By Sami Zaptia.
Tripoli, 22 August 2014:
Speaking on the Al-Assema TV programme The Parliament yesterday evening, House of Representative (HoR) member Mohamed . . .[restrict]Al-Houdery said that it was not in the Libyan militias’ and Shields’ interest that a (strong) Libyan state be created.
Al- Assema TV’s The Parliament programme is a daily evening programme providing a roundup of HoR activity when the HoR is in session. It usually guests one or two Representatives on its show.
Representative Al-Houdery was referring to many of the various officially state recognized and sponsored militias and Shields (Diraa or Duroo) that are currently engaged in fighting in both Tripoli and Benghazi. Not all of the militias are taking part in the current fighting.
Furthermore, Houdery said that militias and Shields are both partially responsible for the current lack of security and increased crime rates in Libya.
The Anti House of Representatives stance
Speaking on the same programme, Representative Younis Fanoush said that the anti HoR campaign and stance being carried out and adopted by the HoR’s distracters, is a purely political stance caused by their poor election performance.
All the claims of illegality and unconstitutionality of the HoR are a smokescreen to conceal their loss of power, influence and wealth caused by their poor June election performance, said Fanoush.
Election of Libya’s new head of state
Fanoush noted that the presidents of the General National Congress (GNC), be it Mohamed Magarief or Nuri Abu Sahmain, had inadvertently acted as the head of state of Libya.
This was not the intention, he said, and felt that the Transitional Constitutional Declaration (of 2011) had not intended the president of the GNC, who was intended to act as speaker and mange and organize the sessions of the GNC – to act as head of state.
However, the February Committee, created in 2014 to resolve the issue of when the tenure of the GNC should end, had advised the GNC to allow the Libyan public to directly vote for Libya’s head of state. The GNC, Fanoush reminded, had decided to not adopt this direct public election of the head of state option, but chose to refer it to the newly elected legislature – the HoR.
Therefore, Fanoush explained, the HoR, in one of its first decisions, has reached a consensus that as soon as there is peace in Tripoli and Benghazi, direct elections for Libya’s head of state will take place.
Strong Chief of Staff , army and security
With regards to the recent questioning of Libya’s Chief of Staff and his revelations and disclosures that he had no control over the militias who refused to take his orders, Representative Al-Houdery felt that Libya needed to build a strong army.
The army needs incentivizing with good attractive benefits that would make it attractive even for militias to enroll to, he said
In the same vein, Representative Fanoush said that he hoped a strong, capable new Chief of Staff could be chosen. He was not sure as to exactly how this would be done. The two options before the HoR are either for the HoR to select a new Chief of Staff directly, or for the HoR to select a Military Council who would in turn select their own Chief of Staff.
A strong army is necessary, reiterated Representative Fanoush. People need to feel secure, he explained. It has been three years since the (February 2011) revolution, and no progress has been made in the security arena. There can be no progress in all of the other fields such as the economy, health etc, without security. Security would furnish progress in all the other fields, he stressed.
New PM, new government?
Whilst Representative Al-Houdery was happy for a partial reshuffle of the current government and some leading positions, Representative Fanoush said he disagreed with his fellow representative.
“I am in favour of the HoR choosing a new, small crises government. I have been calling for this since the days of the Ali Zeidan government”, stressed Fanoush.
“We need a strong government. One that has full control of all its governmental organs. I am in favour of the renewal of all of the leading positions in the state, including the Prime Minister, the government and the Governor of the Central Bank of Libya”, declared Representative Fanoush. [/restrict]
