Qaddafi seeks job for son

Now that Seif al-Qaddafi has a graduate degree, the time has apparently come for him to enter the family business. 

Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi has asked senior administrators to find an official position for his second son Seif al-Islam to allow him to implement reforms, an online newspaper reported on Wednesday.

Islam, widely seen as heir apparent, has no official role and Kadhafi said this is "disrupting his work," according to Libya Al-Youm (www.libya-alyoum.com), a usually well-informed site.

"Colonel Kadhafi has asked thousands of regional administrations and people’s committees to find an official post for Seif al-Islam so that he can implement the reform plan he has been leading for the past few years," the newspaper said, quoting a participant at a meeting to which press were not invited.

It’s suspected that Seif has been the driving force behind a lot of his father’s moves toward modernization and reconciliation with the West in recent years. Some of his ideas about "global democracy" may even have informed his dad’s assault on the structure of the U.N. Security Council at the General Assembly last month, though these ideas were somewhat lost in the Colonel’s…er…rhetorical excesses.

It seems unlikley that Libya’s going to move toward liberal democracy any time soon, but if Saif’s being groomed as a successor, that’s probably good news. Especially considering the alternative.