The Suspect Citizen: A Philosophy of Suspicion That Humiliates Us Daily”
Al-Mutanabbi says
If a man’s deeds worsen, so do his suspicions and he believes the illusions he has grown accustomed to.
This verse mirrors the state of ruling authorities in Libya past and present and their way of dealing with citizens, classifying them and restricting them.
Because it is a deceitful authority, it treats citizens as deceitful and fraudulent assuming they are thieves coming to rob it, or swindlers trying to lure it into giving what it has
Since we opened our eyes in this country, we have witnessed our parents’ suffering from the humiliation of bureaucracy, restrictive procedures, and piles of documents useful or useless.
When we grew older, we hoped for better with the myth of the national number that was supposed to simplify procedures and lighten bureaucracy only to discover that required documents remained unchanged, with the national number added to them.
We learned that nothing changes unless the authority changes its mindset and that any authority which views us as fraudsters until we prove otherwise will never treat us with respect because in its eyes, we do not deserve respect.
This reality reminded me of an old article by a Saudi writer describing a situation similar to ours narrating his experience in America and Britain exposing a shocking institutional contrast between the concept of the “gentleman citizen” in the West and the “thief citizen” in our Arab world.
He tells a story funny and sad at the same time of an Arab man who thought he was smart fooling a phone company in America by registering under the name (Walla Madfa) meaning “By God, I won’t pay.”
The writer explains that this does not show cleverness nor corporate stupidity, but reflects a philosophy built on assuming citizens are honest until proven otherwise treating fraud as an exception handled later by security bodies a system built on the assumption that people are decent, until proven otherwise.
He then recounts his struggle obtaining a replacement certificate in Saudi Arabia versus how astonishingly easy it was in England instantly bringing to mind the same reality in Libya today, where the relationship between citizen and state is reduced to deep suspicion, complicated procedures, and treating all of us as suspects until we prove innocence.
What that Saudi article described years ago is still alive and well in Libya perhaps worse for absurd documentation demands and circular office routes continue despite launching the national number, which should have eliminated endless paperwork not added to it.
Why does registering a child in school require a newly issued birth certificate? Isn’t the original birth certificate proof enough that the child exists?
And more absurdly why ask for the parents’ birth certificates too?
As if the school is investigating lineage rather than enrollment.
This isn’t theorizing it is daily suffering that drains citizens’ time, effort, and nerves in pointless circles repeated in every state facility.
Not to mention institutional contradictions:
if you want to issue a passport, the Passport Authority (under the Ministry of Interior) sends you to Civil Registry (also under the Ministry of Interior) to obtain endless documents from the very system the passport officer already uses most of which have nothing to do with passports in the first place!
Worst of all: being asked to bring personal photos then, because you are assumed deceitful, you must stamp them on the back by the neighborhood elder!
This circular ritual is nothing but a screaming expression of the philosophy of “the fraudulent citizen” a preset assumption that you are a scammer so a thousand hurdles must be placed before you, and you must prove innocence by jumping through them.
The disguised insult in authentication demands, affidavits, guarantees, and printed pledges tied even to the simplest paperwork is not merely routine it is a clear message from the authority:
“We do not trust you. You are likely dishonest or lying. Provide exhausting guarantees to prove your truthfulness.”
This message insults dignity and breeds alienation in one’s homeland.
This administrative philosophy built on prior suspicion not only complicates life it is costly paralyzing movement and stalling development.
How many small businesses have been hindered?
How many essential services delayed?
How much time and resources wasted chasing worthless papers?
This paralyzing bureaucracy is an enemy of economic and social prosperity.
It also reinforces fraud as a reaction when people are constantly treated as criminals, they may conclude that surviving requires cheating thus committing fraud in reality.
In conclusion:
We are not calling for blind imitation of the Western model, nor denying the need for some regulatory safeguards in certain contexts.
What we call for is changing the mindset underpinning procedures beginning with assuming honesty dealing with citizens as trustworthy partners until proven otherwise, not vice versa.
Let us start reviewing the outdated procedures and demanded documents suffocating us for decades abolishing those without genuine administrative or security necessity and focus on the essence of transactions.
Let us establish integrated state institutions unified and secure information systems enabling data sharing across departments of the same ministry and among different ministries sparing citizens from chasing a document from “A” to deliver it to “B” inside the same entity.
And let us begin above all with respect as the basis for treating citizens.
That old American story of “Walla Madfa”,the lost certificate episode in Saudi Arabia,and our Libyan reality in civil registry lines, passport offices, and schools are all different faces of the same coin a coin of wasted trust and assumed guilt toward fellow citizens.
It is time to flip the equation building Libya’s future begins with building mutual trust between rulers and ruled.
Trust is not weakness it is an investment in the state’s capability, the citizen’s dignity, and national prosperity.
So let us begin by simplifying the process of registering that child in school he is alive, breathing this is his real name he is not a scammer nor a swindler and even if he were, no one has the right to deny him education.
Otherwise, write on your doors:
“Enter, you suspected citizens,” instead of “Welcome” what difference does it make?