Between fear and defiance | Khaled Riani

Khaled Riani is best known as a comedian who makes people laugh, but recent events in Libya have brought out another side to him. His emotional outbursts while protesting in front of the Libyan embassy have brought the tragic events in Libya directly into Maltese people’s homes.

He explains that at first, he was not too keen on protesting and only did so after a friend showed him a photo from Libya.

“The photo showed people butchered in the same way animals are slaughtered in the abattoir. Then I received news that a cousin was killed in the streets simply because he said ‘no’ to these killings… I said enough is enough.”

Riani still has his brothers, nephews and cousins in Libya.

“I phone them all the time… three times a day… I went out to protest because I am scared of what could happen to them. It is my duty towards them.”

And even while sitting in front of the embassy, they are still receiving phone calls with tragic news from Libya.

“Some of us receive news that their brother or cousins have been killed or that their sister has been raped by mercenaries…”

Khaled admits that all sort of rumours are coming out of Libya and he considers first hand information coming from relatives Libya as the most reliable.

And the news they are getting from Libya is chilling.

“Mercenaries paid by Gaddafi are entering homes. They are even raping women.  These things never happened before…”

Yet Khaled is not surprised by the scale of the repression. What has impressed Khaled most is the way people have lost their fear of the regime.

“The system Gaddafi created in Libya is one in which fathers do not even trust their sons and mothers do not trust their daughters. We were scared of everyone”.

He recounts that even when he arrived in Malta when he was 17, years ago, he was scared to talk to the Maltese about the regime.

“The only person I trusted at the time was Joe (Peppi) Azzopardi,” who was director of the  Corinthia Hotel’s animation group, of which Khaled was a part.

Even when the Arab masses rebelled in Tunisia and Egypt, Khaled was sceptical that the same would have happen in Libya.

“We never could have foreseen that this would happen… it was impossible… when it happened in Tunisia we said: ‘no, it won’t happen in Libya.’ When it happened in Egypt we said: ‘the wave of change has skipped Libya…’ we said: ‘no way, it will happen here’.”

He recalls that in 1987 young people where hanged live on TV during the evening meal in the middle of Ramadan, after an aborted student protest.

“It was a clear message to instil fear in all of us.”

And Gaddafi still managed to instil the same fear in Khaled during his 75 minute speech on Tuesday evening, which rekindled these horrible memories.

On that day, Riani had just accepted to participate in a TV programme. But after listening to Gaddafi speaking he was so scared that he phoned back to turn down the invitation.

“I was trembling in fear… I said to myself, the Gaddafi of the 1980s is back… the monster we knew is back… we thought he was finished and than all of a sudden he was back…”

What Riani did not expect was that in Libya, people would still defy Gaddafi despite his threats in a speech in which he described rebels as ‘greasy rats’ and ‘cockroaches’.

“In the 1980s every time Gaddafi spoke, people were scared and withdrew back to the safety of their homes”

But this time, there was an opposite reaction. The people went out in the streets to defy Gaddafi. 

“They said: ‘are you threatening us? Then fuck you’. They were burning tyres, photographs and other things. When I saw this I decided to accept the invitation.”

What made the Libyans so defiant was the regime’s use of mercenaries in the streets.

“This is not a conflict between Libyans. If a Libyan were to beat another Libyan, it would not be so terrible. They are using paid mercenaries from African countries to kill our relatives and rape women… enough is enough.”

Another big change which contributed to the waves of unrest in the Arab world was the advent of the free media in the shape of a private channel called Al Jazeera.

“Al Jazeera tells the truth. Before Al Jazeera we only had access to government owned channels which always gave the government’s side of things… no wonder the Gaddafi regime accuses Al Jazeera of telling lies and inciting the revolt… when we went to protest in front of the embassy we told them how sorry we are for this and how grateful the Libyans are for Al Jazeera.”

In a TV interview last Monday, Gaddafi’s son Saif al Islam warned that the country could descend into a civil war and the risk of a split between the loyalist west and the rebellious east.

“He wants to protect his father and the money his family robbed from the people.”

Riani, who hails from Tripoli, dismisses any suggestion of rivalry between the people of Tripoli and the people of Benghazi with the only difference being that since the power of the Gaddafi family is concentrated in Tripoli, there is a greater fear of the regime in the capital city.

