Dr.. Gabriel Al-Obaidi writes: Libya and government gasoline

Speaking in one language may not be a reason for understanding. For example, “The Americans and the English are two peoples separated by one language” in reference to their difference despite their speaking one language, and even this one language is subject to great disagreement between them… This proverb applies to the Libyan people and the government as “two peoples” separated between them. One language. The talk of the head of the outgoing Libyan government, who was dismissed from parliament, about lifting subsidies on fuel, especially gasoline, and his mockery of the Libyans by saying that they eat “for free,” do not pay for lighting or water, and work one hour a day…this confirms his disdain for them, which he created. A wave of anger in the street over the statements of the unelected president who was dismissed from the only elected legislative authority in the country. He did not comply with the dismissal decision and hand over power to the government assigned by Parliament, which has the inherent right to assign, grant and withdraw confidence from the government. But what do you say to foreign interference that is tampering with even true democracy in Libya!

The dismissed government that clings to power wasted huge sums of money without shame or austerity on worthless expenses under the headings of luxury and armored cars, telephones, office stationery, and hospitality in the government office and ministries, while it considered the citizen’s sustenance and fuel to be the reason for wasting money, in a wrong and shameful economic reading. Instead of… The government reduces the expenses of its offices and stops the plundering of public funds documented in reports from the Libyan Audit and Supervision Bureau. It has been prejudiced against citizens’ livelihoods through low salaries and fuel subsidies that it wants to abolish, which confirms that the government lives in an imaginary world far from the pain and suffering of Libyan citizens, on whom the dust of war, displacement and deportation still remains. Their clothes.

The dismissed government that holds power in Tripoli is not ashamed that the price of a loaf of bread during its rule exceeded ten times its price, and it failed to provide textbooks and treatment for patients with kidney and tumors. Rather, it was unable to provide vaccinations and serums for children, which Libya, before February, had been purchasing and providing to the children of Africa and not only Libya.

The gasoline crisis or the removal of subsidies on fuel that the sacked Prime Minister wants to manufacture and mocks his Libyan opponents does not mean merely raising the price of gasoline for a car that not all Libyans own, but rather it will raise the cost of transportation, especially goods and foodstuffs in particular, and thus unfair expenses on the shoulders of the paltry salaries in Libya, which does not exceed $300 in its best conditions for all Libyans, and there is no talk about those responsible; They understand that the safes are open to them without accounting for the rooms, including dollars and euros, not even the Libyan dinar, and gasoline for their cars, whether the subsidy is lifted or remains at the expense of the Libyan treasury in both cases, and there is no consolation for the lost Libyan citizen.

The dilemma of extending the extension to the ruling authorities in Libya is the reason for the continued state of chaos and waste of public money in Libya. Extension without referring to the people by referendum is considered a major sin, a setback for the nascent democracy, and a tampering with the authorization granted to the conference, when the people elected it. Extension is more like a case of inheritance. Because it is not based on a constitutional text that allows it to do so, and that is why there is a state of intense polarization sweeping the Libyan street, rejecting the extension, another silent state, and the rest supporting the extension, and the alignment and polarization have begun.

This governmental tampering with the fate of the people, and even the mockery of it without deterrence, is caused by the faltering of the Libyan democratic experience due to its recent era, which may be a convincing reason for some political elites to practice political adolescence, and to strive and rush in a direction that ends up taking away the national will and mortgaging it to the World Bank after the bankruptcy of the Libyan treasury from By wasting and plundering public money.

Wasting public money in Libya will lead to the emptying of the public treasury in light of a rentier economy that cannot cope with the empty treasury, and it will be disastrous for the general population who live on government salaries in general, and there is no industrial or agricultural economy to mention, just a revolving trade that is not managed in a professional economic manner. Libya’s geographical location is exploited between the northern Mediterranean facing Europe and southern Libya facing the Sahara coast in Africa, making it the most important location for trade exchange between Africa and Europe that has not been exploited until now.

The sacked government is floundering in Tripoli, not least of which is the gasoline crisis, which will be the spark that could ignite and burn Libya, due to government stupidity that thinks it is a political maneuver, while its reality is a deteriorating living condition for the Libyan citizen, whose country floats on the largest oil lake in Africa.

Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper