Editor's introduction:
There has been a tendency in recent years to dismiss Mu'ammar al-Qadhdhafi as an irrelevant extremist, largely because of the isolation he and the Libyan government have encountered. But Qadhdhafi has been in power for almost twenty years and he yet dominates the Libyan state. And however shaky his regime may be at present, he is now only forty-seven years old, so that he could rule Libya for another three or four decades. In combination, Qadhdhafi's power and his volatile personality make his views key to an understanding of the Libyan state.
Qadhdhafi facilitates this task for he, somewhat like Fidel Castro, engages in long, rambling, and largely unrehearsed speeches. The following excerpts derive from a wide-ranging 25,000-word address delivered by Qadhdhafi to the General People's Congress on November 22, 1987.[1] The speech is reprinted here (in part) not because it offers new facts or establishes new policies, but because it provides unusual insights into Qadhdhafi's mind.
His basic concern in this talk is to impress on those assembled the wide powers they enjoy as members of the Congress. But Qadhdhafi also uses the speech, as he does every one, to pursue his grand purpose – remolding the individual Libyan as a first step toward the ultimate goal of establishing a new universal order ("the Third Universal Theory"), as described in his Green Book.[2]
This partially explains why so much of the speech deals with the most curious minutiae of daily life. Qadhdhafi vents opinions on issues that most rulers would never take up, inveighing, for example, against able men holding sedentary jobs, state banks, and teachers who marry their students. In the excerpts that follow, he argues that anyone who cuts down an olive tree should have his hand amputated and explains why anyone who challenges the government should be "bodily eliminated."
It would seem that pan-Arab unity and the other grand schemes of his early years having so crushingly failed, Qadhdhafi wants to make sure that, at the very least, every detail of life in Libya accords with his schema. Dismayed by the poor response to his ideas abroad, he promotes them with even greater urgency within Libya itself.
While the speech has an ostensibly upbeat and democratic tone, in fact, it is filled with a sense of frustration and disappointment. Whatever the topic – social equity, agriculture, or jobs – Qadhdhafi keeps returning to the economic decline of the country and the Libyan populace's unwillingness to take the steps required to reverse this course. He also berates the Libyans' political fickleness, and their deficient ardor in pursuing anti-American and anti-Zionist policies, but he sounds resigned to the fact that his vision will never be satisfactorily implemented.
A few ghosts are revealed here. John Maynard Keynes told of "practical men, who believe themselves to be quite exempt from any intellectual influences," but who "are usually the slaves of some defunct economist."[3] In like fashion, Qadhdhafi prides himself on the originality of his thinking, but, in reality, he toils under the influence of such varied political thinkers as Jean-Jacques Rousseau,[4] Lenin, and the Fabians. In this regard, it is also striking to note how his ideas derive more from Western sources than from Muslim ones.
Text:
History should show that if there was any mold, I have contributed toward its destruction. If there has been any shackle binding the Libyan people, I have participated in its demolition until the Libyan people have become free. ...
You can sign anything of your own free will. You are free to sign anything you want. If the entire Libyan people decide to have foreign bases, that will be great. They then cannot claim that someone sold the land in spite of them and no one will stage a revolution against such a situation because the entire people decided it. You are free. You can sign agreements on bases with the United States after holding discussions about them and finding that the best thing for you would be to have U.S. bases. ...
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This is a rich country; it is the cheapest country in the world. Libyans do not have great needs and there are no problems recurring every year. It does not mean that we have an economic problem like other countries. On the contrary, you have a rich country and you are rich. However, we are not talking about money; you have stacks of money and oil is plentiful and will last dozens of years. There are also resources other than oil; there is water. This is what we are talking about: We are talking about people's democracy. We are talking about people's authority. Whenever someone takes stock of his funds, people think that there is a shortage of money and oil. Oil is as abundant as water, and there is money. There is absolutely no economic crisis in Libya.
Just look at the countries with economic crises. People eat out of garbage cans. A rich person puts his garbage can outside his house and later finds a family eating out of it. They have a crisis. There are those who live in pipes; a family may live in a pipe which has not been buried in the ground. There are marriages and births in these pipes - sewage and road maintenance pipes in which we find cats and rats here. In other countries you find human beings in them.
They have a crisis. Even in the United States, there are three million citizens living on the pavement. They sleep on the pavement; they have no homes. They are on the pavement from night until morning. Three million - that is a town or two. Those people have a crisis.
