It is easy to label Muammar Gaddafi's first address to the United Nation's General Assembly simply as a hopeless rant (video clips embedded below). Following Gaddafi's speech, pundits and post-speech analysis on news networks— have called him a crazy man taking advantage of his debut at the UN to rant about every subject and historical event that occurred throughout his forty years in power. However, there are several key points that Gadhafi touched which might be overshadowed by the conspiracy theories he outlined.
Gaddafi bluntly addressed the reality and complexity at the heart of the United Nations. He methodically cut through the monopoly within the hierarchy of the UN—particularly blasting the status quo in the Security Council (SC). He renamed it the terror council accusing the council's permanent superpowers of conveniently using the security-council when addressing violations pertaining to other nations. These nations he argued turn a blind eye to the recommendations of the SC when their individual interests are at stake.
Gaddafi then navigated through all the wars that occurred following the establishment of the United Nations—and how the organization has failed to live up to the expectations of its founders.
Next, he targeted war crimes—his argument was rooted in the notion that some leaders of smaller nations have been convicted for war crimes by the International Criminal Court while their counterparts from the super-powers are never convicted for similar atrocities. It was a dramatic criticism that dismissed the legitimacy of the UN charter.
Gaddafi proposed equal representation of every nation in the SC as a solution to the monopoly exercised by nations that have veto powers. He was applauded by members of the African delegation when he proposed that members of the African Union also deserve permanent membership on the SC.
At this point of the speech many delegates were yawning and half of the room had empty seats. Gaddafi slammed the United Nation's anti-nuclear proliferation initiatives which appear to single out other nations, imposing sanctions while ignoring inspecting nations with larger nuclear arsenals. All of Gaddafi’s arguments were rooted in the notion that as far as the United Nations is concerned, ‘some animals are more equal than others’. That in fact ‘Somali’s are not the pirates, we at the UN are the pirates.’ Gaddafi was not done—he went ahead and demanded Africa to be compensated for the wealth stolen during colonial times with a lump sum of 7.7 trillion dollars. Only Gaddafi knows how he came up with this figure.
Gaddafi surprisingly commended Obama and his plan to bring change in the world, particularly regarding nuclear disarmament but he was skeptical that America will follow through with these plans especially once Obama leaves the presidency.
Gaddafi demanded further investigation into the assassinations of Lumumba, Kennedy and MLK.
He went on to rebuke travel restrictions imposed on some UN delegates arguing that if the United States was worried about its security, he would propose changing the UN head-quarters to a country where delegates would not even need travel visas.
Gaddafi’s message was very blunt, and it reflected the underlying problem and perception in the Middle East and rest of the world regarding the fate of the UN. There is a belief that the status-quo at the UN gets away with everything—many nations feel unrepresented. As Gaddafi plainly stated, many nations are treated and despised as 2nd class nations—and sternly stated that ‘laws are either made for all of us or none of us.’
This was a speech to remember but just like I wrote several months ago, it is a shame that the African Union elected a leader with such a poor track record to be chairman of the AU.
While his criticism of the role of the UN in global politics was succint, one can hardly take Gaddafi seriously considering his track record on justice, equal representation and democracy. After governing Libya with an iron fist for over 40 years and been responsible for some human-rights violation, it is hypocritical to have him lecture the UN about democracy no matter how true some of his message was. He was at the United Nations to speak for the voices of millions of Africans. This leaves me wondering, is Gaddafi the right messenger?
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