PRICELESS:

Libya transforms under Khadafy's watchful eye: Brother Leader keeps tight grip on reins of power while political and social changes propel nation into 21st century (Dan Morrison, 4/12/07, SF Chronicle)

Led by Khadafy's modernizing son, Seif al-Islam Khadafy, reformers in the government have ambitious plans to propel Libya into the 21st century -- but without opening the door to freedoms that might threaten Brother Leader's hold on power.

The reformers -- and the consultants they have hired from the Monitor Group of Cambridge, Mass., to formulate and help implement changes -- seem to have decided the only way to succeed is by convincing Khadafy that plans to remake the country were all his idea in the first place.

"We may hear talk of changes, and change would be good,'' said an engineering student walking on Tripoli's seaside promenade. The student, speaking on condition of anonymity like all the Libyans interviewed for this article, looked out at the Mediterranean and shrugged. "But the Leader is still the Leader -- in all his wisdom.''

In a feat of political jiujitsu, the reformers are trying to tear down huge swaths of Khadafy's socialist state while using his own manifesto -- a melange of socialist and utopian homilies known as the Green Book -- as part of their justification.

"You have to frame it in a way that the Leader wasn't wrong, it's just that his policies were poorly implemented,'' said a person familiar with the effort. It's a bold strategy, as if Chinese free-marketers had claimed the Beijing stock exchange flowed from the wisdom of Chairman Mao.

With a population of just 5.6 million and giant stores of oil and natural gas, Libya can modernize faster and with less pain than Eastern Europe did in the 1990s, becoming "the Norway of North Africa,'' said an economic official who asked not to be identified because the plans had not yet been enacted.

The new economic strategy calls for cutting hundreds of thousands of government jobs, retraining armies of managers and recruiting Libyan expatriates. Laid-off workers would get three years' severance, retraining and access to business loans. Hospitals and public sector industries would all be managed by foreigners or foreign-trained Libyans -- an acknowledgment of Libya's gap in expertise and standards, the official said.

Foreign investment would be encouraged, "not because we need the money, but because it brings a better business culture," he said. "It raises the bar -- that is priceless.''

If you can make Anglicization seem organic it's all to the good.

Posted by Orrin Judd at April 13, 2007 6:43 AM