Libya Special: National Transitional Council Struggles to Remain the "Good Guys" (Malone)

http://bit.ly/tC4bKtWith Muammar Qaddafi gone, the unifying focus for National Transitional Council fighters to do the near-impossible has been removed. In the face of massive obstacles, despite politics, infighting, and even the death of the commander of the NTC forces, Abdul Fatah Younis, the fighters did not let sectarian tensions distract them from their cause.

Now that Qaddafi is dead and the country is united under a single, transitional, national government, there are obvious problems in maintaining that unity and avoiding the sectarian strife.

Barry Malone, writing for Reuters, examines the problems facing the NTC as they attempt to "remain the good guys." But Malone is not all doom and gloom, predicting that in all probability, Libya will evolve into a scene of "peaceful politicking with some low-level skirmishes possible as Libya moves down a bumpy path of change":

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(Reuters) - Having picked a new prime minister, Libya's fractious interim ruling council must now restore its own credibility, dented by unseemly haggling over Muammar Gaddafi's rotting remains.

The nature of the man's death - insulted, battered and abused before being shot dead - has done some damage to its standing, with many observers asking themselves, just who are the men who have replaced him?

"The good guys," one Western diplomat insisted when asked that question in Tripoli last week.

But the halo awarded to the so far unelected National Transitional Council (NTC), hurriedly put together as the war against Gaddafi started, is under temporary review by their foreign backers as the headaches of state-building emerge.

The selection by the NTC of little known academic Abdurrahim El-Keib as interim prime minister on Monday also highlighted how mysterious the internal workings of the new ruling group can be to perplexed diplomats, journalists and Libya analysts, as well as - especially - to an increasingly impatient Libyan public.

"Your time is done, NTC," a young Libyan blogger wrote this week. "Thank you - the Libyan people."

Many of them are worried about whether a coalition of armed factions that were bound mostly by hatred of Gaddafi can hold together now his regime has crumbled and he has been buried.

Read the entire article here