Definitely yes!! Libya under Gaddafi was not entirely hellish as the world has been made to believe. The citizens did not have the luxury of voting but Gaddafi made sure they had a high standard of living to compensate for curtailed freedoms. Was this enough? That is a moot point but the fact remains: Libya was a great place to stay under Gaddafi and is now worse off.
Here are a few points which actually show that Libya was much better with Gaddafi.
Education and medical treatment were free. Under Gaddafi, education and health care were free for all. A response to this claim by Masareef Edareeya , a Libyan citizen claimed the quality of education and health was appalling but that does nothing to the fact that it was free. No system is perfect but most are imperfect and still expensive. Gaddafi made sure his system was subsidised and even Mercy Corps attested to the fact in itsBeyond Gaddafi: Libya’s Governance Context . That is more than the so-called “democratic leaders” can say for their countries.
Gaddafi carried out the world’s largest irrigation project. The Gaddafi regime embarked on one of modern man’s edifices of development: the Great Man-Made River Project to make water available to the whole country. As is known, Libya is in a desert region and Gaddafi’s plan to ascertain every citizen of access was the Great Man-Made River Project.
Libya had no external debt and had reserves of $150 billion most of which were frozen globally. Libya was a well-endowed state. To put this into perspective, the self-acclaimed champion of democracy and capitalism, the USA has a debt of over $18 trillion . Libya had none. Enough said.
The price of petrol was $0,14 per litre. In 2011, Staveley Head, a UK-based provider of insurance products compiled a list of countries with the lowest petrol prices in the world.
China.org.cn reported the listing which put Libya at third position with its low $0,14.
Gender equality actually a reality. Women in Libya were free to work and dress as they liked , subject to family constraints. The “dictator” did not impose any particular repressive canon on women and considering the sensitivities of the Arab community to gender roles, this was a big feat. Universal access to primary education was achieved in a relatively short space of time under Gaddafi.