Voting Out Democracy

The drum roll did not sound; the disappearing act of democracy happened nonetheless. A vast majority of Algeria’s parliamentarians approved a ratification to the constitution that will bolster the powers of the septuagenarian current president, Abdelaziz Bouteflika, over the cabinet  and grant him an opportunity to seek a third term in the upcoming April election. Bouteflika has declined to state whether he will run for a third term. His recent approval of a substantial salary increase to lawmakers helped align the parliament with the government and the military junta controlling it and secure the nearly unanimous vote needed to pass the bill. The fact that the vote was conducted by raised hands instead of the customary secret ballot stoked the rumor that members of parliament who voted against the new law feared retribution. The decision to have the bill voted for in the parliament stemmed from the government’s increased wariness a widespread popular opposition, clamoring for new leadership, would snuff the proposed bill out. The government’s actions emphasize the lack of a true national consensus.

 

The withering opposition, such as RCD, whose head, Said Sadi, qualified this latest reform as a “constitutional coup,” is already cautioning that the upcoming presidential elections will be beset by fraud, corruption and systematic abuses. In a country characterized by a notoriously impervious bureaucracy that lacks accountability, such claims are not mere allegations. When he became president in 1999, Bouteflika benefited from tremendous support from army generals who coerced his political rivals to withdraw from the race on the eve of election day. Up until 9/11, the Algerian government rode on the back of an unbridled military dictatorship that oppressed decency, pluralism, and openness. The attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon were a gift from heaven for the Algerian military generals. They labeled all opposition “terrorism,” blamed the country’s woes on it, and saw their undemocratic methods not only vindicated, but supported by western countries such as France and the US. The military’s heavy handed modus operandi combined with bouteflika’s policy of reconciliation which guaranteed an amnesty to known terrorists stabilized Algeria’s political platform just in time for the 2004 election which Bouteflika won by a landslide. Some observers attributed his re-election to a frustrated and demoralized Algerian population craving peace at whatever price, be it a military dictatorship.

 

The upcoming presidential election is set to be a repeat of the 1999 one. The expectation of a reformed and democratic government will be buried for yet another five years. There is no political presidential candidate in Algeria now that shows the extreme and troubling deference to the military generals’ agenda like Bouteflika does. It is for this reason that he will, undoubtedly, be re-elected for a third term.

 

Democracy did not disappear in Algeria. It was never there to begin with.

 

A. T. B. Copyright © 2008 

Thriving On Fear

When, on 20 September 2008, I wrote “Erraji’s free! Who’s next at the stake?” I did not expect the infamous Moroccan justice system to be so forthcoming with the answer. The image of Yassine Belassal, a high-school senior from the suburbs of Marrakesh and an overzealous fan of the Spanish soccer team FC Barcelona, did certainly not fit what, in my mind, would be the next victim of the antediluvian system. It has now been established that in today’s “democratic” Morocco, on King Mohammed VI’s watch, government officials are on a mission to purge teenagers whose idolization of their favorite soccer teams supersedes the expected unadulterated devotion to the king.  When the judge, different than the ones who condemned Erraji and Mortada, but sporting the same retrograde mentality, meted out a one year sentence to Yassine for writing on a blackboard: Allah, Homeland, Barca (the diminutive for FC Barcelona), thus modifying Morocco’s motto: Allah, Homeland, King, he provided a glimpse of what most fear will be the future in Morocco: a relapse into its past oppressive self under Hassan II.

 

How far is the Moroccan government from rounding up its citizens because they prefer to attend a soccer game instead of lining up along the main arteries of their cities for hours under a blistering sun waiting for the motorcade of the king? How long before switching the channel when the king is delivering the Throne Day speech is considered a violation of article 41 of the Freedom of the Press?

 

The Moroccan judges seem to be marching on the beat of their own surreal cadence, from one false call to the next, one misjudgment to the next. Such is not the case. In a country where the gossamer veil of history is thickened by government censorship and authority is by devolution, the leadership fears nothing more than the emergence of a noncompliant grassroots mentality. An impetuous remark doled out in the jocular and unsparing tradition so characteristic of Moroccans could be considered politically erosive and is dealt with in the most flagrant of ways: a distressing and disproportionate jail sentence or/and a debilitating fine, delivered through the “democratically” tested processes of the judicial system. These transgressions do not go unnoticed by national and international observers; these judicial rulings, when they gain universal notoriety and paint the Moroccan regime as repressive of its citizens’ freedoms and transgressive of human rights, are rapidly rescinded by the highest levels in government. The strategic aim of the government is not to jail high school students and young bloggers, but to inculcate in Morocco’s youth the same fear and self-censorship that, during the lead years, shackled their parents.

 

These miscarriages of justice belie the claim that a democratic system is taking roots in Morocco. The foundation of a democracy is a justice system committed to the protection of the rights of citizens to voice their grievances and denounce the unfair practices of their government. And why not, exalt Barca more than anything else if so they choose.  

 A. T. B. Copyright © 2008