Photos of Hope
After the liberation of the eastern part of Libya, the people of the Cyreneica display royal symbols.

A young rebel with a portrait of King Idris I of Libya.

Consisting of a white crescent and star on a horizontal red, black and green triband - with the central black band twice the width of the outer bands - the flag was adopted when Libya became independent on 24th December 1951 with King Mohammed Idris as-Senussi as its head of state. Today, the flag is still used by monarchists and the Libyan opposition abroad.

Un insurgé brandisse le drapeau du roi Idris, renversé par Qaddafi en 1969, à Tobrouk, près de la frontière égyptienne.

The French newspaper Le Figaro spoke with Libyan Crown Prince Mohammed es-Senussi L'héritier du trône libyen en exil à Londres: «Je me bats d'abord pour l'histoire, pour faire respecter le nom ma famille. Si dans l'avenir les Libyens choisissent la monarchie, je suis là.»

The Royal Flag is Freedom's Flag


Unlike the English speaking media, the French take a much closer look to the Eastern part of Libya, the Cyreneica, that is the centre of the people's uprising against Colonel Qaddafi. Le Figaro reports today :

"... the Cyreneica never really accepted the toppling of King Idris in 1969 by the young lieutenant [Qaddafi], who came from the Syrte region. Attached to the Senoussi [order and dynasty], the first and only sovereign of Libya remained a popular figure in this part of the country. His flag, once replaced by Qaddafi's green flag, was waved in the last couple of days by the insurgents. The repeated accusations of the Libyan dictator of manipulations by al-Qaida echo an old refrain of his propaganda, that portrays the Senoussis as a fundamentalist islamist movement."

Mais malgré les tentatives de récupération de la révolte de la province par Kadhafi, la Cyrénaïque n'a jamais vraiment accepté le renversement du roi Idris par le jeune lieutenant venu de la région de Syrte en 1969. Affilié aux Senousis, le premier et seul souverain libyen reste une figure populaire dans cette partie du pays. Son drapeau, remplacé depuis par le drapeau vert de Kadhafi, était brandi par les insurgés ces derniers jours. Les accusations répétées du dictateur libyen de manipulation des insurgés par al-Qaida font écho à une vieille antienne de sa propagande, qui présente depuis longtemps les Senousis comme un mouvement fondamentaliste islamique.

The Age: This year's republican parrot talk

On Australia Day The Age put up a united front against the Constitution, the Australian flag and first of all against the Australian Monarchy. Actually, everything seems to be a repeat from previous years.

As a commentator remarked: These has-beens say the same thing every Australia Day and quite frankly it is boring. Most Australians don't care enough to change to bother talking about it. Do you just republish the same newspaper every Australia Day so you can have a day off too.

Peter Gebhardt asked for “independence from the regal pantomime in England”.

John Huxley collected quotes from a dozen former Australians of the Year, among them Harold Scruby, who founded Ausflag in 1981, who had said: “We believe the time has come to embrace a flag worthy of our sovereign, independent, mature, egalitarian nation; our own flag."

The most common, very, very common was Larissa Behrendt, professor of law at the University of Technology, Sydney, chairwoman of the Bangarra Dance Theatre and 2011 NSW Australian of the Year, who came up with this all too familiar slogan: “Becoming a republic is inevitable and it's time to rekindle the debate.” You wouldn’t believe the originality.

Worst of all is today's editorial in The Age: "The last national leader who accepted the challenge was Paul Keating, and when he left office, nearly 60 per cent of Australians supported a republic.” The Age might be the only one in Australia regretting Paul Keating has disappeared from the political arena.

In view of the recent opinion polls mentioned below The Age appears like an Australian version of The Pravda with its republican rants, that left no space for a single pro-Monarchist article on Australia Day. Don't they fear the Australians might get an overdose of the same old republican propaganda that was published on other occasions? May this empire of evil speaking collapse soon.

In 2010, 52 per cent favoured the Constitutional Monarchy for Australia rather than “a” republic. The Age on 22nd December 2010: A total of 52 per cent think the nation should remain a monarchy.

And on 28th August 2010:
Australian support for the country becoming a republic is at its lowest level since 1994.

The RadicalRoyalist’s previous responses to The Age’s republicanism on Australia Day reply to all the allegations published today and can be read here from 2007 and here from 2009.

The Australia of the 21st century is a Monarchy
"The Australia of the 21st century will be a republic," Prime Minister Rudd told the ABC's 7.30 Report on Monday, 21st April on Her Majesty's 82nd Birthday. Mr Rudd told Kerry O'Brian he would proceed slowly.

92 Years of the 21st century are left, that gives the Prime Minister plenty of time to consider his options. But his threat will hang over us for these 92 years, since he may have the hope that by the turn of the century one of his granddaughters might be the first president of "an" [undefined] Australian republic. Meanwhile republicans will think on the best possible way to achieve their dream. How many referenda will it take?

Australia will be a republic within two years if delegates to the 2020 summit in Canberra have their way.

But what, if they fail again in 2010? Will they launch another offensive in 2013? Have a referendum with every federal election until one day one referendum might get the result they want? Or will they wait for the death of Her Majesty, as the old republican activist Malcolm Turnbull advised them?

What about the idea to make the Monarchy in Australia more approachable, more relevant and more visible to the people? It is not Her Majesty's fault that neither she nor another member of our Royal Family don't spend more time on the 5th continent. The Queen acts on Her - Australian federal and state - ministers' advice.

In between the referenda the republicans could think about the flag they might like to give the Australian republic. Here is a suggestion, which would be a suitable symbolism of the republic's outlook.


After all, isn't the purpose of the change "to get rid of the old colonial ties" and replace the Union Jack with something more appropriate? Critics may argue that Queensland might be overrepresented in the new republic's flag, but we should honour the efforts especially one Queenslander puts into the "republic question".