“Allah, Muammar and Libya are everything!” is the slogan that welcomes students. It’s Zahrat el-Fatah, the Gadhafi school in Tripoli. Journalists from the French daily “Le Figaro” were there and revealed how the young Libyans are educated in the spirit of the colonel.
Dressed in blue uniforms, students aged between 8 and 14 years have resumed classes. For three weeks nobody came to school due to clashes between pro-and anti-Gaddafi troops. Even so, they have not forgotten their creed: “Allah, Muammar and Libya are everything!” an automatic repeat of the little ode dedicated to “Uncle Gadhafi”.
The classrooms are not missing the portrait of the worshipped leader, kissed often by the little ones. Reporters who visited public schools say the ongoing riots in Libya for more than two months are not felt at all in this institution, “paintings of Gadhafi, in power for more than four decades, are still firmly planted on the walls”.
One hour a week, students learn the famous “green card”, the bible of the Tripoli regime. You wouldn’t say that the country is in chaos and war.
“I recall that Gadhafi is only the humble guide of the Libyan revolution and that people is the one that govern by popular committees. We have a true model of democracy that should inspire other countries”, said Naji Arabi, the teacher.
She failed however to say that Libya did not hold elections and mentioned not a word about the regime militias organized to silence any opposition. And as a “soldier” not deviating from orders, Naji lists the privileges offered by the regime: “We have a house, a car, a salary of 500 dinars per month. And we recently received an additional support of 400 dinars. What else can you ask for?”
Studying under terror
Our teacher talks about Libya’s enemies: al-Qaida, al-Jazeera television, Americans, Arab League and France, the first country to recognized opposition’s government. The list of enemies would be long, but “Libya will go out head up, as it did after the Italian colonization”, said the teacher.
Students are not so sure that everything is pink. They said in chorus at teacher’s urging that “all is well in Libya”. Asked by journalists if they were happy to resume courses, a student that is more coy, said: “In recent days I was afraid I was very afraid …”, pauses, then says that he feared he would miss exams.
A more courageous girl stopped the journalists in the lobby and told them in a perfect English, after ensuring that no one sees that “there are many problems in Libya: corruption, censorship… there is oil but money is mismanaged”.
She apologized on behalf of her colleagues that they had to lie and then continued: “After we came back to school, classes are half empty. My mother is no longer going to work. Her boss was killed”.
Before going to class, the principal repeated to the journalists that there are no problems in her country: “Libya is a united country. Here we are brothers. Nobody wants war”.