The follies of Muammar Gaddafi
I worked in Libya for a few years. Muammar Gaddafi catapulted himself into power at the age of only 27 years on 1st September 1969. Libya is an extremely resourceful country with oil, fertile lands, the legendary man- made river from the southern deserts to Tripoli and Benghazi and best of everything with a small population.
Gaddafi followed the wrong path during his rule. He could have copied the UAE model - the pro-development progressive policies of the UAE Sheikhs. Gaddafi discouraged higher education in Libya.
Competition in the universities was intense and the number of seats were limited. So, most of the young people would read up to class twelve, enroll into trade courses and get employed. He initiated policies of funding international terrorism and unnecessarily going into conflicts with neighbours and other countries. He gave refuge to all the fugitives of the world.
He had more enemies than friends. There would be attempt on his life almost every month. We were advised not to utter his name in public places. Secret police probably outnumbered the regular police. Once I had to wait for an hour in the Tripoli- Benghazi highway for the battle tanks to pass.
Colonel Gaddafi could have steered his country to a new prosperous height just by following pro-development policies. We would dub Muammar Gaddafi's rule as a huge opportunity lost. May Libya return to normalcy and prosper.
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