Profile: Muammar Gaddafi
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Xinhua, August 22, 2011
Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi's rule is crumbling after over four decades of controversial governance, as the rebel troops took control of the capital Tripoli Sunday night and his son Saif Al-Islam was detained.
Since protests erupted in Libya in early 2011, which were inspired by similar anti-government demonstrations in other Arab countries, 69-year-old Gaddafi and the oil-rich North African nation, with a population of about 6.5 million, have stayed at the center of spotlight of international media.
Top figure
In early February, people took to the streets in Benghazi, the second largest city in Libya, to voice opposition against the country's top figure who was known for being independent in his words and actions.
In power for 42 years, Gaddafi has provided the Libyan people with basic living guarantees, but meanwhile won over key tribesman (tribes and clans consist of a majority of Libya's politics as Gaddafi bans all political parties) in the country by means of money and power so as to maintain his dominance.
When gradually squandering vast wealth, he was blamed for setting ceilings for citizens' salaries, ignoring investing on civil structure, and leaving jobless rate high outside the government.
Gaddafi entered Benghazi Military University Academy before serving in the Libyan army in 1965, and was sent to Britain Royal Military Sandhurst for training in 1966.
His rule started in September 1969, after the then junior officer, leading several of his colleagues in the "Free Officers Movement," staged a bloodless coup that toppled ageing King Idris, who was then undergoing medical treatment in Turkey, and established the Libyan Arab Republic. And Gaddafi became the chairman of the Revolutionary Command Council (RCC) and commander- in-chief of the Armed Forces of Libya.
He served as the country's minister of defense while being the prime minister from 1970 to 1972. In 1977, he became the "Revolutionary Leader of Libya," and relinquished all administration positions in 1979, retaining only this title.
Fed up with monarchical corruption and earlier colonial occupation (Italy dominated Libya from 1911-1951), Gaddafi, starting from the 1970s, made the Libyan people beneficiaries of free education, free health care, and subsidized housing and transport, with the help of the country's huge oil revenue and its relatively small population.
In the mean time, he imposed strict Islamic governance, banning vices like gambling and alcohol, and started a system of Islamic morals in the country. Cities like the capital Tripoli started to flourish with new buildings and hotels, turning into a destination for tourists and businessmen from across the world.
But these efforts were proved inadequate to speed up and diversify the country's growth to the largest extent, as, to hang up to dominance, Gaddafi crippled independent trade unions and major civil organizations along with political parties. He destroyed the state apparatus and began navigating the country with greater power even than that of a president.
As time went on, even Libya's pride in its healthcare policy has gone beyond disbelief. Reports by the Pan-Arabist Al-Arabiya television said shortly after the outbreak of the turmoil this year that some Libyan citizens were resorting to Tunisia, Egypt and Jordan for necessary medical treatments, paying billions of dollars a year, after finding the system in their own country ineffective and unreliable.
The Saudi-based channel said the public distrust was evoked especially after contaminated medical tools had led to HIV infection of more than 500 children in Benghazi in 1999.
Universal misery is to many Libyans, the earliest rallies in Benghazi in February caused an immediate contagion in a number of key cities including the capital Tripoli.
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