Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi’s plan to distribute the country’s oil wealth directly to the people had Libyans “dreaming” about using the money to live in Malta or Tunisia.
This results from a leaked confidential US cable released by whistleblower site WikiLeaks, which reported on a discussion between America’s Chargè d’Affaires in Tripoli, Chris Stevens and Libyan Trade Minister Ali al-Issawy.
The cable, dated September 19, 2008, referred to the proposal put forward days earlier by Col Gaddafi during a speech on Libya’s national day (Septem-ber 1). He proposed redistributing oil revenue directly to the people in the form of cash hand-outs and a radical privatisation programme.
Dr al-Issawy is reported to have expressed concern that distributing cash would lead to inflation and it would be preferable to distribute a combination of cash, securities and shares.
The minister is quoted as saying that Libya had “a culture of rent, not work” and some Libyans were “already dreaming about using the money they will eventually receive to live in Tunisia or Malta”.
In a side note, Malta and Tunisia were described by Mr Stevens as “two favourite nearby holiday destinations”.
When prompted by the US Embassy official, Dr al-Issawy said Libyan teams were working “day and night” to finalise the wealth distribution programme.
However, the whole idea was scuppered a couple of months later when a meeting of the General People’s Congress, which had to approve the plan, was postponed.
In another confidential cable published by WikiLeaks, US diplomat John Godfrey wrote that Malta had, in 2008, considered vetoing a proposed EU-Libya Framework Agreement over dissatisfaction with Libya’s maritime patrols in its designated search and rescue (SAR) area and concerns over the lack of cooperation by Libya to stem the flow of irregular migrants.
The cable identified other EU member states that were ready to veto the agreement for one reason or another.
According to the US diplomat, his European counterparts believed Europe “had little to gain from a closer partnership with Tripoli” apart from help in combating illegal migration from sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia through Libya to Europe.
Mr Godfrey said that, in the absence of a more formal agreement, some European countries pursued bilateral cooperation, which “they privately assessed as being more nimble and effective”. The US diplomat noted that Italy had donated six vessels to Libya’s coastguard and offered to train Libyan border security officers as Italy’s bilateral response to what it viewed as lack of meaningful EU engagement on the matter.
A Greek Embassy official, Ioannis Stamatekos, lauded Italy’s move and said Greece could follow suit.
The cable quoted a Maltese official, named as Daniel Malina, saying Malta lacked the resources to make a large equipment donation but hoped to keep the critical migration issue on the EU’s radar during Council deliberations over the European Commission’s mandate to pursue the framework agreement.
Italy reached a bilateral agreement with Libya in 2009 and a memorandum of understanding between the EU and Libya was signed late last year.