Nasr ad-Din Mahni, a Libyan MP representing the (eastern) federalist Barqa region (Benghazi being the largest city there), said his region’s boycott of the nation’s political process has come to an end and that oil ports would remain open as long Barqa was fairly represented in Libya’s government. However, he warned that Barqa’s re-entry into political life was precarious.
The following is the first part of an interview with MP ad-Din Mahni:
Nasr ad-Din Mahni, a Libyan MP representing the (eastern) federalist Barqa region (Benghazi being the largest city there), said his region’s boycott of the nation’s political process has come to an end and that oil ports would remain open as long Barqa was fairly represented in Libya’s government. However, he warned that Barqa’s re-entry into political life was precarious.
The following is the first part of an interview with MP ad-Din Mahni:
Nasr ad-Din Mahni, the change in the federalists’ stance from boycott to political participation in Libya was considered a quantum leap. What are the reasons behind this leap?
The federalist movement is supposed to participate in decision making, but our reluctance to participate in the elections of the National Congress was driven by two main reasons.
First, elections were held under the lists and individual systems and we do not have a law to regulate political parties. There are only two parties and these are the Justice and Construction Party and the Coalition Forces.
Each has its own militia and the two have their own ideologies; the first is an Islamic stream while the second is a civil stream. The two have regional roots: Misrata and its allies and Zintan and its allies. Thus, when there is a division in the congress, as we have seen, an imbalance occurs, which is not controlled by legal restrictions and we end up with a national congress with two conflicting blocs fighting over positions and the work of ministries.
How does the congressional distribution of seats affect your stance?
Since the day of its creation, we were against the distribution of seats according to population majority and we became the victims of the majority. When there are 102 MPs representing the Tripoli region, 60 representing Barqa, and 38 representing Fezzan, the representative of the Barqa and Fezzan collectively will not be able to stop a decision passed by Tripoli’s MPs given their majority.
In the constitutional process there must be a consensus and the abolition of the majority’s dictatorship. It was for this reason that we boycotted the elections and at that time a compromise was reached and accepted by Mustafa Abdel Jalil.
It was agreed that the Congress continues with the task of preparing for the elections but the foundational dimension shall be put aside. This was an important step taken by the federalists; otherwise, this congress would have been the one to draft Libya’s Constitution.
Now the situation has changed. The Constitution is being written by a consensual committee chosen according to the individual system.
Despite that, the realities rejected by federalists have not changed much. Centralization still exists, seats have not been equally distributed, and armors are still moving with a legislative cover, are they not?
Libya suffers from two problems. First of all, there are the corrupt militias, which are concentrated in Tripoli. Sixty years have passed and 60 budgets were spent and sick Libyans are still suffering in Tunisia and Egypt’s hospitals and they are dying on the roads. Sixty years of Libya’s history and the corrupt militias in Tripoli are still administrating middle and upper departments. After the revolution, the ministries returned to Tripoli and the budget of the health ministry has reached 1.7 billion dinars (US $1.3 billion) per year.
Second, there are militias in Tripoli fighting on an ideological and regional basis and there are cities fighting among themselves. What happened is a marriage between the militias of corruption and the militias of war; that is to say that the militias of war are putting persons in high ranking posts in exchange for money and projects.
We have never seen a parliament president, with outlawed militia shields, giving away 900 million dinars. For this reason, the Tripoli region has become insecure, the exterior ministry has been closed for months, the communication ministry hasn’t been functioning for two weeks and the former prime minister has been kidnapped and beaten for refusing to pay militias the amounts of money they demanded.
It is time to take a step backwards and move the government’s headquarters to the Barqa region. Tripoli region cannot lead Libya and it has taken its chances in the leadership in the past 60 years. The result is that Libya is an underdeveloped country.
Corrupt militias worshiped al-Gaddafi and turned him into a God; they stole the money and ruined our lives. Before, we used to accept this reality but we will not accept it anymore. For this reason, we are not going to accept our continued marginalization and the looting of public money.
Don’t you consider that your return and your participation in the political process as a reaction to the failure of oil export attempts and the seizure of the Morning Gloria oil tanker?
No not at all. This is strategic project which is much bigger than oil. We are speaking about a regional identity and pluralism, which are not synonymous with division.
Resolution No. 289 adopted by the UN General Assembly on the creation of Libya states that Libya is made up of three people. The committee that oversaw the creation of Libya was one of the Allied nations in addition to Islamic countries as well as representatives of the people of Barqa and the people of Fezzan.
The abolition of pluralism is the guillotine, where the people of Barqa are being led. When they talk about the unity of the people during the referendum on the Constitution they will make us victims of the majority’s dictatorship because the referendum will be held at the level of Libya. This has reached an end. Libya is a plural country and the developmental and service-related decisions should be taken in Baraq. Regarding sovereign decisions, these are still subject to debate.
When we demanded our rights during al-Gaddafi’s time, they were terrorizing us by the revolutionary committees’ militias and now they are terrorizing us by the Shield Militias which are orchestrating murder in Benghazi and Derna. They are exporting death to us because we are demanding our rights. If we ask for a data base on the number of those who work in the diplomatic corps, we will find that they are favored and this is why we are demanding the application of the principle of equal opportunities and equal distribution and it is for this reason that we entered the parliament.
Aren’t you afraid that your work in the parliament will put you in confrontation with federalist forces as those which have closed the oil ports?
The reasons for the previous tensions such as the closure of oil ports were injustice and resentment. Unfortunately, the al-Barqawi and federal streams did not exist because of the boycott of the National Congress and the closure of channels of expression.
Now, channels of expression will not be closed and there is no need for such a proposal. Things will be clearer in the parliament. I believe that there will be heated discussion because this is a very critical phase during which the future and the shape of the Libyan state will be decided.
Today, Barqa’s people have channels for expression and dialogue within the parliament and thus there will not be tensions or closure.
In case the fragile agreement to open oil ports reached between the government and the political council of the Barqa region collapses, and a decision is taken to launch a military operation on the city, what will you do?
We will not accept any force coming from outside the borders of the region to invade it, regardless of the reasons. We are ready to leave the parliament and to go back to our guns.
