With the death of Muammar Gaddafi the Arab spring has claimed a third victory. The Libyan people have the chance to build a just and democratic system of governance after 42 years of autonomous rule by the colonel, his family, his cronies and his tribe. No wonder there are such scenes of jubilation throughout the country.
Gaddafi's removal will be a source of great relief to the new government of Libya, whatever its ultimate composition. Gaddafi had billions of dollars at his disposal, in cash and gold, with which he was threatening to fund an insurgency and derail the revolution.
Nevertheless, the new regime would probably rather have captured Gaddafi alive to make a show of his trial, as the Iraqi interim government did with Saddam Hussein in 2004. Such a trial could either have demonstrated the merits of a fledgling Libyan judiciary (had it been held in Tripoli) or Libya's new engagement with the international community (had it taken place at the international criminal court in the Hague).
It appears that Gaddafi was taken alive and either he fought to the last – thus fulfilling the promise he voiced in his last broadcast speech – or summary revenge was taken. Whatever the true story, pictures of his final struggle will bolster those who remain Gaddafi loyalists – and make no mistake, there are many who will lament his demise, either out of self-interest or tribal loyalty.
The removal of Gaddafi has been hard-earned through the bravery, persistence and bloodshed of those who dared fight him. Now the real battle begins: to establish a unified government over a united country. It will not be easy.
The National Transitional Council (NTC), from which the new Libyan government will be formed, will have to find credible leaders and agree a constitution. Yet two distinctly incompatible elements have emerged within the council: the deeply conservative Islamists, who would like Libya to embrace Sharia law as the cornerstone of its new system; and the secular liberals who long for western-style democracy.
The current prime minister, Mahmoud Jibril, speaking at the UN on 30 September, announced that he will not be part of the new regime. Jibril is an unpopular figure who has faced major challenges to his authority, which themselves illustrate the wider problems of any putative leadership. The Islamist militias among the rebel forces refused to acknowledge his command during the campaign to oust Gaddafi.
The NTC president, Mustafa Abdul Jalil, faces a different problem – his fellow travellers find it impossible to reconcile his claim to revolutionary credentials with his previous role as Gaddafi's minister of justice, where he presided over the systematic torture and imprisonment of dissidents. The brave and optimistic young people who are the real dynamo behind the Libyan revolution are looking for new faces to lead them, but these have yet to appear.
Another challenge will be how to achieve and maintain independence from foreign interference, especially given Nato's involvement in the uprising. Libya's oil reserves are the largest in Africa, and a tempting prize for energy-hungry world powers. Furthermore, Libya has no history of democracy and lacks even the most embryonic social institutions to administer such a system. This is not to say that it cannot meet the challenge, but simply that this is nation-building from scratch.
National cohesion may also prove problematic: Libya is an enormous country, four times the size of Iraq, and difficulties in communication serve to entrench local sympathies and attitudes. Its people are deeply tribal and several tribes – among them one of the largest, the Warfalla – remain loyal to Gaddafi and may resist the new government.
Many of Libya's cities are awash with weapons as a result of arming the citizenry in its fight against the old regime; the new government's security apparatus may struggle to achieve nationwide disarmament peacefully. Some surface-to-air missiles of Libyan provenance have already turned up in the Sinai.
A significant proportion of the revolutionary army is composed of Islamist fighters, some of whom were previously in the al-Qaida-linked Libyan Fighting Group. Armed with weapons looted from Gaddafi's stockpiles, these militia represent a serious threat to national security. Al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb and the new al-Qaida leader Ayman al-Zawahiri have issued statements championing the Libyan "jihad". What happens next is a litmus test for the revolutionary process in the Arab world, as are the imminent elections in Tunisia and Egypt.
Whatever the future holds, this bloody end to a bloody regime stands as a warning to the region's other brutal leaders that they cannot escape the tide of change. Other oppressed peoples of the Middle East may now consider following their martyred Arab brethren and challenge the iron fist that holds them down.
By Abdel al-Bari Atwan, the editor-in chief of the London-based pan-Arab newspaper Al-Quds Al-Arabi.