Clinging to Paradise

To hear Libya's Colonel Muammar Gaddafi tell it, 'twould be a marriage made in heaven. If only Egypt--poor, overpopulated and beleaguered by an aggressive Israel--would agree to a complete merger with oil-rich, underpopulated Libya, the two countries could at last fulfill their Arab destiny. Gaddafi, 31, ruggedly handsome and undeniably charismatic, says that he would even settle into a back seat and let Egypt's President Anwar Sadat, 54, run the show as President of the new state.

Trouble is that Gaddafi's glowing vision of union is not quite matched in Egypt. On a recent high-pressure, two-week visit to Egypt to plump the plan, the Libyan leader discovered that his proposed partner had become recalcitrant, if not downright hostile. Everywhere he went, Gaddafi locked horns with the Egyptian intelligentsia, engaging in heated arguments on everything from Arab unity and Islamic tolerance to Libyan xenophobia. A nonsmoker and nondrinker, Gaddafi has closed all nightclubs and bars in Libya and restored the practice of amputations for thievery--measures which Egyptians hardly want to see extended to their country.

Gaddafi's stormiest encounter came in a meeting with 1,000 prominent Egyptian women, who expressed fears that the merger would mean that they would have to adopt the strict Islamic law relegating women to the second-class citizenship Gaddafi has forced on Libyan women. "Because of biological defects, a woman's place is in the home," intoned Gaddafi. "These are not defects, Mr. President!" came the outraged reply. "All right, then," responded Gaddafi, "nobody can complain if we ask pregnant women to make parachute jumps." That sexist sentiment hardly endeared him to the women. To make matters worse, a number of Libyan women whom Gaddafi had flown in to reassure their Egyptian sisters about the joys of subservience instead pleaded with the Egyptians to help them change their status in Libya.

Beyond the question of women's rights, Egyptians generally have good reason to be wary. The rambunctious Gaddafi's public scorn for Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria could jeopardize Egypt's international quest for diplomatic and financial support. So, too, could his impulsiveness. In February, Cairo had to dissuade him from sending Mirage bombers to Tel Aviv to avenge Israel's shooting down of the Libyan airliner.

The merger idea will be put to the final test Sept. 1, when both countries will vote on it. At the moment, chances for the full merger that Gaddafi desires do not look promising. Wrote Mohammed Hassanein Heikal, editor of Cairo's influential Al Ahram and one of the few prominent proponents of merger: "I told a very sad Gaddafi not to despair, but to cling to his paradise."

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