Democracy is a revolutionary concept more than the revolution itself. Democracy gives everyone the right to self-determination and everyone under a democracy is a citizen with his own opinion. Those who do not have their own opinions will eventually be called to have them when there is a democracy.

Yet the revolution monopolizes this right and only gives it to the victorious side. The revolutionaries have their fingers on the trigger,  without a need to convince others.

Democracy is a revolutionary concept more than the revolution itself. Democracy gives everyone the right to self-determination and everyone under a democracy is a citizen with his own opinion. Those who do not have their own opinions will eventually be called to have them when there is a democracy.

Yet the revolution monopolizes this right and only gives it to the victorious side. The revolutionaries have their fingers on the trigger,  without a need to convince others.

The revolutionaries of today have the right to determine the margins of public freedoms and what is allowed and what is not. In their hands society becomes a tool through which they simply acquire gains from the revolution itself. The margins of untold things grow. This is the real danger of the second revolutionary state.

If Libyans are to do something, they should stand firmly against those who made themselves the guardians of the people. They should prevent them from monopolizing public rights through the continuation of the democratic process, despite its poor results which must improve with the passage of time. Results will certainly change when the naïve patterns of thinking change.

“The revolution is not a promise”

To continue on the democratic path and to firmly stand against the “revolutionaries” – who think they have all the rights and drag the country backwards towards the consecration of a revolutionary dictatorship to replace the one which the revolution came to uproot – is what we should think of and do today.

As we know, the revolution is not a promise and it is not something to be completed. It ends the moment it starts. This is contrary to democracy which starts the moment it happens, and develops with time.

What happened in Libya is that a certain faction decided to lead the revolution and the revolutionaries (if we can even identify them in the middle of the chaotic arming) to become something similar to Boko Haram gangs; a group carrying real arms but with no real project. Armed groups that only want to kill to prove their point with piles of corpses.

Picking the wrong battles

Libya today is a country full of fighters who have all kinds of weapons but lack something equally important: the battle. Here lies the dilemma. These forces have become dominant and they create battles.

The first and most important role of the state is to protect the rights of citizens and to prevent these fighters from attacking the rights of the citizens of other countries. The most obvious manifestation is the constitutional state. The governments with absolute power – nationalist, religious, socialist, fascist or revolutionary governments – protect the rights of the oligarchy group which forms the ruling class and its lackeys only. We learn that rights are not for all citizens.

This is the difference between a constitutional state and a revolutionary state. The latter moves in the end towards the formation of a fragile condition in between a monarchy and an autocracy, controlled by a shadow, such as the Muslim Brotherhood movement as a model. Or it to moves to anarchy – a state which is ruled by no one and where people become convinced that the main problem lies in the presence of a government.

Anarchy in Libya

Libya today after the collapse of the General National Congress and the rule of the Muslim Brotherhood state is an anarchist state par excellence. Revolutionaries have become thieves and politicians have become war criminals. Those who caused the problems believe they have the solution in their hands. In the end, they will lead us to another Gaddafi for fifty or more years.

There are more idols than our capacity to destroy them. When the people demand the prohibition of party life and freedom of expression for the third time in less than half a century, as is the case in Libya today, it is an active struggle over who will inherit the nation.

When the authority of the state grows, the margins of freedoms diminish. In Libya we have tried the prolonged arm of power as a pilferer, during the ‘socialist’ period of Libya’s ‘Caesar al-Gaddafi’ and the capitalism of his son. The people were eventually forced to sell their freedom in return for security.

The basic principle of freedom is to define the role of authority in order to move from the idea of Ghafir (*The Forgiver) 40:29, to the idea of **Ants (27:32).

The people of this country have no other choice than to stand together and defend the rights of every person. No one alone will survive the sinking of the ship; everyone is the captain’s cousin.

*{Pharaoh said: “I but point out to you that which I see (myself); Nor do I guide you but to the Path of Right!”}

**{She said: “Ye chiefs! advise me in (this) my affair: no affair have I decided except in your presence.}