The Colonel and his Athenian ideal

After decades of international isolation, Libya may be changing. But there are very clear limits. A slightly newer and mellower version of Qaddafi was on display on Friday for the correspondents, as part of the celebration of the 30th anniversary of the system of government he instituted.

The man who once banned everything from Western music to teaching English in schools, who was condemned by Washington for support of terrorism, spoke of opening Libya to the world. “Undoubtedly Libya is part of this changing world dominated by globalisation,” he said during the discussion, itself a rarity. “Libya is riding this wave, taking this and that. Libya cannot row against the current.”

Those are revolutionary words for a man who seized power in a coup 37 years ago. But Qaddafi is the same eccentric figure as always, dressed in elaborate Libyan robes jazzed up with striking colors and a modern flair. He still offers unusual ideas, like when he said all the nations of the world would someday meld into seven or eight blocs, and that all formal governments, parliaments and militaries would be dissolved. Only then, he said, would there be world peace.

Or when asked about women’s rights. He said that women and men should have the same rights, but that women should not be made to do men’s work because they are biologically different. “Do women have to be train drivers? Why do we let women have jobs that turn them into men? A pregnant woman or a breast-feeding woman, how can she drive the train or work in a factory?”

In his 60s, Colonel Qaddafi comes across as a man thinking about his legacy, and how to retool a system of governance that has failed to adequately administer the state. Though it is the richest in North Africa because of its oil reserves, its schools, hospitals and infrastructure are in serious disrepair, according to consultants brought in to draft a plan for change.

So Qaddafi has begun to take steps that were unthinkable just a few years ago. The discussion with him here, led by the television interviewer David Frost and including Western academics, was one such event.

What has not changed, and what he made clear, is the core of what he believes. The problem in Libya, he said, is not with his ideas, but with their implementation. He said it took many years for people to learn the duties and responsibilities of self-rule.

In his philosophy, people should rule themselves, not elect the people to rule them. He said he modeled his ideas after the way ancient Athens was governed, with collective meetings and unanimous participation.

During the discussion his role in building Libya’s so-called democracy never came up. But the panelists did tell him that unlike ancient Athens, with just 20,000 citizens, ruling a country the size of Libya, with five million residents, would not work according to his vision.

Sir Anthony Giddens, a British sociologist, told him that Libya would be better off combining bits of representative democracy with individual democracy. But that was not an idea he seemed willing to accept.

The Libyan advocates of change and the outside consultants are careful to focus on the small signs of change — like the panel discussion itself. Until the event started, organisers said they were afraid it would be canceled by Colonel Qaddafi’s team. But it went off and therein was evidence, they said, of change.

–MICHAEL SLACKMAN