Gaddafi’s Libyan Jamahiriya Pt. 2
In Part One we discussed and showed the achievements of the Libyan Jamahiriya. In Part Two we will discuss the meaning of Jamahiriya and talk about Libyan democracy. This will debunk the popular myth spread by western media that Gaddafi was a “power hungry dictator”. We will show that in fact Gaddafi wasn’t a “dictator” but a liberator and a staunch supporter of true democracy, which the West opposes in favour of dictatorship of the bourgeoisie, also known by the name Liberal Democracy.
The nation that the West wanted you to think was a horrible and oppressive one man “dictatorship”, was actually one of the democratic nations in the world, even more democratic than the U.S. and their Western allies, which are hardly democracies.
The Libyan Jamahiriya aka the “government of the popular masses by themselves and for themselves”. Jamahiriya is a higher form of what is known as direct democracy (pure democracy) this is true democracy, this is when the people decide on policy initiatives directly, when the People are the President. In Libya, the the traditional institutions of government were abolished and disbanded by the people. The power was handed over to the people, via the various committees and congresses in Libya.
The country of Libya was split up into multiple little communities. These communities were basically mini-autonomous states inside the nation of Libya. These autonomous States did have control over their local regions and area. The autonomous states had the ability to make a large range of decisions. The autonomous states could do things such as allocate their budgetary funds and oil revue. The main body of the democratic system in Libya was the Local Committees, People’s Congresses, and Executive Revolutionary Councils.
In 2009 Gaddafi even invited the New York Times to visit Libya for two weeks so that they could observe and learn about Libya’s direct democratic system. The New York Times, which was no ally of the Libyan Jamahiriya, they even had to admit defeat to their own propaganda, they said that “everyone is involved in every decision…Tens of thousands of people take part in local committee meetings to discuss issues and vote on everything from foreign treaties to building schools.” These committee meetings had been built to gain a strong national agreement.
A step up from the Local Committees were People’s Congresses. This was when the representatives from all of the 800 local committees around the Libyan Jamahiriya would go to meet multiple times a year. People’s Congresses were held in the city of Sirte, the place Gaddafi was born and had grown up in. The People’s Congresses were to pass laws based on what the people had said they had wanted in their local meetings. These congresses could create economic and public polices, they could also write new laws, through their legislative power. They also had the power to sign agreements and treaties.
Everybody in Libyan society was allowed to participate in the local committee meetings, Gaddafi was challenged and was open to criticism, which he was criticised openly by the people. He didn’t kill them or imprison them because he wasn’t a dictator, he was a man of democracy. There was various points when his proposals had been turned down by the popular vote and the contrary to what Gaddafi had put forward had been approved and put forwards for legislation. On many occasions, Gaddafi proposed the abolition of capital punishment and he pushed for home schooling over traditional schools. However, the People’s Congresses wanted to maintain the death penalty and classic schools, and ultimately the will of the People’s Congresses prevailed. Gaddafi wasn’t a dictator, he was actively challenged in the political theatre and he always let the will of the people prevail. In 2009, Colonel Gaddafi put forward a proposal to essentially abolish the central government altogether and give all the oil proceeds directly to each family. The People’s Congresses rejected this idea also. We have seen that Gaddafi wasn’t a dictator, that he was actively challenged in the political theatre and he always let the will of the people prevail.
A step up from the People’s Congresses was the Executive Revolutionary Council, Revolutionary Council’s had been elected by the People’s Congresses. The Revolutionary Councils were for executing polices and proposals which the people had put forward. Revolutionary Councils could be recalled or changed by the people at any time, they was responsible for the ordinary citizens of Libya. Polices put forward by the People’s Congresses and executed by the Executive Revolutionary Councils reflects that the Libyan Jamahiriya was ran by the people and reflected their will. It shows that Libya wasn’t ran by what the West likes to call the “Gaddafi Clan”.
The Jamahiriya system made the word ‘elevation’ effective over ‘election’. They didn’t use the political campaigning of the bourgeoisie, they made the will of the people a reality.
People in the West vote for leaders every few years and for local parliamentarians, who only execute their own personal interest and the interest of the ruling class, they are elected dictators. During the Libyan Jamahiriya the people made the decision making on economic, domestic and foreign policy themselves. Democracy isn’t just political parties, elections and voting for what member of the bourgeoisie you want to rule over you, true democracy is about the will of the people, democratising the economy and giving economic power to the majority. Capitalism and democracy can’t coexist, one can’t concentrate wealth and power in the hands of few then call themselves a democratic state. Before the Jamahiriya and Gaddafi, King Idris let Standard Oil dictate Libya’s petroleum laws.
The major difference between western democratic systems and the Jamahiriya’s direct democracy is that the people could contribute directly and had an effect on the decision making process, Libyans could voice their opinions directly, instead of electing ruling class politicians who only care for their own interest and the ruling class. The Libyan Jamahiriya was far from a “one man dictatorship” ran by the “Gaddafi clan”.
“The democratic system is a cohesive structure whose foundation stones are firmly laid one above the other, the Basic People’s Conferences, the People’s Conferences, and the People’s Committees, which finally come together when the General People’s Conference convenes. There is absolutely no conception of democratic society other than this.” - Gaddafi
“No representation of the people — representation is a falsehood. The mere existence of parliaments underlies the absence of the people, for democracy can only exist with the presence of the people and not in the presence of representatives of the people.” - Gaddafi
Gaddafi Explains the Socialist Jamahiriya
