This deprivation made him talk with pain and congestion and pushed him to support the political boycott of the elections of the constituent body, which was held in June 2013. “Thus I will be able to keep my rights and will save myself the trouble of a year of attempts, maneuvers and mediation in order to record my son's name as (Mazigh), because I believe our participation in the constituent body will be an inconsequential participation of formality. Amazighs have only two out of 60 seats in the body, so what results could come out of voting and participating in these elections”.
Amazigh are one of the oldest peoples that inhabited North Africa. They have cultural specificities, the most important of which is their language, which is written using the Tifinagh (Latin) alphabet. The Amazigh people still live in all of the North African countries, including Libya, which had prevented the use of this language, or even the discussion about this identity.
Hannibal Nanis, an Amazigh citizen, explains: “we, the Amazighs of Libya, object to the Article 30 of the Constitutional Declaration, as it has been announced in an official statement of the constitutional entitlement which was held in Tripoli in January 2013, and from which emerged the formation of the Supreme Council for the Amazighs in Libya, which has been authorized as a political body to represent us. Our objection is to the fact that the Article did not include a provision that clearly protects our rights, but only referred to the cultural rights it guarantees, and that other languages (non-Arab) are national languages. We consider this to be a vague and elastic text, one that does not rise to the level of our demands”.
Mr. KhayriAlhamasa, a member of the Supreme Council of Libya’s Amazigh from the town of Zuwarah adds in a statement to MDI: “the Council started asking the National Congress to amend this article since 2013, after our hopes in the Transitional Council of Libya were dashed. The amendment is intended to ensure the Amazigh’s right to give their opinion about the articles concerning the name of the state, its official identity,language, official flag and anthem. Thus, the vote on these items (only) should be by consensus not majority; otherwise there will be a breach of the principle of partnership and national unity”.
Dr. Abdel kader Kaddoura, a member of the constituent assembly for drafting the constitution says “I still believe that the participation of the Amazigh, Toubou and Tuareg is essentialfor the emergence of a consensual constitution that is satisfactory to all the Libyans. However, the intransigence of both sides brings no good to any of them. The constituent assembly was not successful in dealing with this issue, just like many other thorny issues, because of the behavior of some members of the founding committee who tend to impose their views. Dialogue is essential in order to reach a solution. In my opinion, it is impossible to have a Constitution without the Amazigh, As well as the rest of the components”.
It is worthy to mention that this boycott did not stop at the Amazigh, but also escalated to the withdrawal of the Tuareg and Toubou both from their seats for the same demands. Thus, the four seats, which are reserved for the minoritiesamong the sixty seats in the constituent assembly, are empty, which further complicates the mission of the constituent assembly. This is confirmed by Mr. Ali Hamdan, a member of the constituent assembly of Libya whose membership has been suspended. He says in a statement to the MDI “with the continued suspension of the memberships of the representatives of the Libyan people’s components in the assembly and the Amazighian boycott, the constituent assembly's work, even if completed, will remain lacking as it does not reflect a large and important part of the Libyan nation. Thus, the assembly’s work will lose its legitimacy since it violates the international laws that require the compatibility of laws with the members of society with cultural and linguistic specificities”.
Continuing the boycott in light of the current situation in Libya only makes things worse and increases congestion. The discussion about these rights is held from the wrong perspective, according to Salah Bounkab, an Amazighian media figure who says: “Citizenship is based on the idea of peaceful coexistence, and individual rights. There is no such thing in the State of citizenship as ethnic, linguistic or religious minorities. The modern concept of the civil state stems from the idea of ensuring individual rights and the idea that communities protect their rights by protecting the rights of its members without discrimination on any grounds. In Libya the issue is more complex”.
In the midst of this boycott, in August 30, 2015, there was the re-election of the Supreme Council for the Amazighsof Libya in its second session. The elections took place in all the Amazighian-speaking cities in Libya, which are concentrated in the Nafusa Mountains and the city of Zuwarah on the coast. A committee for dialogue assigned by the constituent assembly offered the Council an invitation to the dialogue in order to persuade them to participate; the invitation was declined.
"Bonkab" adds “instead of talking about constitutionalizing all Libyan languages, including deaf and dumb language, the Libyans turned into conflicting groups, each looking for their place in the far end of the room, forgetting that the country accommodates everyone. The conclusion is that both boycott and participation mean nothing since the subject changed from a matter of individual rights to a conflict between groups that do not accept each other”.
As to Al Nael, he explains his decision to boycott by saying “boycotting is not an end in itself, we are forced and compelled to do so. We demand a homeland that accepts all Libyans without discrimination and guarantees all their rights. But if the constitution does not protect our rights, then there will be no guarantee that anotherGadhafi won’t be able to prevent future generations from speaking their native language and naming their children using it”.
Under these interactions, Libya is witnessing a political dynamic to declare a consensus on the new Libyan government. The question is:will we see a consensus on the new Libyan constitution or will the constitution remain in the process of drafting that will not end due to such conflicts?