“I used to tell my friends from Benghazi… you are more courageous than us, we are cowards compared to you.”

Riani recalls how the city of Derna, a coastal town near Benghazi had already been bombed by airplanes in the late 1990s.

While the brutality of mercenaries explains why the people are so defiant, economic inequality explains why they are so angry.

“Libya is one of the richest countries of the world but its people are among the poorest. How can you explain this? Where is the wealth going?”

Libyans are angered by the way the Gaddafi family squanders their wealth in wild parties. Just this New Year’s eve, Hannibal Gaddafi was reported to have paid singer Beyonce Knowles around $2 million to perform at a party.

“They squander all this money on one night when my brother cannot even buy medicine… people cannot even afford to buy lamb.”

The problem has been exacerbated by rising food prices.

Riani is also disappointed by the reaction of western leaders to the unrest in Libya.

“A week has already passed since it all started.  All they have done is hold discussions while Gaddafi was killing people in Tripoli and Benghazi. They are giving Gaddafi the chance to vent his anger on the Libyan people. All this is because they do not want to lose big business interests.”

He is equally sceptical of sanctions.

“We have lived 10 years with sanctions. Nothing changed. Don’t even mention sanctions… you have to stop the killing of innocent Libyans in Tripoli, Benghazi and the rest of Libya.”

But Riani refuses to say how they can do this.

“It is up to them to find a way… on other occasions they were very quick to intervene. But when it comes to Libya they are only discussing.”

While condemning the attitude of the west, Khaled is more forgiving with Maltese politicians who have been very careful in their choice of words during the past few days, condemning the violence but not the perpetrator of the violence.

“I understand that Malta is a small country which does not want to end up in trouble.  I expect bigger countries like Italy to speak out.”

But Khaled congratulates the Maltese government for turning down a plane which was allegedly carrying Gaddafi’s daughter Ayesha Gaddafi – a claim denied by both Libyan and Maltese governments.

“I applaud Lawrence Gonzi for being the first leader in the world to take a concrete action against the Libyan government by refusing a member of the Gaddafi family permission to land in Malta… That is enough for us”. 

Despite his enthusiasm for the revolution, Riani is sceptical on whether Libya will ever become a democracy.

“We are not prepared for democracy. We never had democracy. Even if an angel descends from heaven to govern Libya we won’t have democracy. Even the way we discuss among ourselves lacks a sense of organisation. We talk and shout without listening to each other…”

And Libya is even worse than other Arab countries.

“We do not have an opposition in Libya. They are in exile. Even if an angel descends from heaven to lead Libya, the most I can expect is that an opposition will be allowed in Libya. And in itself this will be a big thing. We will never be a democracy.”

Riani himself spent most of his life outside Libya.

Riani left for the United States at five years of age, where he lived for six years. Then he spent one year in Libya. Following that, he left for Tanzania, where his father was ambassador. He lived there between 1982 and 1993 when he came to Malta. Yet he has been to Libya on numerous occasions, the last being just before the revolution erupted when he was filming a children’s programme which was to be screened during Ramadan in Libya.

In the past, Riani often criticised racism and discrimination against Libyans in Malta but is now appreciative of the solidarity he found in the past days.

“I thought the Maltese would react against our protests.  But every Maltese I meet is deeply supportive… it is at times like these that one realises that the Maltese are a good people. I never expected all the solidarity.”

He recounts how a friend of his had just heard that his town in Libya had been attacked while he was in the square of Birgu. He started crying as he did not have a phone card to call his sister. He was immediately given one by the Maltese onlookers.

But Riani is far from impressed by former members of the regime who have deserted.

“Yesterday there was one of these who took a microphone and started calling Gaddafi a dictator. I was so angry and I grabbed his mic from his hand… the police had to stop me… I called him a liar because just five months ago he was praising Gaddafi.”

Neither was he impressed when highly paid bureaucrats from LAFICO (Libyan Arab Foreign Investment Company) joined the protesters.

“When they saw them, all the media rushed on their side. I stood in front of them and called them liars… they earn €7,000 a month while Libyans are dying of hunger. They have no right to speak on behalf of the people.”