11/1/11 In Libya, Fighting May Outlast the Revolution (New York Times)

In Libya, Fighting May Outlast the Revolution

By DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK

Published: November 1, 2011

Tripoli, Libya


The article starts with:

Many of the local militia leaders who helped topple Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi are abandoning a pledge to give up their weapons and now say they intend to preserve their autonomy and influence political decisions as “guardians of the revolution.” (New York Times)

Libya’s new provisional government, the Transitional National Council is their issue. 


The position of the Transitional National Council is:

The provisional government’s departing prime minister, Mahmoud Jibril, suggested in a news conference Sunday night that instead of expecting the local militias to disband, the Transitional National Council should try to incorporate them by expanding to include their representatives. (New York Times)

According to New York Times:

Militia leaders have already demonstrated their resolve to step into the political process. Before the provisional government named a new prime minister Monday night, local leaders in Misurata — speaking on the condition of anonymity to avoid an open fight with the national council — threatened that if it failed to agree on a candidate they deemed satisfactory, local military councils from cities in western Libya might intercede to decide the question. (New York TImes)

There are two points of views that:

Some point to neighboring Egypt, where the council of military officers that took power at the ouster of President Hosni Mubarak has delayed a transition to civilian control. Others say there is a danger Libya could resemble the chaos in Yemen or Syria because there are several autonomous militias poised to take on a political role. (New York Times)

Electoral democracy seems to start.

The Transitional National Council has pledged in a “constitutional declaration” that within eight months after the selection of a new government, it will hold elections for a national assembly, which will oversee the writing of a constitution. During the uprising, officials of the Transitional National Council vowed to give equal voice to all Libyans, regardless of their location or political position. (New York Times)

However,

leaders in Misurata, a commercial center that withstood a long siege to emerge as the arsenal of Libyan revolt, say they are advocating a four-point set of criteria for representation that would increase their say, at the expense of smaller towns or those who stayed loyal to Colonel Qaddafi: population, size, economic output and “priority in liberation.”