The building of a nation

The day has come where the Libyan people have to choose a new future. So many years have passed in the evil clutches of Gadhaffi, in tyranny, in oppression, in chains. These chains will very soon be broken and a new dawn will emerge in the near east, ready to sweep away all the conflicts, all the trouble, all the inertia of having a society bereft with corruption. We from West, the democratic league, applaud this development, and we congratulate you with all our hearts. We have watched you strive to win your own freedom, and we have respected the fight you had on you own, in order to win your own country. You did that and we are so immensly happy, that words cannot describe our feeling. We cry with you, we dance with you, we salute your new won freedom.

But after the freedom has been won, you will have very little time to confirm and establish your democracy. Napoleon had only hundred days at his disposal, you may have even less. Count fifty days from the day Gadhaffi falls.

Anyway, there are two basic principles and a triade of organisation you have to consider. First the principles of a democratic state; justice and freedom. Justice lies in the institution of law, freedom lies in the institution of the popular assembly.

What are these two principles?

First, let us have a look on justice. Many versions of justice are at hand; the mathematic of the pythagoreans, the ethical of Aristotle, the naturebased of Plato, and then there is the version created by the danish philosopher Grundtvig. As I understand him, what is the most important in life is to be happy, to sing, to rejoice, to be friends and live a life of fullfillment. We all strive for happiness, but to understand what happiness really is, you have to look upon happy people. And this is really justice; to create a state where life flourishes. Where the children are safe, where the elderly are cared for, where the young thrive, where the adult live a meaningful live. Injustice is the opposite, depression, insecurity, unhappiness, broken vows. In a practical judicial system the judge will punish a perpetrator if he or her has injured someone by stealing, raping, or other things that is harmful to the little and large ones of our society, something that has taken away there livelihood. Libya has traditionally had many ties with Egypt. The egyptians used to call justice for Maat, order. But if you really look at it, what would be the guiding star of a judge? Barren order or the life of the citizens, I say the life of the citizens.

Opposed to the principle of justice there is the principle of freedom. But as Rousseau says, you do not enjoy freedom in all respects, you enjoy freedom en speech, but not freedom in violence. There is only one part of society that has the freedom of violence and that is the police. We, as citizens, put our trust in the police in order to curb the might of the strong. Really it is a social protection system. If everybody had the possibility to use violence, the victims would be the weak.

But there is one area where we are absolutely free, and that is in speech, because, you see, man is a creature of habits. We do not like to challenged in our view of the world. This leads to stagnation and oppression. We have to allow the young to challenge what we see as evident. Therefor we allow all to say whatever they want, to critisize whoever they want, this goes with religion, political parties, family, all there is. The tradition goes all the way back to, again, Egypt. There they used to have magnificent centres of civilisation called Elephantine, Memphis, Hermopolis and must important Heliopolis. The city of the sun. The theory is, that life and free speech goes hand in hand. They used to call it enlightentment; to shed light on something. Really it is all about allowing people to say the truth, and to try to find the truth in dialogue.

In practice it is pretty simple; the citizens of the state discusses the just laws of the democracy, and the police and judicial institutions put these laws into society.

After these principles have been discussed and a judicial system of judges have been established with firm connection to the police, another task has to be done. The democratic assembly has to be institutionalized. Now, that is not an easy task. Let me try to convey the theory. It is all matter of balance. The great danger of a democracy is too much freedom. Right now it might seem a little strange to imagine too much freedom, but in a hundred years you might encounter the problems. Therefor it is very important to make a balance between the different control mechanisms that ideally lie in the different systems of government. Now there are three systems of government; kingdom, aristocracy and the direct rule of the people. A democracy tries to combine these three systems. The president is the king, the upper house is the aristocracy and the lower house is the representative of the people. The upper house is a more permanent institution where the members are there for life, or a long time. In England they call it the house of lords.

This construction of the state ensures stability.

Now, these are just the basic guidelines of a democracy, the constitution has to be drafted by the people of Libya, I wish you luck, you deserve a future in happiness and abundance. The possibility is there, because you have the riches, the bravery and the possibilities of a serious and free people. I salute you as a representative of the danish people, may you all prosper.

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