Demonstrations continue in Middle Eastern countries including Libya and Yemen. Both have followed different courses to arrive at where they are today. Libya, a former colony of Italy, was made an independent country by the United Nations in December 1951. The form of government put in place was a hereditary monarchy, a feudal state. Major oil reserves were discovered in 1959 and wealth started to concentrate in the hands of an elite few.
In 1969 a young 28-year old army officer led a bloodless coup; the king was exiled to Egypt and a young Qadhafi pledged to put in place a fairer form of government with social justice and a redistribution of wealth. What has occurred is a state of authoritarian rule. Protests by youth are now spreading against the no longer young Qadhafi. The goal of social justice remains the same, and the path to that goal is seen in free elections. Hopefully the transition in Egypt will not last 40 years and elections will occur in Libya in a transition that is as bloodless as the 1969 overthrow of the former king.
Yemen’s path has been different. The current President, Ali Abdulla Saleh, was a former corporal who was elected president of North Yemen at the young age of 32, in 1978. This occurred after the then president was assassinated by an envoy from South Yemen, at that time a separate state. (more)
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