There were people in France who died of the cold. They had no money to pay the gas company for gas; the company cut off their supply and they died. Forty families were found frozen in their homes. This is a crisis. They had no money to pay for the gas, so the company cut off their supply. You can see for yourselves that people are dying in the streets of other countries; they are dying from hunger.
They are dying in the streets and they are swept to the graveyard or to the crematorium. There are people who cannot find anything to eat, who are not choosy about what they eat or what clothes they wear. Our present problem is what shall we wear – shall we wear silk or nylon? This is our crisis, as you can see. It is a matter of desire.
That man is sitting naked in the cold and says: "I will wear canvas if I can find some." He says: "Anything I find I will eat or I will starve to death." While we say: "Shall we eat wheat or shall we eat flour?" This is our problem: a choice between one thing or another, while for them it is a choice between life and death. ...
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You do not need me or any of my colleagues. What do you want us for? You haven't a single crisis, so we want you to do without us and know that you are free. This does not mean accepting someone else to replace me. No. In that case we will fight him. If someone has to rule, then we are more entitled to do so. Either the people rule or we do; and as long as we have decided not to rule, then only the people can rule.
This is the reason why we sometimes eliminate somebody – because he intends to rule the people. Therefore, we confront him and bodily eliminate him, for either the people or the group which carried out the revolution should rule. As long as those who carried out the revolution and who have the right to rule do not want to do so, there is no place for any tramp who comes late and asks: "Where is my share?" What has this tramp got to do with it? When the Italians filled Tripoli, where were you? When the British filled the country, where were you? When the Americans had five bases, where were you? And when treason, reaction, and decay were rampant and the oil was flowing to the United States, where were you? Now you come and find it cool and nice and you want to rule.
Such people must be beheaded. This is what makes us strong enough to show it on television. Others execute someone, run him over with a car, or poison him. We do not do that. When we execute someone, we do it on television. We told the revolutionary committees to call out the masses to conferences in the open air and to put the gallows in a field without police or anything else. Why? Because those individuals had intended to rule the people; but that is impossible.
This people either rules itself or we who carried out the revolution should rule. And because we have decided not to rule, we will not allow anyone else to rule the people. We will intervene. Anyone who contemplates ruling the people we will execute in a field before the entire world without fear. ...
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The agricultural land which I see you are not concerned about is your future . .. . Once you decide that he who cuts down an olive tree should have his hand amputated, that is it. The day after you see on television someone having his hand amputated, you will not say: "How barbaric and savage!" No, because this would be sacred social legislation. Whatever the people creates is sacred. The people say that he who cuts down an olive or palm tree will have his hand cut off.
"You! What is this palm tree you are cutting down?" He replies: "This is my palm tree on my own land." Your palm tree and land are part of the Libyan land and part of our wealth, and we are not as inattentive as some people to really let you cut your trees down on the pretext that they belong to you.
It is not your plantation; the land belongs to all. Suppose you only have one palm tree in front of your home, or ten palm trees, which is enough to supply your family, and you cut them down and replace them with a house and then you seek dates or (?sweets)[5] from abroad, while we (?thought) you would be able to be self-sufficient with those ten palm trees. This is a sacred tree, rare in this world. This palm tree is better than you, you ignorant enemy of the homeland and the future. This palm tree is as good as 100 trees and will provide for three generations. It would be better to sacrifice you as an individual.
Kill him. Kill him (?instead) of the palm tree. We kill him instead, and we announce it on the air that today a person was killed in Suq al-Jum'a because he cut down a palm tree, a sacred palm tree.
If people find someone who has killed a cow, they can execute him because cows are sacred. not because the cow is God, but because the cow provides meat and milk and can give life. Thus, it becomes sacred. The palm tree is sacred; the olive tree is sacred; the female camel is sacred. Yes, the camel which you bring fodder to, which lives on Saharan grass, which weighs more and has more meat than any other animal, which has milk, which can be used for transport and for plowing, is sacred. ...
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The [Qadhdhafi] program provides for the abolition of trifling vocations. I cannot understand how a strong man can go around selling roses, unless he has a rose nursery and this is his work. But for someone to go selling roses to another who then goes and stands at the Martyrs' Square to sell roses – this should be banned. Women can work in a textile factory, in agriculture, in the fields of health and education, but not go selling as venders in the street. This is something we cannot accept. A people which have such things cannot forge its way to the future in the present age, the age of the atom and the arming of space and the laser. The woman who goes selling in the street can, for instance, organize the municipality garden. She can work in a coffee shop. ...
