He is coming BAAACK … Get ready for the un-welcomed return of Seif El-Gaddafi in this continuing “really bad Shakespearian play”.

Hafed Al Ghwell

After the speech in late August, where Seif El-Gaddafi announced that he will no longer get involved in politics, some of the professional hypocrites – and I am using the word hypocrite here to simply be polite and not call a spade a spade - that populate the Libyan government and its “revolutionary committees” structures held a loud meeting to demand that he should not leave them as orphans and must stay involved. Well, a couple of months went by and no one from the general public gave a damn.. It should not be a surprise to know, “oh gentle readers”, that the plan was, announce you are withdrawing from public life – to concentrate on “economic development”, read; stealing more money from the Libyan treasury -- check out the house he lives in Libya and ask yourselves where did he get the money from? - , and then orchestrate public demonstrations demanding your return so you can come back because, surprise , surprise “.. The people wanted it”. The same old trick Gaddafi pulled off in the early 70s. This time no one cared, in fact most Libyans I know of were quite happy he made that promise and are hoping he keeps it.

Well, the hypocrites are back demonstrating again. They held a rally yesterday demanding and writing petitions about the “need for Seif’s return”.

When Seif made that promise in August, I wrote about both my disrespect for him personally and my skepticism about the truth of his vows. I was then simply expressing my opinion without the benefit of any information. Well today I do have few bits of information to back up my claims that he will be back.

Let me recount in general terms the course of an interesting conversation I had very recently.

Last week I had the chance to meet a man who is considered a PR guru in the US. He created and managed one of the largest PR firms in the world. After sitting down with him over dinner, he told me that he was the man advising Gaddafi and Seif for the past couple of years on communication and public relations. A piece of news I did not know before meeting him. Anyhow, I then asked him the scope of his work with Gaddafi and Son Inc. and what was their public relations objectives? The answer was simple and honest; he said Gaddafi contacted me to help in making Seif a major public figure in Libya and abroad and help pave the way for him to inherit his father’s role. I was a bit taken back by that, I must say. I always expected that Gaddafi would guard his intentions in this area, simply given his public declarations against monarchies, inheritance of power, and the whole enchilada of his green booklet etc for the past 40 years. But the man in front of me insisted that this was exactly what Gaddafi the father asked him to do and advice on in their first meeting face to face. My second question was on what is the strategy he advised them to follow? The answer again was honest and direct; the plan is to make Seif the public face for every settlement with the West, from the scandalous Lockerbie compensation all the way to the release of the Bulgarian nurses. The last one did not work out as planned, my dinner companion lamented. Apparently after all the work to prepare Seif to take the credit for their release, Sarkozy’s wife landed in Tripoli and insisted on taking them with her. She got the credit. The plan internally was also to try to credit Seif with all “reforms initiatives” from improving the human right situation to improving the lot of the miserable and unemployed Libyan youths which stands, by most estimates I have seen, at almost 30%. That plan is also not working out very well so far.

Finally, when I asked the man about his impressions of Gaddafi personally, he answered with the following; “he is really a bizarre character, I would even say totally mad,” and yes I am honestly quoting him directly. When I asked what was his impression of Libya and the Gaddafi inner circle of power, his answer was: “its like a really bad Shakespearian play where nothing is going any where”, again, I am quoting him directly. The one thing he made sure of, in all his dealings with Gaddafi and company he smartly insisted on getting paid up front. And the one thing I made sure he knew, before we parted company, was Gaddafi’s record of murder, kidnapping, and corruption over the years, urging him to not contribute to the misery of my people. I hope he will listen.

This is not the first Gaddafi & Sons Inc paid senior consultant I have heard from by the way over the years, as I am sure many of you as well, nor the first to share his/her negative assessment for that gang ruling Libya. That includes those who did the economic reform plans that Seif has been pretending to implement in the country for the past few years while enriching himself and his gang of friends and front-men, whom he placed in every major Libyan owned financial, petroleum, or economic structure in the country and outside of it. It also includes some political figures who dealt with Gaddafi on behalf of their countries whom I had the chance of meeting in different public forums.

I left dinner thinking, if this is the impression of those who are making big money from that mafia family, what is the impression of those who are not?

So the Libyan people have a hard choice to make now, are they willing to endure being inherited like cattle by another Gaddafi? Are they willing to allow the enslavement of their children, after their own enslavement for the past 40 years, to the same Gaddafi oil plantation robbers with the help of the outside world? Or are they still hoping that Moses will come to rescue them from the clutches of this modern day Pharaoh? If the answer is no, which is what every Libyan I have ever met, including government officials, says in private, then what should we all do about it?

The choices are hard and getting harder the longer Libyans allow this very sad and absurd play to continue. As the quote from Churchill at the top of this blog puts it:

“If you will not fight for right when you can easily win without blood shed; if you will not fight when your victory is sure and not too costly; you may come to the moment when you will have to fight with all the odds against you and only a precarious chance of survival. There may even be a worse case. You may have to fight when there is no hope of victory, because it is better to perish than to live as slaves”

May all Libyans finally begin an honest and credible national movement and conversation on what to do to save their children, society and country from total destruction and realize that we, as a people, must “either stand together, or we will surely hang separately” as the last 40 years have proven beyond the shadow of any doubt.