Since the fall of the regime of Colonel Muammar Gaddafi, perhaps no Libyan politician has been as controversial in Libya as former prime minister Ali Zeidan. Inclusive of all political, tribal regions and ethnic segments of society, Zeidan's government — the first national unity government in the post-revolutionary period — represented an attempt forge a third path between antithetical Islamist and secular trends. Today, some maintain that this path is the answer to Libya's current crisis, while for others it is unfeasible while foreign-backed armed groups continue to dominate the political scene. How do you assess your experience in government in Libya? Despite the troubles we endured, despite the friction and discord all around us, and in spite of how we were left in the lurch by some of our associates, or people with whom we had worked and in whom we had placed our confidence, the work of our government at that time was tangible. There were mistakes or shortcomings. But that is something natural. More importantly, if a country such as Libya is to re-emerge from beneath the ruins, rebuilding it requires cooperation and solidarity, not fault-finding. If we had focused on and worked to develop our common denominators and positive points at that time, we would have been spared the institutional bifurcation, the warfare and destruction that tore everything down around us. In any case, I now have my sights set on the future. Looking to the future is not about prophecies. It is a scientific method. Those who understand it and apply it will be able to succeed and become main players in the future. Above all, if we want to safeguard the nation and protect it from the anarchy and futility around us, we need to put the past behind us and focus on the things we have in common, which, by the way, are many. Libya fell victim to international attempts to prepare it as a breeding ground for terrorist Islamist organisations. How would you describe this situation? Many different militia forces have fought for control in Libya. Some were international organisations such as Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State group. Others were local ones, bound by ideological or regional affiliations. There were also the brigades that were formed following the fall of the Gaddafi regime and that refused to relinquish their weapons later, and there were the armed groups that capitalised financially on the political and security vacuum. In brief, there arose a collection of militia leaders affiliated with tribes or cities or armed groups and who had certain ambitions or acquired certain privileges and were determined to hold on to them now that they had become merchants of war. This is the main reason for the conflict in Libya: the whims of brigade leaders who were exploited by some extremist religious groups leading to collaborations between them. What is important, here, is that all those military formations inhibited, in one way or another, the establishment of official security organs, such as the army and police, and thereby obstructed all attempts to establish the state. They tried to impose their influence, whether it was steered from abroad, or by ideology, or by the personal ambitions and ends of their leaders. In some cases, they succeeded. However, I fought them and I did not succumb. On several occasions I warned that the security of the Libyan people, and indeed the region as a whole, will remain at risk as long as we have militias and weapons in our streets. Is Libyan society ready to accept the national unity movement as a means to attain a stable state? Necessity calls for a national civil project capable of realising the aspirations of all sectors and classes of the Libyan people and steering the country to a modern state, if we are to shake off the residue of chaos and generate a genuine opportunity for development, construction and growth. Libya suffered because militias of all types killed every attempt to unify the people of this nation. It is a difficult phase, and it requires launching a genuinely secular model of government that links the struggle for the sake of Libya first to the recovery of identity, to the revival of dignity and to salvaging the remnants of civil life. The time has come for this people to fight to regain their legitimate rights from the forces that produced all the perilous crises we are facing and that are working to perpetuate anarchy, corruption and tyranny. Libya needs real civilian expertise and an aware and strategically-minded leadership in order to build solid foundations for institutionalised government and the rule of law. Some observers have described the current situation as bleak. What is your response? I am reminded of a saying by Pablo Neruda: “One look into the darkness does not rob us of sight.” I would say: one look at Libyan reality does not rob us of hope. The labour pains that Libya is experiencing today will ultimately lead to the birth of a new reality that is better than the past. We believe that everything that is happening now is normal from the perspective of how societies evolve. Certainly, the crisis has dragged on because of the accumulation of thorny problems and issues that have not been dealt with properly, causing them to proliferate and grow more complex. Yet, I can see that a seed has formed in the social consciousness and it is on this we depend to sprout the seedlings of thought that will take Libya out of the interim phase into the open spaces of the modern civil state, a state based on the principles of citizenship, equal rights and social justice. We believe that such a state will also be most effective and influential in its Arab, African and Mediterranean environment. This is Libya's natural context in which it should develop its relations with other countries on the basis of common interests, good neighbourliness and social and political bonds and work to solve issues of