Land is the property of all. It belongs to anyone exploiting it to fulfill his needs, with his own effort, without exploiting others. Any Libyan passing by a farm with unexploited land, fertile land, may look for its owner and say to him: Look, I give you a week. Either I find this to be a farm from which you and your family draw a living or I and my family will come bringing sticks, axes, and knives. We will then fight for it and take it by force because the land belongs to all Libyans. ...
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Perhaps the United States will enter Islam and come among those whose hearts have been reconciled to the truth. True, the relationship between the United States and Saudi Arabia is quite old and secret, and perhaps the Americans will enter Islam. For this reason Saudi Arabia is giving them billions .... If you bring something from Saudi Arabia it means that such a thing is stained, stained by the Americans. There should not be Americans in the sacred land [of Mecca and Medina]; neither their aircraft nor their ships, bases, experts, military men, or their intelligence services. But the United States is fully present in Saudi Arabia. The things you bring from Saudi Arabia are germ-ridden. The frankincense brought from holy Mecca is in fact brought from under the feet of the Americans. ...
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Each branch office in each area where there is a savings bank should have officials and guards who are appointed by the people themselves. Then the people can deposit their money in it. This is quite right. Who has confidence in a bank that is situated along the seashore? The Americans or the (?Jews) might come and seize it. We can never trust it. Also, you should not put your money in a bank that belongs to (?the government). That is right; have a bank that belongs to you. As for state banks, we must have nothing to do with them. Who knows who might come and seize them tomorrow and take the money in them?
When I talk about self-administration, I mean to say that everyone should clean his own house, office, or yard. And when I say that an official or doctor should clean his own office instead of someone else, this is what I mean. When I say that chauffeurs should be abolished in this country, that everyone should drive his own car, and when I say that there should be no secretaries – man or woman – and when I refer to freedom of education, I mean anyone who has a workshop should have a group of pupils so that he can teach them there. When I say officials should also teach one lesson at a kindergarten, primary, or secondary school; and when I say that as part of the revolutionary program 400,000 women should take the place of 400,000 men, and when I say that unimportant vocations should be closed down, like working on the radio or selling roses, what do I mean by all these things? I mean we should save a huge amount of manpower. ...
When each of us drives his car himself, cleans his own office, cleans the street himself, and when there are no more people, male or female, sitting in cafes, in shops or at the road side selling something, it will mean we have saved manpower as if it had sprung from the ground. And when it actually springs from the ground, you yourselves will ask where all those people have been. They were absorbed by trivial and unproductive jobs. And of course, production will increase, the land will become green, the factories will start to run at full capacity. Every factory is now running at one-quarter of its capacity.
Why? Where are the other three-quarters? There are no people, is the answer. No, the people are there, but where? They are sitting in the radio station, in the cafes, or selling flowers; they are drivers, secretaries and empty [words indistinct] and those sitting idly cross-legged. ...
If all primary education is done at home, then seriousness will come into the family. Now perhaps a quarter of the Libyan families live in ivory towers. At home the only thing they do is watch video cassettes and other trivialities. We must involve them. They must teach their children. Teaching your children their primary education at home does not mean working with a child from morning to nightfall. This is not necessary. It would be enough to give him one or two sessions a week. What matters is that after a number of years he will absorb his primary education. ...
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Why does the United States drop its bombs on us? Because we are unifying the Arab nation, liberating Palestine, and realizing the dignity of this humiliated nation. Then how can we declare the fight and stand idly by? This gives value to our lives; otherwise, what value would they have?
Reports say 2,000 Libyans have died in road accidents. Who mourns them? If it was said 2,000 died in a battle, 2,000 died for the liberation of Palestine, 2,000 died in the Gulf of Sidra, then all the world would treasure their memories. ...
The model state would begin in the world, the Jamahiriya, the state of the masses .... But presently you are not a model at all. ...
If you say, "Bring me bananas, bring me a Mercedes, bring me silk while I sit idly by" – no, this is not feasible. There is no rain of gold or silver from heavens. Produce and you can buy anything from abroad .... Produce something other than oil; sell it and buy these things. ...
