Don’t blame or rebuke the leader’s wisdom [Archives:2007/1085/Opinion]
Prof. Abdulaziz Al-Tarb
What Libya did recently in the deal of acquitting the five Bulgarian nurses and the Palestinian physician was expected a long time ago, definitely when it was said that Qadhafi Charitable Foundation was handling the case. Chaired by Saif Al-Islam, the son of the Libyan President, the foundation demonstrated a conservative behavior on the previous rulings issued by the Libyan judiciary thereon. It indicated that the medical team faced torture and the children's infection with HIV is the result of negligence in Bani Gazi Hospital.
Nothing is strange with the deal as Libya announced in 2003 that it quit its nuclear program for the sake of improving its ties with the west. This country is known to have paid financial compensations, totaling $3 billion, to Lockerbie Airplane Crash victims, with the average of $10 million per victim. By doing this, Libya purchased its security and stability according to its Foreign Minister. It intended to have a deal with the U.S. but the latter refused to drop it from the list of terror-sponsoring countries.
What Libya did is justified, particularly as it wanted to get rid of the isolation (embargo) imposed on it by the international community. So, the Arab country has no alternative but to pass the deal after it became under embargo and found itself alone in the battleground. The Arab brothers have nothing to do for a brotherly state facing tribulation, but they usually leave it struggling alone with its misfortune. Had there had been a unified Arab stance with Libya when it faced a tribulation and a wave of western extortion, the Arab countries would have been more able to put pressure on the international community in order to lift the embargo on Libya.
On the other hand, we have seen how the western countries came together and demonstrated a unified stance for the sake of ensuring safety of the five Bulgarian nurses. Their hard efforts culminated with securing release of the five nurses.
The phenomenon is not a new one, as Libya has faced several sanctions over years while the Arabs remained silent without any reaction to the sufferings of their brothers in Libya. Today, Libya has the right to go ahead for its own interests, as well as to expand its investment ties and update its economic management.
What Libya did is part of a real policy, which it adopted for the sake of maintaining its interests. To ensure security and safety of its state, the Libyan President Muamar Al-Qadhafi has taken serious decisions to reach a complete normalization with the west, as well as open the European markets for his country's products, and get the necessary technical expertise for restoring oil wells and scholarships for the Libyan students.
In the past, there had been a famous proverb saying, “Nothing can scrub your skin like your fingernails do.”” This implies that Libya alone has been responsible for tackling its own issues
