sadek Kaheleh, the owner of a gold store in the old city of Tripoli, that generation of young Libyans let Gaddafi mislead them. That generation didn’t have the opportunity to learn English and wouldn’t have had a Facebook account.

In fact, more or less under the auspices of the “Crown Prince” Saif, Taha experienced the most enlightened era under Gaddafi. Compared with the former Gaddafi, the only thing that has not changed is his peculiar hairstyle and always upturned chin.

In 1999, after Libya agreed to hand over the suspected perpetrators of the Lockerbie crash, and relations with the world moved towards détente, internal reforms were initiated. 100 state enterprises were privatized at the beginning of the twenty-first century and opened up to international capital. Many of Libya’s exiled elites began to return to the country at this time. Including the editor-in-chief of that English-language newspaper, the Tripoli Post, plus owner Sayed Raswad. He was originally a political science professor in Malta.

Immediately thereafter, “Crown Prince” Saif even summoned people to rewrite a constitution. This was an unprecedented event for Libya, which had completely abolished its constitution and modern party system after 1972.

Veteran Tripoli politician Abdulhamnem Speta, who is serving on the National Transitional Council, was involved in Saif’s constitution back in the day, and says that set of constitutions is even a reference sample for a new constitution in the post-Gaddafi era.

In recent years, the Gaddafi government has engaged in a large-scale development campaign, Tripoli’s infrastructure construction is fast, and it looks decent, Taha’s home near the Marriott Hotel was just completed this year, was intended to open on February 17th.

Taha’s family has been doing well for a few years now, with his father in the oil company and 2 brothers and a sister of his own. He went to university and Taha has a car of his own. And it seems that the gap between rich and poor in Tripoli is not as big as in the surrounding countries. Libya has a lot of oil and a very small population. Oil accounts for 95% of the country’s exports, 25% of the country’s national income and 80% of the government’s revenues, spread over 6 million nationals, Libya’s GDP per capita is $14,000, more than twice that of Egypt.

Compared to their neighbors on the African continent, Libyans are much richer. On the streets of Tripoli, you can see the latest two-seater convertible, or the BMW X6. Gasoline is cheaper than water at 0.15 dinars a liter, equivalent to 70 cents.

Moreover, there are hardly any beggars on the streets. Although the unemployment rate reached 30% a few years ago, most of the jobs such as restaurant hostesses and sanitation workers are still done by wage earners from abroad.

The standard of living, to be sure, is not the root cause of people’s opposition to Gaddafi.

“Big hair” doesn’t belong to young people.

Still, Taha didn’t like Gaddafi. The more peaceful he was, the more Gaddafi became to him an eccentric product, out of step with Taha’s times.

Jalil of the National Transitional Council (NTC), Abdurramnem Sabetta, an elder statesman who always dresses like a British gentleman, Sayyid Raswad, an intellectual, and Sadek Kaheleh, the owner of a gold store in Bazary, know that the main force behind this revolution in Libya is young people like Taha.

For young people like Taha, Gaddafi’s rule was first and foremost too terrifying. Since coming to power in 1969, for example, no Libyan has ever dared to give Gaddafi a nickname, and there are no political jokes in the streets about the leader. Unlike the Egyptians next door or the former Soviet Union. This is said to be because there are secret police everywhere, and anyone who says something upsetting about Gaddafi and is overheard by a neighbor can be arrested.

In the past, Qadhafi liked to hang criminals live on television. Even shortly before the revolution, the Qadhafi government arrested five female journalists, leading to the disillusionment of democratic elites like Suleiman Dawgha, who were willing to cooperate with the system, and declared a “divorce from the system”.

Taha was able to see Gaddafi on TV going to Green Square, where a lot of people would show love to the leader. But these TV campaigns no longer have any didactic power for Taha and the others. “Many [of these TV favorites to the leader] are putting on a show, and some of them are receiving money.” Taha said privately to his friends.

Gaddafi would also take about democracy, and under the political system Gaddafi designed, every town had a People’s Assembly committee where you could go and raise your opinion about your life or your town if you had one. “But doing so doesn’t help at all.” Taha and his Zlitan friends know that.

The committee of the People’s Assembly in Tripoli has become virtually non-existent. There is a committee of the People’s Assembly just to the east of Green Square, but the residents of the neighborhood have never heard of it.

Corruption is another problem of the Qadhafi regime. From Benghazi to Tripoli, everyone will tell you that Qaddafi was corrupt. Dr. Amal, a doctor at Tripoli Central Hospital, described that corruption in the medical system was very serious under Gaddafi, and that medicines distributed by the government to the localities would be embezzled, and that the head of the hospital had to be a Gaddafi loyalist without having to take into account the level of medicine. Amal has been at the hospital for 2 years, without any salary for the first year and a half, but she is lucky compared to her classmates who could not get into the hospital.

Politician Abdulhamnem Speta said that politicians at the highest level took bribes back then. “I’m embarrassed to mention their names.” He said. In his view, Gaddafi was a shame for Libyans. “We apologize to the world for what Gaddafi did.”

Due to bad policies, the public does not recognize hospital treatment. Rich people would go abroad for medical treatment or find ways to go to private clinics. Hospital doctors, on the other hand, have been able to go to private clinics to earn extra money and make a small fortune.

“Money in your left hand, gun in your right.”

In Benghazi on the evening of Sept. 2, not much of the war was visible anymore. The usual carnival parade spread through the streets. Several teenagers dressed as wolves and sheep danced in the street. A high school-looking teenager waved a new flag vigorously.

“Benghazi is celebrating everywhere.” Muhammad told Southern Weekend that he used to be a dispatcher at Benghazi airport. He pointed to the flag-waving teenager, “His name is Sabil, he’s 17 years old, he’s not in school, and he doesn’t have a regular job.”

Uncle Muhammad said that Gaddafi would not pay for them to study, so what could they do?

In fact, Gaddafi had set out to save his love affair with the Libyan nationals before it became irreparable. They had supported him like that in the 1970s and in the early 1980s. At that time, he was a national hero, and he appeared like a rock star to crowds that were fanatically supporting him.

After 2006, the Qadhafi regime began to experiment with transitional efforts, such as privatization, the establishment of a new constitution, and even private media.

Indeed, since 2000, Qadhafi has pushed for economic liberalization. He publicly declared the failure of the Libyan state sector and called for the privatization of the oil industry along with the rest of the economy. The pro-privatization Janim was appointed prime minister by Gaddafi.

Soon, however, Gaddafi’s eccentricities began to shape the reforms he was promoting: contradictory measures were implemented, first encouraging multinationals to invest, then claiming to want to curb the role of foreigners in the Libyan economy; talking about privatization, then arresting businessmen because the “Colonel” felt that they had a monopoly on business. The “colonel” felt that they had monopolized business.

The pace of such reforms has been far slower than the accumulation of resentment. The forces of the exiled opposition abroad slowly came together, and in June 2005 the International Conference of the Libyan Political Opposition issued a National Consensus Declaration in London, proposing a return to constitutional legality, the formation of a transitional government, and the prosecution of “members of the government who have committed non-humanitarian crimes”. It also called for Qadhafi’s resignation.

Even Gaddafi’s second son, Saif, the “crown prince” and one of the leading reformers, could not help but begin to criticize his father, and in August 2008, speaking at a youth gathering before departing for a visit to Washington, D.C., Saif declared that Libya had fallen into a “decades-long stagnation” and alluded to Gaddafi, saying, “We need a stable administrative, legal and constitutional system that doesn’t change every year. He said, “We need a stable administrative, legal and constitutional system that doesn’t change from year to year.”

Saif soon paid the price for this when Gaddafi subsequently appointed another son, Muatessen, as National Security Adviser. And after Saif’s return from the U.S., the government seized his satellite TV channel and his media conglomerate, some of Saif’s political allies were arrested, and Gaddafi reportedly refused to even meet with his once-appointed successor. Interestingly, Saif has diplomas from the University of Vienna and the London School of Economics, enjoys U.S. political history and culture, and his favorite movie is said to be Spielberg’s Jaws. In a way, Saif, himself, belongs to the younger generation.

But the greater price was to be paid by Gaddafi himself. five years later, the fire came from the neighboring country to the west. “When I saw the Tunisian and Egyptian revolutions, I thought it was our turn.” Taha says, “but at the time I couldn’t imagine the Libyan revolution coming to fruition.” He learned about the revolutions in the two neighboring countries from satellite television. At the time, Al Jazeera was reporting it fiercely.

In fact, it was reported in Tripoli’s newspapers. The only English-language newspaper, the Tripoli Post, devoted its front page in mid-February to the news of Mubarak’s ouster, accompanied by a picture of Cairoites gathering in a square to celebrate with fireworks. No one expected the scene to play out in Tripoli almost seven months later.

Beginning in January, the Qadhafi Government spent blood money to buy people’s hearts and minds, including by announcing the provision of housing and new development plans. And in the past, when housing was a serious problem, Gaddafi had said that those who had more than two houses, one of which was his, would be allocated by him to those who did not have a house to live in. “But he has his own palace in every city.” Taha said.

The government is clearly aware of the unstable inner workings of these youth in Taha. The National Youth Council suddenly announced that it would distribute 15,000 laptops to its members.

In mid- to late February, an uprising broke out in Benghazi, the center of eastern Libya, when citizens stormed the police station and the army, and Qaddafi sent his troops to suppress it, shooting the citizens of Benghazi. In the following months, the beginning of this uprising was set for February 17th. From then on the sign of February 17th could be seen in Benghazi, Tripoli, all the places where the revolutionaries were victorious.

After the massacre in Benghazi, Gaddafi stepped up his efforts to buy people’s hearts and minds across the country. He believed in the power of money and guns: 42 years ago, a tank without a single shell helped Gaddafi seize power; 15 years ago, a bloody crackdown helped Gaddafi quell a political demonstration against the Gaddafi family.