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There is no need for an able-bodied man to be seated at work. He must use an axe, a tractor, a spraying machine, or anything else. This is the way to build your country. It is a shame to see a strong man sitting 24 hours a day on a chair saying, "And now we present to you a song by Fahd Ballan." Is this reasonable? This is ridiculous. You are right to laugh because this is not likely to create the future.
How can an able-bodied man sit around and get a salary just by saying these words? This can be recorded on a cassette and then played automatically. Or, if you need a person, bring a handicapped person who cannot work outside. The handicapped person in a wheelchair would say, "We present to you this or that," or "We bring you the news bulletin."
Or bring a woman who cannot go outside. Let her sit down. All the factories, especially textiles and light and medium industries, must be completely occupied by women, and the offices there must be fully run by women. Likewise, women must be in the teaching and health sectors and in simple farming like gardens and green houses made of plastic and glass, including small farms. All this must be run by women. Cars inside the town are like coaches. They should be driven by women, not men. A car marked general public inside the cities must be driven by women, not men. They are like coaches.
Buses inside towns are like coaches. Even a veiled woman can enter the bus, sit on the driver's seat, drive the bus, stop, and open the doors at bus stops without being seen by anyone or seeing anyone. Doors are open and closed and somebody at the back sells tickets. You can use a man for selling tickets or one of these women who is on the pavement and trades in small items. ...
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We are an illiterate people; backward, subjugated by colonialism, and made backward and ignorant by colonial ... This is a Mediterranean country and it must be a country of tourism. You have oil and have forgotten [other possibilities]. Our neighboring countries are tourist countries and tourism brings in much income. There are plans to build tourist towns on the Libyan coast.
Do you not like Europe and young Europeans? All right, it is possible to bring Europe to the Libyan coast. Tourist towns will be built in partnership with European firms on the Libyan coast. You can bring Europe to them; you can bring whatever you like in Europe to these towns. You can bring in anything that prompts you to go abroad. These tourist towns are not useless things. ...
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This is Islam American style. When the United States was with Iran, Iran was considered Muslim, and we as Muslims were its brothers.
When the United States turned against Iran, Iran was no longer considered Muslim, and we [the Arabs] were against it. Thus, Muhammad has become a Yankee. The American Yankees have become Muhammad. They are the ones who tell us who is a Muslim and who is not, who is your brother in religion and who is not your brother in religion. What a shame and disgrace. It is very disgraceful to a country like Libya to have relations with these filthy and traitorous [Arab] regimes. Only the enemy benefits from them. If this is the situation, then we can do without them.
[Audience chants "If the whole world becomes our enemy, we will never abandon our principles."] ...
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If you are a teacher teaching girls and then you show bias in favor of one of them because you want to marry her, then you are no longer fair. You may ensure her passage to the upper class; you may give her unfair marks. One must be neutral in such circumstances. No, this is not permissible. This is a great social crime ....
The marriage of a student to a student, a lecturer to a lecturer, a doctor to a doctor or an officer to an officer is all right because these are equal relationships, while the other kind of relationships cause imbalance. I have noticed that you are not aware of this phenomenon and it is spreading in Libyan society. …
This question you cannot solve except by law, so that when someone comes to the notary or to the court to get married saying that this is my student, or my enlisted soldier, or my secretary, it will be forbidden. If a head of a firm intends to marry one of his female employees, it should be forbidden because he will be biased toward her and the entire transactions of the firm will be spoiled. These practices are forbidden in many countries, even in Europe which is not Muslim. This concerns not only Islam; it is a social question. Many countries forbid marriage to one's secretary and consider it a major crime.
Daniel Pipes is editor of ORBIS and director of the Foreign Policy Research Institute.
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[1] The speech was broadcast by Tripoli television, then recorded, transcribed, and translated by the U.S. government. The text was published in the Foreign Broadcast Information Service, Daily Report: Near East and South Asia, December 2, 1987, pp. 9-30, and slightly adapted for use here.
[2] Mu'ammar al-Qadhdhafi, The Green Book (Brooklyn N.Y.: Revisionist Press, 1982).
[3] John Maynard Keynes, The General Theory of Employment, Interest, and Money (New York: Harcourt, Brace and Company, 1936).
[4] Sami G. Hajjar, "The Jamahiriya Experiment in Libya: Qadhafi and Rousseau," Journal of Modem African Studies, 18 (1980): 181-200.
[5] Question marks in front of words indicate that the FBIS transcribers were not precisely sure of a word.
