Libyan uprising - Hope for the future

REBELS in Tripoli seemed on the brink of victory last night as the regime of Muammar Gaddafi crumbled.

His last tenuous grip on any power seemed likely to be measured in hours rather than days. This is hopefully a major step towards true democracy in Libya.

The Western media should cover the events in the coming days and months with as much vigour as they have covered the demise of the outgoing regime.

After a period of repression, the hopes and aspirations of people are so roused by such revolutionary events that there is inevitably a degree of disillusionment in the aftermath. The people of Libya were shamelessly betrayed and robbed by Gaddafi over 40 years. With its enormous oil reserves, the country should have been fabulously wealthy, but this wealth was plundered by Gaddafi’s corrupt regime.

Following regime changes in Tunisia and Egypt, Libya should be the next to enjoy this so-called Arab Spring, and hopefully Syria will soon follow.

The ultimate outcome of the overthrowing of the different tyrants is not yet clear. Hopefully they will not seek to emulate the revolution in Iran, which ushered in a period of fundamentalism and instability.