An election against change- By Hocine Ait Ahmed - Front des Forces Socialistes

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08/04/2009
An election against change- By Hocine Ait Ahmed

Paper Of Hocine AIT AHMED about the masquerade of 09 April.

« Yet, the danger which not just the regime but the country itself are exposed to – a political, economic and moral defeat resulting from the disastrous decisions taken by a military-commercial oligarchy determined to deprive the algerian people of their rights and resources – this danger, Bouteflika and those who have dubbed him won’t see it. As a matter of fact, they’re quite comfortable with it. »

The Algerian people has been invited to vote to « elect » a president who has in fact ensured for himself a safe victory. For most of the algerians as well as the foreign observers, there is no doubt as to the outcome of the april 9th forthcoming election. Bouteflika and his sponsors can count on a victory without exposing themselves to the dangers of a democratic process where the name of the person elected is supposed to be the result of an honest campaign, an actual election and a accurate counting of the votes.

Yet, the danger which not just the regime but the country itself are exposed to – a political, economic and moral defeat resulting from the disastrous decisions taken by a military-commercial oligarchy determined to deprive the algerian people of their rights and resources – this danger, Bouteflika and those who have dubbed him won’t see it. As a matter of fact, they’re quite comfortable with it.

Truly, Bouteflika and his military sponsors are encouraged to do so by their international partners, who are well aware of the advantages of dealing with a regime which is more interested in ingratiating itself with influential business networks than in meeting its commitments to its people.

Algeria’s modern history is a succession of fights against the multiple faces of domination : first, colonialism ; then, an authoritarian dictatorship ; and now a despotism which is less and less preoccupied with concealing its ruthless nature, outrageously expressed in the way Bouteflika has been dressed up as a « candidate », an « independent » playing a well-rehearsed score with money and the state’s institutions at the service of a man who embodies the continuity of a system abhorred and dearly paid for by the algerians.

The paltry razzmatazz supposed to convey popular fervor and the way the population is being controled by the police and the administration - like in the worst banana republics - are clear signs. So is the so-called pluralism whose illusion can only be kept up by the billions of dinars taken from the country’s treasure and distributed to emolument-hungry clients.

Caught in the stranglehold of poverty and repression, the Algerian society finds itself on the brink of moral collapse. A survey of the past fifty years underlines the suffering and sacrifices endured by a people whose patience has rarely been met by wisdom on the part of its oppressors. It is the « in » thing now, in a period where whole areas of the planet are confronted to the ruthlessness of economic, political and military predators, to blame the populations for the continuity of the very regimes that oppress them. Contemporary Algeria is a cruel reminder of the price to be paid for such a continuity : 200 000 dead, thousands of people reported missing, millions of displaced persons and billions of dollars spent on « making up » the crime – and this, just for the 90s and the dirty war, turned into a « dirty peace » by Bouteflika in 1999. The same Bouteflika who has been given the responsability to disguise the political and moral defeat into a « lesser evil » by repeating that peace is back, while horror, indeed partly retreating from the battlefield, is turning into all-out criminal acts and economic violence.

The point is not to say that we algerians are not responsible, but, united by a common aspiration to democracy, freedom and justice, to assess and assume our responsabilities in each of those much too long episodes of domination.

In the face of yet another violation of the algerians’ right to self-determination and the promises of independence, and yet another lie – the presidential election, whose sole aim is to ensure the continuity of a predatory regime – let us not forget that the global order which enabled a corrupt oligarchy to find the allies that helped maintain it is changing under the pressure of societies which are fed up with the lies and the arrogance supported by that order and maintained despite mankind’s advances.

The algerians, as well as other people of the Muslim world, must not be seen solely in the distorting perpective of the war against terrorism or the « islamic threat ». Whenever their rights are denied, their dignity scorned, their lives reduced to vegetable-like survival, all the peoples of the world have the right, and the duty, to resist oppression.

In spite of the Potemkine-like decor which the regime excels in creating beside being of a criminal nature and breaking every law it has passed, despite the persisting serious divergences within the Algerian elite as to how to end this unbearable agony, there are voices joining the long march of Algerian protesters to take the country down the road to democratic and peaceful change. And those voices are more and more numerous, specific and severe every day.

This difficult victory against atavisms of all kinds, sectarianism, narrow ideologies and manipulation of the clans sharing power, this victory which would be a real democratic evolution, the algerians have understood that they must win it first and foremost over themselves. There is nothing the power can do against that. A decisive step has been taken on the way to political maturity, within the elite and in the Algerian society itself.

Now patriotism does no longer mean submitting to the regime, but embracing change ! A change that the society is calling for and towards which all our energies must converge.

H.A.A

Translated from the French by Nathalie Cunnington

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07/03/2010 **Nouveau**
Hocine Ait Ahmed au Conseil national du FFS : « Il n’y a pas de fatalité historique et les issues existent. »

« Dans le contexte actuel de crise mondiale durable et de redéfinition des relations internationales, les initiatives d’appui aux transitions démocratiques restent timorées et ne constituent plus une priorité. Le plus souvent, elles se cantonnent dans des discours et des professions de foi. »

« Notre pays est emblématique de cette attitude troublante pour ne pas dire équivoque. Victime d’enjeux et d’équilibres géopolitiques régionaux voire mondiaux, il devient la profondeur stratégique des uns et le point d’appui des autres. »

« Face à nous, un pouvoir liberticide foncièrement opposé au pluralisme et aux Droits humains, qui ne tolère de partis que soumis ou sans ancrage social véritable. Autour de nous, la société se déstructure et se disloque de jour en jour. Les femmes et les hommes de ce pays ne savent plus, peut-être ne veulent plus et en tous cas ne peuvent plus, faire de la politique. »

« Nous avons des ambitions pour le pays et voulons un changement radical et pacifique. Nous ne pouvons nous suffire de déconstruire le discours du régime, dévoiler ses manipulations, ses complots et ses mystification. »

« La Conférence Nationale d’Evaluation Démocratique et Transparente, telle que prévue par nos statuts, est l’occasion idoine pour faire le point. L’opportunité de trouver les moyens de travailler plus intelligemment, plus lucidement et plus efficacement. »

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14/12/2009
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Lettre de Hocine Aït Ahmed, Président du Front des Forces Socialistes, à madame Navanethem Pillay, Haut-Commissaire des Nations Unies aux droits de l’homme

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Constitution de la Coalition algérienne pour l’abolition de la peine de mort
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24/06/2009
« Ne pas renier notre Histoire et concilier notre socle culturel avec les valeurs universelles »
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31/05/2009
Hocine AIT AHMED : « Ne jamais désespérer de voir s’accomplir un idéal de justice et de liberté. »
« Déclaration d’ouverture et mots de remerciements de Hocine Aït-Ahmed lors de la journée d’études sur la guerre d’indépendance de l’Algérie, des années 1940 à juillet 1962, organisée par la Bibliothèque de documentation internationale contemporaine (BIDC) de l’Université de Paris Ouest, le 20 mai 2009. »

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