Mali: the loyalty of ministers ...

Audio 04:06

Jean-Baptiste Placca, columnist at RFI, in 2020. Pierre René-Worms

By: Jean-Baptiste Placca

8 min

Publicity

Free!

Finally free!

Soumaïla Cissé, Sophie Pétronin and the other hostages reunite with their families.

The dignitaries of the IBK regime arrested during the coup, too, regain freedom, while the Malians regain a government, and Mali, its rights and prerogatives within ECOWAS.

Can we therefore consider that everything is in order, and that this country will now be able to resume a normal life?

No Alas !

No !

But, before coming back to the issues and challenges that the transitional government must face or take up, a few words on the hostages.

Sophie Pétronin is, if we dare say it, a classic hostage.

The fashion in the Sahel, having, until then, consisted in kidnapping Westerners, hoping to pay dearly for their release.

On the other hand, to take the most prominent politician in Mali hostage after the head of state was of unusual boldness.

And it is probably him, above all, that the jihadists wanted, to exchange him for so many of theirs.

And this is hardly surprising.

Why is that ?

Because this discreet, courteous man was a real factor of balance in the political life of Mali.

Even though he had to be removed for the general public to realize what an exceptional man he is.

Patient, moderate, deeply democratic, and legalistic.

Looking back, even the former IBK president must have bemoaned his absence.

Because, if he had been there, never an imam, as respectable as he was, could not have turned into a leader of the opposition, to federate all the discontented, and shorten the current mandate of the Head of State. .

Certainly, the army, like a third thief, slipped into the game, but it was Imam Dicko, at the head of a most heterogeneous movement, who created the conditions for the coup d'etat. .

In view of their electoral weight, many of the members of this movement could only hope to be guests at the banquet of power through a transition brought about by the street.

They are therefore all the more frustrated at having been deprived of their share of the loot.

And their frustrations, soon, could fuel the worst traps, and even thwart the action of the government of Moctar Ouane.

However, they announced that for them, the main thing was to go to the elections ...

Yes.

In politics, there are the good dispositions and the

that we proclaim, in public, to save the appearances of dignity, then the resentments that we harbor behind the scenes, to hurt.

The Malians have, moreover, been able to appreciate, in recent weeks, to what extent some of those who fought to make IBK leave were more motivated by the part they could take in a transitional government than by the "new Mali". that all have in their mouths.

They were so predictable that when asked to come up with a few names for the prime minister's post, they lined up a list of fourteen names!

You imagine !...

Now that the government is formed, their complaints are more and more audible, and fraught with innuendo.

Added to this are the uncertainties about the loyalty of ministers.

Will it go to the interests that have led each to his post, or to the government, the Prime Minister and the nation?

The answer to this question will depend on the fate of the Mali ship: it will reach its destination, in the interest of all, or, very quickly, will become ungovernable.

The people, tomorrow, should then return to the streets, to interrupt a current mandate of the next president.

As if the Malian political class could not support a head of state, beyond a mandate and a half ...

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