Libyan state television reported that the government announced a 150 percent wage increase and cash assistance equivalent to $400 per family to subsidize rising prices.

Youssef Mabrouk, who guarded the Fatah building with Taha before the revolution broke out, was still studying in Zlitan. It is about 160 kilometers from Tripoli, a major town in the mountains of southwestern Libya.Signs calling for Gaddafi’s departure appeared in downtown Zlitan in February.

After the Benghazi massacre, Gaddafi went to Zlitan to recruit. The tribes of Zlitan have been among Gaddafi’s loyal supporters for the past 42 years, and among the more than 140 tribes in Libya, one of the powerful ones. There are quite a few powerful Zlitans under Gaddafi. So in Gaddafi’s eyes, the Zlitans are much more reliable than those Benghazis in the east.

“Gaddafi said that the Zlitans are his brothers and he gave us 25,000 dinars per family to send our men to fight in Benghazi, but we said that the Benghazis are our brothers and that we won’t do it by killing them.” Yusuf said.

Gaddafi sent airplanes to Zlitan to hover and threaten, which counter-ignited the population and led to Zlitan becoming one of the first areas in the west to revolt. Fighting in the region continued until early August.

When Youssef was dragged to the uprising by his friends, classes were suspended at Fatah University in Tripoli and Taha and his classmates were on vacation.

Toward dawn on February 20, Tripoli’s youth began taking to the streets to vandalize Gaddafi’s portraits, which were everywhere. Taha followed through the night, climbing onto billboards bearing the bust of Colonel Gaddafi and tearing them down, unmasked. The army intervened until 4 a.m. The police were present when Taha and his men went to dismantle the Gaddafi portrait, but no one did anything about it.

Taha videotaped the action on his cell phone, transferring it to a secure memory card. After a few months, this became his bragging capital with friends, a segment of which was placed on Facebook.

Back home, Taha hid for a month, and luckily Gaddafi had too much trouble to care about him.

A young Libya

If the old men of the National Transitional Council are to be trusted with their words, classes are resuming at the nation’s universities, and Taha intends to go back to Fatah University to continue his studies in electrical engineering and to become an engineer in the future, like his father. Only no longer Gaddafi’s engineer, but the engineer of the new Libya.

The war is still going on not far away.On September 10th, a Southern Weekend reporter came to the front line of Bani Walid. Before the war started, soldiers of Taha’s age laid down their weapons from all over the world and lined up to pray. An artillery shell exploded 500 meters away, sending up smoke, and military personnel asked the reporter to leave.

On the evening of September 13, tens of thousands of young people like Taha went to Green Square to rally. They had been partying in the square for three nights before. But on this night the heads of the National Transitional Council (NTC), especially Chairman Jalil, came. Before Jalil took the stage, the crowd was already shouting “Where, where, Jalil”.

Jalil is not tall, and can even be said to be the shortest and thinnest of those on the stage. Completely different from those flamboyant guys in front of him, Jalil clutched the double-rod microphone in his hands and spoke in a calm and careful tone, not so much like a leader, but like an old gentleman standing on the defense table.

This was the first time that he led the core of the National Transitional Council to appear before the public in post-war Tripoli. A military band was even brought on stage to play the new national anthem, and order was maintained not only by the military, but also by the police, who were policing the city. The old badges on the brims of the policemen’s hats were all removed.

Tens of thousands of people, overwhelmingly young, crowded the square. Hassan, a one-legged teenager, was invited to the stage to shake hands with Jalil and others. Hassan is only 19 years old and was wounded in the fighting in Misrata. He symbolizes the sacrifices young people make for the revolution.

The new government ministries under Jalil can still occasionally bump into the imprint of the Gaddafi era: some government officials still use the Gaddafi-era Great Seal, even though the caricature taped to the windowpane of the office behind him shows Gaddafi and his son Saif hanging from the gallows.

It’s seven months after Libyans roughed up Gaddafi. In Tripoli, restaurants, cafes, clothing stores and even goldsmiths are open for business. There are teenagers in Kaka jerseys on the streets shooting in the air with Kalashnikovs, but the owners yell a few times and the teenagers drop their guns.

The reliable security situation in Tripoli was confirmed to the Southern Weekend reporter by the owner of a gold store, Sadek Kaheleh, who closed his business in the Old City in March and ran to Tunisia with his family. It was only when the fighting in Tripoli ended that he returned. He is not worried about people coming in to rob him.

In Tripoli, the situation is changing day by day, with fewer and fewer checkpoints. Cabs have resumed operations. And at the same time as the Kahele family’s gold store opened, fashion stores selling jeans and high heels, sunglasses and watch stores, perfume stores, and then coffee shops, cigarette stores and sporting goods stores, and electronics stores selling cell phones and computers are also doing business – young people are the ones who consume the majority of these stores.

Kaheleh is equally optimistic about the future of the gold store and the future of Libya. “My father left me this store and my best times were here.” He said. Now he believes the future will be bright too, with a free, young Libya.