Tajudeen Abdul-Raheem turns a timely and critical eye on Colonel Muamar Gaddafi and asks: Have we indulged the Spiritual guide and first citizen of the Libyan Arab People's Socialist Jamahiriya for too long?

The Brother Leader, Colonel Muamar Gaddafi, the Spiritual guide and first citizen of the Libyan Arab People's Socialist Jamahiriya, is in Uganda on a four-day official visit.

No sooner than he landed in Uganda did he start saying things that delighted his adulatory supporters and lullaby to his host, but make his critics cry wolf. In closing a ten-day meeting of African/Arab Youth he repeated his controversial thesis about revolutionaries not retiring, not needing term limits and democracy as an imposition from the west and surprise! Surprise!! The revolutionary leader He (in power for 39 years)declared his host, Museveni (in power only for 22 years but still counting!) and uncle Bob of Zimbabwe (in power for 28 years and soon getting himself 're-elected' whether Zimbabweans like it or not!), as the genuine articles among Africa's state house bound revolutionaries!

I do not subscribe to a lot of the Gaddafiphobia that we have been fed with over the years by reactionary African leaders and western ideological warriors who are now falling over themselves to do business with Gaddafi. I have met the Leader several times and support Libya on many Pan African and international issues. When we held the 7th PAC in Kampala his support was only second to that of the host country, Uganda. I am and will always consider myself a friend of the Jamahiriya.

However, as any person who has been in solidarity with Libya may admit privately, Brother Gaddafi is a very difficult friend to have. The political system he has developed in Libya is highly personalised and leader-centric with the inner core vulnerable to instability based on who is in and who is out based on his whims. While the Leader may enjoy popular support, there is no strong evidence that the popular masses have really internalised the ideals of the revolution, four decades after. That is why you have periodic conflicts between Libyans and other Africans often with racial overtones while the Leader is busy promoting stronger unity, solidarity and Pan Africanism.

Unfortunately, most of the supporters and the so called friends of the Jamahiriya do not tell the Leader the truth. This makes him vulnerable to flatterers, charlatans and opportunists both in interstate relations and in popular diplomacy. And he seems to enjoy and even crave the fake adulation. And they come wearing all kinds of ideological and religious masks. The more militant the better!

A consequence of this cheap populism is the tendency for the Brother leader to say anything, make unguarded declarations and sometimes espouse half-baked ideas that should embarrass any genuine comrade. But no one will tell the emperor that he is naked.

Sometimes when he really has original ideas and is willing to put his money where his mouth is, the penchant for showmanship becomes fertile ground for his enemies and critics to kill the ideas and even some of his so-called friends to play games with him.

One of such is his support for an accelerated integration of Africa which he has been championing since the Sirte extra ordinary Summit in September 1999. It was not just reactionary African leaders that led the onslaught in Accra. His 'revolutionary’ friends, including Presidents Museveni, Mbeki, and Prime Minister Meles were among those who torpedoed the Union Government proposal in favour of tortoise speed.

Yet Libya continues to spend disproportionate resources on lobbying leaders believing that once they say yes, we will achieve Unity by fiat. If Libya had spent a tiny proportion of what it spends on these leaders in building strategic partnership with democratic forces, peoples groups, parliaments, youth women and student groups, trade unionists and other progressive forces in raising popular consciousness and political mobilisation in many countries in Africa, there would have been greater success because the masses will be driving and pushing the leaders. Unfortunately because its system is also leader-driven from top downwards it cannot engage with genuine democratic forces. When Libya attempts popular diplomacy because they are not always good readers of country situations, they fall victim to conference mercenaries just like the jamboree that has just ended in Kampala.

In spite of his continuing rhetoric against imperialism Libya is in reality now aligned to the west in an understandable Post Lockerbie realism. It is no longer a pariah state. And Tripoli has again become a magnate for all manner of western companies and executive tourism for western leaders. That is why it is cooperating with the EU on xenophobic immigration policies to enhance fortress Europe by stopping desperate Africans from using Libya to cross into the EU. I am no advocate of Africans going to wash plates and do all kinds of dirty jobs in Europe. Our future lies on this continent with so much wealth but only appreciated and appropriated by others thanks to the collaboration of our leaders who act as dealers. However a genuine Pan Africanist state should not act as Gate Keepers for the West. Instead of deporting these Africans, why can't Libya show its seriousness about freedom of movement for Africans by giving them the right to settle and work in Libya? That will be leadership by example with which it can challenge other African states to set our peoples free and return Africa to Africans.

We have indulged the Brother leader for too long.

While Revolutionaries may not retire from the revolution, they should not imprison the revolution in the state house by insisting they have to remain there for life. The longer they hang on to power the more reactionary they become as revolutionary goals give way to personal and regime security.
What kind of revolution is the Brother leader talking about that depends on only one leader after so many decades?

Let history judge whether those who speak uncompromising truth to power are the real revolutionaries or those who flatter leaders as irreplaceable.

There is no doubt in my mind that even if the citizens cannot remove these permanent leaders, death will eventually retire them. The grave yards of history are full of many delusionary leaders who thought themselves immortal.

*Dr Tajudeen Abdul-Raheem writes this syndicated column in his private capacity as a Pan Africanist. His views are not attributable to that of any organization he works for or is affiliated with.

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