The General National Congress (GNC) should have never passed the Political Isolation Law at gunpoint since armed militias cordoned off the state’s sovereign headquarters. GNC could have either suspended its sessions and refrained from passing the law amid armed aspects, which would have obliged the militias to eventually retreat under public opinion pressure.

The General National Congress (GNC) should have never passed the Political Isolation Law at gunpoint since armed militias cordoned off the state’s sovereign headquarters. GNC could have either suspended its sessions and refrained from passing the law amid armed aspects, which would have obliged the militias to eventually retreat under public opinion pressure.

The enactment of the law at gunpoint has belittled the legislative branch.  Cordoning off the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Ministry of Justice has diminished the executive branch, in favor of an illegitimate, unelected and ambiguous armed structure whose agenda is unidentified.

Physical and symbolic violence was aggravated on voting day. Gunmen carried coffins into the GNC headquarters not to symbolize martyrs, as believed, but to level a symbolic and violent threat against GNC members should they not pass the law, they would be sent home in their coffins. This clearly explains why the affected blocs, with the exception of four members, voted for the law and without even including a clause to exclude opponents who reconciled with the regime.

The law clearly serves the Muslim Brotherhood, especially when the clause excluding opponents reconciled with Gaddafi was omitted moments before submitting the law to the presidency. Certainly, the Brotherhood’s political experience, in contrast to the National Forces Alliance and National Front’s, enabled them to pass the law in such a form, thus defeating both of them.

The Brotherhood has thus succeeded in excluding its opponents and controls all of the state’s central powers as stated by Mustafa Abdul Jalil who accused the Brotherhood of seizing the state’s central powers and provoking recent disorders.

Lacking any political experience, Abdul Jalil, who used to be a close ally to the Brotherhood when he was Head of the National Transitional Council, has fallen in their trap and discovered that they have their own agenda which is to exclude all opponents whether in Libya, Tunisia or Syria since they have no allies.

Isolation Law will have disastrous consequences on the country and may even result in a civil war, secession of Eastern Libya or dictatorship return. Many may find such analysis exaggerated, but if we consider Mahmoud Jibril’s estimation of the number of excluded politicians which is half a million adding their families members taking into consideration that the average number of Libyan family members is five, the number of those affected by the law would amount to 2.25 million.

If we consider that Gaddafi regime’s remnants amount to 800,000 in Egypt, according to Egyptian officials, and 536,000 in Tunisia, according to the Libyan Ambassador in Tunisia Gamal Jernaz, let alone the indefinite number in other countries and the current pro-Gaddafi tribes who supported him against the February revolution, we would conclude that the enactment of the law is the most stupid political action taken as it has only weakened the revolution in favor of its opponents. It is as if the revolution was a fire feeding upon itself.