Paul Bogle's legacy and Gaddafi's life

ON OCTOBER 20, Colonel Muammar al-Gaddafi's reign as leader of Libya came to an end. Gaddafi, at different times, was seen as a hero of the Arab world. He wanted his North African country to be the centre of a United States of Africa and, in 2003, he announced that Libya had decided to get rid of its nuclear, biological and chemical weapons and became a darling of the West, not least because of the vast oil reserves.

Gaddafi's regime became known for its brutality to the Libyan citizens. However, this is no excuse for a brutal regime change. It is now emerging that Gaddafi was captured alive and then executed. That was a tragic mistake on the part of those who were fighting for the freedom of the Libyans. We should not countenance extrajudicial killings. Every human life is sacred. And life should only be taken in self-defence. The world will regret this development.

Similarly, one must be concerned about the death of Osama bin Laden, former leader of a terrorist organisation. At first, the initial report was that he was killed in a gun battle. There could be no argument with that. However, subsequent reports give the impression that it was an execution.

Admit mistakes

There are challenges in making split-second decisions in life-threatening circumstances, especially when the person has committed heinous crimes and has the desire and potential to continue along that pathway. However, if mistakes have been made, then it should be admitted by the Obama administration. Otherwise, persons with legitimate grouses and causes might believe it is kosher to kill, without going through the judicial system, enemies and persons who have committed crimes against humanity.

The world has come a far way in dispute resolution and we must use the United Nations and the International Criminal Court. The world could also learn, from the legacy of Paul Bogle, how to protest oppressive regimes. Bogle and his followers engaged a Biblical hermeneutic of liberation that was based on equality and justice and which informed their prophetic response to their oppressive situation. These religious persons used their Christian faith when they needed it most. Their hermeneutic of liberation, that is, their reflection on their experience in the light of the Scriptural teaching on equality and justice, shaped the nature of their resistance. They believed that they were compelled to resist oppressive conditions. They tried peaceful means but never ruled out resistance. Their understanding was that they could respond in self-defence to violence. They could not respond excessively by extrajudicial killings.

No widespread killing

So they killed no women or children, but they responded to the gun attack and killed 18 in self-defence and not one more after that day. There was no widespread killing by Bogle and his followers, because justice demanded that punishment must be commensurate with the crime and, in addition, they always hoped for reconciliation with the oppressors.

This is a point missed by one colonel of the Maroons, who listened to my recent St Thomas Credit Union Lecture which examined the role of the maroons in the Morant Bay Freedom War. This colonel, in justifying the maroons' burning of the homes of the people of St Thomas, claimed that maroons only destroyed the homes where there was loot. I pointed out that, in today's society, finding stolen goods in a house would be no justification for burning the house down. Fortunately, Colonels Wallace Sterling and Noel Prehay did not think like he. The way forward is that we should not defend abuses and extrajudicial killings

Bogle's legacy would have spared the life of Gaddafi and allowed him to have his day in court.

Devon Dick is pastor of the Boulevard Baptist Church in St St Andrew. Comments to columns@gleanerjm.com.