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Libyan Freedom Fighter Praises Obama

By Arthur C. Donart, Ph. D.

Ali Tarhouni, the first interim prime minister of a free Libya, in a talk given at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace today, had great praise for President Obama and the U.S. He said that president Obama’s call for a no fly zone in Libya was just the right call at the right time. He claimed that Obama’s critics who were calling for a more up front and forceful approach would have been a disaster for the Libyan revolution. Ali said there are U.S. and French flags hanging on houses in Libya out of gratitude for the NATO support. He hailed Obama’s role as very wise.

Ali noted that in 1951 Libya had a constitutional monarchy, a free press, and held free elections. “That was sixty years ago; only the very elderly generation would be able to recall anything of democracy. The rest of the people had no experience of democracy or democratic institutions.” He said that it is a great challenge for his people to build a democracy from the ground up. According to Dr. Ali, Qaddafi subverted all the social institutions, the judiciary, the parliament, the army and police for the purpose of keeping himself in power and suppress any dissent.

Ali also noted that Qaddifi took over the private sector economy by demanding that large corporations give him large kick backs for being allowed to operate there. This set the stage for a corrupt civil service and kick backs became a normal way of life. If you wanted a license to operate a food stand, you had to pay a kick back. Corruption was endemic. Today, he surmised, it is not nearly the problem it was. Why? Because citizens carry guns. It would not be smart to demand a kick back.

Today, Libya has no police force, no army, no judiciary, no laws. However, Dr. Ali said the Libyan people do have a sense of right and wrong. Their moderate version of Islam is holding society together. They are very concerned for the poor; for families who lost a father in the revolution; for helping the many citizen soldiers re-adjust after the traumatic experience many of them suffered. They are keenly aware that they need a mechanism for reconciliation and are looking to South Africa to assist them in this matter.

When asked by someone from the Congressional Research Office if the U.S. should do more, Dr. Ali said that a hands off approach would be appreciated. He stated that the Libyan people needed to sort their problems out for themselves and come up with solutions that are uniquely theirs; that correspond to their culture yet uphold the principles in the U.N. declaration of Human Rights.

In answering a question from a representative of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Dr. Ali who served as a lecturer in business economics at the University of Washington for 25 years before returning to Libya to lead the revolution, stated that there would be no major decision, economic or otherwise, until a constitution was in place and a national government elected. He explained that what Libya has now is an unelected, transitional government that acts as a care taker. Their only decision concerning economics has been that every contract, public or private, must be published on the internet. Also, all government revenue and expenses must be posted on the internet and available to anyone who is interested.

Ali pointed out that the re-establishment of institutions such as the courts, police and army need to be a priority. He explained that it would be awhile before industry is privatized; and that all contracts let by the Qaddifi regime had to be examined for fairness.

Capitol Report

By Jim Sacia, State Representative, 89th District

The Illinois General Assembly will reconvene in late January and remain seated until the end of May 2012. This is the second and final year of the 97th General Assembly and with the challenges facing our state it’s safe to say our work is cut out for us.

Many new bills will be introduced that have nothing to do with an underfunded pension system and the huge deficits resulting in the state’s embarrassing slowness in paying its obligations.

Throughout the year many of you come to me with ideas about bills that should become law. I always listen carefully, share my opinion, and then send the idea on to house staff to see if such an idea has previously been submitted. Some of the time it’s you as an individual with an idea and often it’s on behalf of a community, municipality, or other government entity. So, just how does a bill become a law? Here’s some information for political science 101. Let’s create an example.

A community would like to extend its TIF District into a rural area. They bring the idea to their legislator who submits it to staff. Other communities chime in, what a good idea it will help them as well. The bill is drafted by staff and submitted by the legislator for assignment and all bills start out in the rules committee made up of three members of the majority party and two from the minority. Thereafter, if at least three members agree, it is assigned to the appropriate committee where it is thoroughly scrutinized, massaged, testified to and against by those with concerns. This is the time that you as a concerned citizen have the opportunity to express your views about the legislation be it pro or con. Often times a citizen’s concern causes the bill to be amended, changed completely, or convinces the committee to defeat the whole idea right there.

If the bill passes committee, the sponsoring legislator introduces it on the floor where it has three readings. The first reading is done by the house clerk to enter the bill into the official record. It’s done for recording purposes only and the members are not present. The second reading is before a full chamber and the third reading is where it is debated as to the pros and cons by members of the chamber only. If it reaches sixty votes of the one hundred eighteen in the house or thirty members of the fifty nine in the senate it moves to the other chamber where the process is totally repeated.

If the bill passes the second chamber, where it can still be amended, it then goes on to the governor, who can sign it into law, amendatorily veto it or do a total veto. If the veto occurs it must pass both chambers with a super majority of seventy one house members and thirty six senate members to become law without the governor’s signature.

As always, you can reach me, Sally or Barb at or e-mail us at You can also visit my website at www.jimsacia.com. It’s always a pleasure to hear from you.