By blackmailing the state and disrupting crucial legislative work, protesters are doing more to harm to the aims of the revolution than probably even the most diehard Gaddafi supporter could manage at this moment in time.
There was much hype about Libya's deteriorating security situation. However anyone who experienced the celebrations in Libya this year would have been hard placed to match these descriptions to the reality. Martyrs' Square itself was incredible.
A year ago it was easy to draw a line between those who were for the revolution and those who were against it. Twelve months later and that line has been rubbed out and redrawn so many times.
Young men seem to take particular delight in lighting fireworks and throwing them from their car windows at unsuspecting passersby.
Libyans want stability. They want to live in a clean, safe, free society where rule of law and justice is paramount. However given the turmoil of the past few years and the weakness of the government, opinion is clearly divided over the best way to ensure such a society can blossom.
Many are questioning why the congress appear to be doing nothing, while for their part parliamentarians seem reluctant to make the necessary decisions for fear of making the wrong ones.
Libyans asked for assistance during the revolution and they received it: the Syrian opposition has been asking for international assistance for eighteen months yet has received little or no response.
The GNC proposed moving to Bayda in order to avoid the deteriorating security situation in Tripoli when they should have been showing their strength and determination by trying to solve the root of the problem, notably the militias.
A year on from Libya’s liberation many aspects of life have improved. The Libyan public, however, still needs to use their new found voice to stop the militias from hijacking their revolution, and call for peace and reconciliation instead of force and violence.
Now the inaction of the authorities is tarnishing Libya’s reputation worldwide and as a result, frustration on the streets is becoming palpable.
These armed men think, act and make demands on the basis that they are revolutionaries, yet there is no longer a revolution to be fought. Once the heroes of the story, they have now become the villains.
People took to the streets of Tripoli and Benghazi on Wednesday night holding banners with messages such as ‘Chris Stevens was a friend to all Libyans’ and ‘Sorry people of America. This is not the behaviour of Islam or our prophet’.
