Three years ago this month, Muammar Gaddafi finally lost his 42-year-grip on Libya’s capital, Tripoli. The previous six months had been one of extraordinary crisis for Libya’s people, struggling for freedom in the face of ruthless violence.
The conflagration on our doorstep was also a stern trial for the Malta government and its personnel. Under Lawrence Gonzi’s leadership, the country played a leading political, moral and humanitarian role from the beginning of the crisis to its aftermath. Malta not only safeguarded its national interest but also served the common good of the Libyan people, Europe and the wider international community.
Today, violence in Libya is spiralling alarmingly once more. It is facing its greatest crisis since Gaddafi’s fall from power. We risk seeing another massive conflagration on our doorstep.
There are, however, important differences between then and now. They have guided the Opposition both in its criticism of Joseph Muscat government’s conduct of the crisis and in the unwavering support it offers.
The first difference concerns the handling of the security and safe passage of Maltese nationals out of Libya.
The Opposition naturally understands that, though the 2011 and 2014 Libya crises are similar in scale, they are dissimilar in their makeup. The violence has not spread evenly across the whole country. Some Maltese nationals, working at considerable distance from the main fighting, were, at first, tempted to sit out the conflict.
None of this, however, explains or justifies the initial secrecy and subsequent ineptitude with which the government handled the various cases of Maltese nationals in Libya, not least that of Martin Galea, the man abducted for almost two weeks by a Libyan militia.
Facing the prospect of a failed State in Libya, we had to live with a seemingly absent State in Malta.
In stating this, I will be criticised once more of playing politics, of not offering Muscat the show of national unity that, in 2011, he offered Gonzi. Let me get this canard out of the way.
What is needed is a new association of Friends of Libya, bringing together the interested parties and the international community
In 2011, the Gonzi government’s handling of the evacuation of Maltese and other nationals was exemplary. Each known individual’s nearest safe route out of the country was plotted meticulously by security experts at the Malta crisis centre. What major criticism was there to offer?
In 2014, however, there has been much to criticise. Our criticism echoes that made by the public. It has been made in the face of clear evidence of a disjointed government, uncoordinated and contradicting itself, barely keeping up with developments.
The criticism has been in the public interest: to get Muscat to rise to the occasion and not mishandle a crisis which touches several of Malta’s vital interests.
Moreover, it is a bit rich to accuse the Opposition of not offering a unified front when, in the Galea case, the government has been divided against itself: Castille briefing one section of the media against the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Sometimes it seems the protection of Muscat’s reputation takes precedence over other considerations.
This Libya crisis, like the first, is not just about saving lives. If it continues to escalate, it threatens to wreck ordinary Libyans’ aspirations for a prosperous democracy. A failed Libyan State would have poisonous repercussions for Egypt, Tunisia and Libya’s sub-Saharan neighbours, some of which are already struggling with failing States and criminal and terrorist networks.
The importance of the crisis for Malta and Europe generally cannot, therefore, be overemphasised. But this year’s crisis is taking place in a different world from that of 2011.
This year, the fighting does not involve a despot. It involves entangled alliances. One of the dominant centres of power, Misurata, has a special relationship with Malta. But so does a leading politician in the opposing alliance, Mahmud Jibril, the former prime minister.
It is inconceivable that either alliance can be excluded from a political settlement in Libya. Malta must remain on good terms with both.
On the international scene, no single country, other than Libya itself, can provide a lasting solution to the crisis, which will have to be, ultimately, a constitution that all the various parties, Islamist, moderate, tribal and regional, will see as equitable.
But Malta can take the lead, as a trusted friend of various factions, in urging the exploration of the international framework and measures needed for stabilisation. What is needed is a new association of Friends of Libya, bringing together the interested parties and the international community.
In this context, last week’s call by the newly constituted Libyan House of Representatives for a UN-backed ceasefire is worth pursuing, provided that all key factions in Libya are involved.
Should the Maltese government take up this challenge, it can be assured of the Opposition’s unwavering support. But the question is, does it have the sense of leadership to take the initiative?
Simon Busuttil is Leader of the Opposition.