On Friday, Al-Bilad program on 218News aired a special coverage on the new executive authority, the challenges it faces, and the future of the political process in Libya.
Unreal Success
The writer and political researcher Muhammad El-Jarih said: “The Dialogue Forum did not succeed in its mission, and the proof of my words is what one of the participants in the dialogue said when she announced that they did indeed strive, but did not succeed in producing the required for the Libyan people and for Libya.”
El-Jarih added: “I think that what led to the victory of the (Menfi-Al-Lafi-Al-Koni-Dbeibah) list was the unwillingness to support a list consisting of faces or dinosaurs, according to Stephanie Williams, and these faces were rejected by many, so when the comparison came between the list of (Aqeelah Saleh, Fathi Bashagha) and the winning list, the members of the dialogue chose to vote reluctantly for Dbeibah; although one of the two lists is worse than the other.
He added that the two lists are the worst that could result from this dialogue.
“Also, during the past 48 hours, some of the members participating in the dialogue told me that there are phone numbers that call them and tell them that they belong to the intelligence of certain countries asking them to support the (Aqila-Bashagha) list. I believe that there is an international agreement on this list, even though these figures are one of the causes of the conflict in Libya.
Interests Control
In response to a question: Why is today’s winning list bad? El-Jarih said: “This list is from one political current, and this is inconsistent with the policy of achieving stability, and despite our respect for Mr. Mossa Al-Koni because of his previous positions, according to those interested in Libyan political affairs, he has no ability to deal with the pressures and complications in the Libyan position.
“There is a problem with this list, which is that the Prime Minister is a person who is suspected of corruption, according to what was written by the British press, as he was described last October by The Times as the largest owner of money laundering in the history of investigations by the Scottish judiciary, and his name is included in the United Nations investigations regarding the issue of corruption in Libya.”
In response to a question anyone might ask; Is this the perfect character who can lead this delicate stage? He answered: “From my point of view, Abdul Hamid Dbeibah is the worst person who can lead the government, also at the regional level, because this government is rejected.”
About the relationship between Al-Rajma and Abdul Hamid Dbeibah, El-Jarih added: “There is some information that has become almost certain today that Dbeibah visited Al-Rajma during the last period with the coordination of some Egyptian businessmen.”
Political Settlement
For his part, Member of Parliament Saleh Afhaima said: “We must know very well that the country is going through extraordinary circumstances. If we want to talk about mistakes in the dialogue forum, it can be said that the real flaw lies in how the 75 committee was chosen. This committee was not chosen according to Libyan law and its effective Libyan legislation, nor according to international norms agreed upon in democratic systems. We are facing a political settlement. The process is not a correct democracy, so we must accept the results as they are. It is not possible to reach what is better than these results.”
He added: “The new President of the Presidency Council, Mohammad Menfi, although I met with him a few times, he is a moderate person with good relations in the East, West and South. We have not heard about him, for example, that he was a supporter of the war. Representatives are patriotic persons par excellence, although he knows my position that the mechanism for selecting members of the dialogue forum was not correct.
The ideal Solution
Afhaima added that Libya needs to get out of this dark tunnel first, and secondly, this government is transitional and Libyans need to prepare the appropriate ground for the upcoming elections.
“The salaries are only to accomplish a historic mission only, which is preparing the country for the next stage. The House of Representatives suffers from two issues and the division that occurred in all Libyan institutions was reflected in the work of the House of Representatives, thus it was divided into the Council of Representatives of Tripoli and the House of Representatives of Tobruk, but since a while the House of Representatives went to unify its ranks and collect the required quorum to take the necessary decisions to keep pace with what is happening now in the acceleration of events that require a unified legislative authority capable of taking the necessary measures and decisions that accompany this event.
“Immediately after announcing the results of the dialogue, a large number of members of Parliament called for an inclusive session for all members in Sabratha to study these results.
Bad Government
Meanwhile, El-Jarih said that he does not agree with what Saleh Afhaima said, adding: “The new government will not lead us to elections, nor will we witness the consolidation of state institutions or the prevention of foreign interference. This government is a bad reality and it will lead us to a worse reality.”
“The statement of Mr. Saleh Afhaima is the same of any Libyan official asking people to endure the worst because there is no alternative,” El-Jarih said, accusing him and his colleagues of being the cause of the wars and conflicts that are happening in Libya.
Confidence of Dialogue Forum
The writer Abdullah Al-Kabeer said: “This list does not contain controversial personalities, and according to what I have followed on social media, it is an indication of the trends of Libyan public opinion that there is popular acceptance and consensus on this government. They are the best options out there.”
He added: “Regarding what the writer El-Jarih talked about, as regards to the fact that this government will have the support of the Security Council, and will Russia and France accept it? I think that Dbeibah has good relations with everyone, and in an earlier period he communicated with the Russians and seemed to reassure them about their interests in Libya.”
“Even if this list is the best options and includes non-controversial personalities and are not involved in supporting the war, here the question can be asked: Can you judge? The answer here depends on the support of other parties, such as the House of Representatives, and this is unlikely due to the state of division. Even if the House of Representatives is not divided, I do not expect any support from it, as happened with the “GNA”, and therefore the government that Dbeibah will form will get the confidence of the Libyan Political Dialogue Forum (LPDF).
Where is 5+5 JMC?
According to lawyer and human rights activist Abdelhafid Ghouqa, this winning list was a surprise and he added: “We were talking about the closest list, which is (Aqila Saleh-Fathi Bashagha) for local and regional considerations, but the result came with this list and I wish it would succeed and make a difference, in the end this is the will of the LPDF. It is part of the will of the Libyans who were chosen by the UN mission.”
He added: “All the candidates during the preliminary period presented their election program and pledged to work within a period of time I think would not exceed ten months, and the failure of this government means opening the door to war again. The issue of the government’s success is linked to the extent of cooperation of the local authorities and local actors with this government. The most important issue is the issue of armed groups of different affiliations, how can they be dealt with? What military path created by the United Nations? In my opinion, this path has failed so far, unfortunately, to make any development in this file. It is not within the competence of the Military Committee to talk about confidence-building measures and the opening of closed roads between cities. The work of this committee must be based on monitoring and classifying these armed groups.”
He also described the political transition in Libya as almost impossible, saying he did not see in the four candidate lists a list that could be described as ideal.
He added: “I disagree with some of the people on these lists, but I thought that the “Saleh-Bashagha list” would succeed as “Bashagha” had achieved some successes in the Ministry of Interior and I was witness to some of them.”