common concern, such as terrorism and illegal migration. As it pursues such ends, Libya must, firstly, safeguard national sovereignty, identity and the higher national interest, and secondly, coordinate closely with and observe the interests of others in the region in order to work for a strong regional alliance that will serve as a cushion and safety valve for Libya. At the regional level, what role do you think Libya's neighbours should play? When I was prime minister, I warned, on several occasions, that the extremists in Libya wanted to drag the country back to square one. I said that confronting this threat required firm deterrent measures, and close cooperation with all neighbouring countries and the countries concerned in the Security Council and the UN in order to come up with the most effective means to uproot terrorism in Libya and the region as a whole. I urged Libya's neighbours, as I still do as a Libyan citizen, not to remain aloof to the situation in Libya. I asked them to intensify security and military cooperation, to boost bilateral relations, to contribute to training and rehabilitating Libyan security forces, to monitor the violence, to explore ways to hunt down terrorists, and to coordinate with us intensively in this on the basis of accurate intelligence and understandings informed by a clear vision. I encouraged urgent action in all these areas because the security of our neighbours is connected with Libya's security. The Libyan people have reached a point of near despair. What is the solution? Libya's domestic crisis, as a whole, is essentially political rather than economic or social. It revolves around disputes between political factions. However, these cast their shadow over everything and affect every aspect of life in the country. Therefore, by resolving these disputes we will have come up with the key to solving all the other crises. Libyans throughout the country say the same thing: We need to reach a peaceful, consensual formula in order to create concord among the political factions. We need to unify their efforts and focus their energies on saving the country from division and dissension and moving it firmly and steadily towards a stable democratic government based on the peaceful rotation of authority in the framework of a constitution acceptable to all. What kind of constitution will be acceptable to the Libyan people? In order for a constitution to be effective, it has to earn the respect of all. This can only be achieved by a constitution that guarantees the cultural, ethnic and intellectual rights of all segments of Libyan society. I fully believe that Libya is a multicultural state, which is something that lends a special character to Libyan society and distinguishes it from others. If we are to make this a constructive factor, we need to codify these cultural rights in clear and explicit constitutional texts in which the central criterion is to strengthen the principle of citizenship which grants equality to all components of Libyan society in the exercise of their rights and liberties. It is important to stress that the peaceful rotation of authority is the basis of the democratic process and that the civil character of the state is what guarantees the peacefulness of the political process and keeps political competition within its proper and legitimate framework, which is to abide by the will of the people as expressed in the ballot box. Democracy also entails respect for political adversaries, as expressed in guarantees against political or intellectual exclusion of any group, and it entails respect for the judiciary as the highest arbitrating authority in the state which, in order to perform its functions effectively, must remain independent and receive the necessary legal framework and financial support to safeguard its integrity, efficacy and implementation of its rulings. In order to ensure the stability of the political process under such conditions, the consensual constitution must be bolstered by a strong and neutral military establishment that upholds the constitution and protects the institutions of the state without intervening in the political process. There must further be guarantees to ensure the neutrality of the military establishment in order to avert the slide into the experiences of the past, the consequences of which we are reaping today. In the course of the troubles that Libyan society has experienced, there has emerged a kind of consensus on the type of government system Libya needs. Everyone has come to reject the centralised state, which by nature is unable to cope with the many issues and problems of the peripheries and remote areas. Over-centralisation is what contributed to the rise of marginalised areas whose people lack contact with government agencies and access to important services. Therefore, people today aspire to a decentralised state or system of government. Every region has its particular characteristics and its particular needs. Decentralisation gives people the opportunity to have close contact with government, enabling them to voice their demands directly and to keep officials accountable. If such rights and aspirations can be incorporated into the constitution, we will have laid the foundation for the development of a strong and modern civil state. Do you see signs of hope that stability will be restored in the near future? Libya is rich in resources and it has a homogenous social fabric. This is a source of hope. The fact that it does not have the sectarian conflicts or scarcity that plague other countries makes it easier to mend rifts. This is all the more the case since all the current differences do not revolve around unsolvable critical issues, but rather around divergences in points of view over how to reach the same goal, namely to establish the modern democratic state and to fight extremism and corruption. These are things over which we can reach consensus.
