The global game of power

The world has watched in jubilation the scenes of revolution in Tunisia, Egypt and Bahrain over the last few weeks. In each instance, the populace of the country in question has peacefully demanded change and has managed to achieve it, either in the shape of a change in government or concessions being made by ruling despots to adjust to the will of the people. I refer to these rulers as despots because that is what I regard them to be – puppets put in place by their facilitators in the west, to keep their citizens unaware, which allows them to equally share the great bounty of liquid gold they sit upon, amongst their own nefarious families and with their western counterparts in the form of oft hidden contracts.

Funnily enough, until the revolution reached Libya, the western world was content in issuing placid calls for negotiation and dialogue as well the need for their appointed rulers to “change as per today’s requirements” even though in the case of each country, extreme violence was used by the ruling authorities to quash the public uprising.

However now that Col.Qadhafi’s government is using the same heavy handedness displayed previously in Bahrain, Egypt and Tunisia, the Nato allies are up in arms at the seriousness of the situation with the American forces on standby to come to the “aid” of the Libyan people if necessary within the hour, Ms Clinton has offered“any kind of assistance”.

Add to this, the American Defense Secretary Robert Gates said on CNN “If it’s ordered, we can do it,” but imposing a no-fly zone “begins with an attack on Libya to destroy the air defenses.” Welcome to war hysteria ladies and gentlemen in its third, or is it the fourth edition now? US senators are comparing the situation in Libya to Yugoslavia while British PM David Cameron and other western leaders fear the use of chemical weapons by Qadhafi. Remember the WMD scare in Iraq?

The heads of various states are also talking about the precarious and urgent need for a no-fly zone over Libya. Obviously none of this has anything to do with the fact that Libya is an oil rich country with a per capita income of USD 14,000, which is also close to the $10 billion, 4,128 kilometre long trans-Saharan gas pipeline from Nigeria to Algeria, expected to be functional by 2015. The same country which was until very recently praised by the IMFfor having “continued efforts to modernise and diversify the economy” and lauded for its “efforts to enhance the role of the private sector in the economy”.

I think the Libyans need to be very, very careful. For in bringing about their revolution, they might just make the mistake of replacing their own despot for the ones who control him in the first place. The harbingers of democracy are looking at a very small, very oily window of opportunity here, which needs to be closed very quickly by those in charge of the revolution in Libya. As rightly pointed out by the human-rights lawyer, Abdel-Hafidh Ghoga: “We are against any foreign intervention or military intervention in our internal affairs…This revolution will be completed by our people with the liberation of the rest of Libyan territory controlled by Qadhafi’s forces.”

“Our” being the key word here, for it is very easy to be swept away in the glamour of heroic revolution and then look back to only see that the country which was going to be uplifted by its population by the said heroics, was only being used as a pawn in the global game of power. As the old saying goes “beware of greeks bearing gift”

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As published on “The Dawn Blog” at March 7th, 2011