Libya’s New Neo-Liberal “Democracy”

by Seth Rutledge

The recent Libyan elections have been praised by the western media.  Apparently Libya has finally set off on the path towards prosperity.  But how free and open were the elections, and what can we expect for the future of this proud and wealthy nation? 

            

No democracy can function without an open media.  Yet the National Transitional Council has passed laws prohibiting free speech, article 37 says that Libyans can be jailed for “Speech that glorifies Kaddafi, insults Islam, insults the revolution, and lowers the moral of Libyan citizens”.¹  News Anchors who stopped going to work in protest have been forced to return to work at gunpoint and report news that they don’t agree with.  The Libyan television stations broadcast through NileStat have been taken over by the NTC, Qatar, and western media outlets.²  A fair election with 3,000 candidates is impossible without free media and an open public discourse.

US-backed Occupied Libya: Putting Lipstick on a Frog

Farirai Chubvu 

Zimbabwe Herald

Elections to choose a new General National Congress in Libya are an attempt to provide a “democratic” facade for an authoritarian and undemocratic government, subservient to the interests of the major Western powers, corporations and banks.

The Nato-installed National Transitional Council ensured that candidacy was restricted to a relatively small layer approved by the Electoral Commission.

Mahmoud Jibril: Washington's Man in Tripoli

 by Stephen Lendman  on War is A Crime

Mahmoud Jibril takes over as Libya's new leader. He heads its puppet government.
Sham elections installed him. The process was farcical. Illusion substituted for reality. Obama called his ascension "another milestone in the country's transition to democracy."

EU leaders hailed "Libya's first free elections." They called them the "dawn of a new era." Scoundrel media acclaimed the end of the Gaddafi nightmare.
A democratic facade masks New World Order neoliberal fundamentalism. Its holy trinity is eliminating public services, predatory capitalism writ large, and repression enforcing the message to non-believers.
Libya gives Washington another beachhead for greater African adventurism. Unspeakable crimes of war and against humanity were committed establishing it.

Jibril's now its main man. He got his marching orders. He's expected to deliver. Otherwise another pro-Western hack will replace him.

Freedom is nowhere in sight. It's true everywhere Washington runs things. Inside the bubble, it's paradise. Outside it's dystopian hell. It features exploitation and denial of fundamental rights.