Liberation: Algeria enters a dubious but hopeful phase of democracy

France is entering a dubious and unprecedented phase of its history, full of challenges, but also full of hopes for democracy, the French newspaper Liberation quoted the French historian of the Maghreb affairs Pierre Vermeirin as saying.

The paper interviewed Vermeerin, who is the author of "Dissidents in the Arab Maghreb" in 2018 in association with Khadija Mohsen Finan, a book honoring all those who have resisted authoritarian forces in the Maghreb since independence until the book was written.

The Algerian protesters, who have just won their first victory, are considered to be heirs of a long resistance, described by Vermeerin and his co-author, Khadija, as a "dissent" of a concept called opponents of totalitarian communist regimes in which no opposing viewpoint is allowed.

In this interview, the French historian - an analysis of the abdication of Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika for a fifth term - says that the strong pressure from the Algerian people on the streets and the support of many elites made it inevitable, except for those who wanted to provoke violence. Dangerous and unnecessary.

He pointed out that the government is trying to retreat with control of the situation, but very weak and does not have many papers, pointing out that the current authority should not be confused with the Algerian state institutions such as the army.

A confusing phase
He believes that Algeria is entering a dubious and unprecedented phase of its history, full of challenges, but also full of hopes for democracy. It is not logical for the people to retreat at this moment, especially as Algeria changed in a matter of weeks, Open to new personalities such as intellectuals, jurists, civil society and dissidents.

When asked by the newspaper who has credibility to succeed Bouteflika, the French historian replied that it was not easy to know this in a country that had not known democracy before. He referred to Rashid Nkaz, although he did not see him as a popular man, but one of the symptoms of political frustration among young Algerians, He considered it necessary now to establish a transitional constitutional process without violence and create points of view.

He believes that the reconstruction of a full political class is a long-term process, especially since Algeria has been governed since 2003 by an unknown force, which all Algerians call "power" or "regime." Bouteflika was a symbol of it, But it is the last generation that Algerians have tolerated in all things until tyranny. The historian considered Algeria after Bouteflika to be unknown, but the demands of democracy would necessarily be higher.

When asked why Algeria moved today after missing the Arab Spring, Vermeerin said that the young people who stand in the streets today were mostly children during the Arab Spring, while the older ones were children at the end of the black years of the late nineties that are not taught, so they carry slogans Different from the slogans of the Arab Spring, and come out against a specific issue is the fifth period.

In explaining the reasons for the exit of the students, Vermeerin said that Algerian students know very well that the political situation they live in is nowhere else. There is no country in which the candidate participates in the campaign and the re-election without saying a single word. The country is a man who can no longer speak.

He added that the demonstrators are calm as required, as there is no violence and no barriers, pointing out that what is happening at this stage of the demonstrations can be considered a kind of negotiation with the Authority.

Intellectuals without a role
The role of the intellectuals is not seen by Vermeer as influential, because, in his opinion, they are either paid by the state with few exceptions, or critics from outside the country express themselves only or return from exile without legitimacy because they did not share their suffering in the dark years.

Vermeerin said the police did not intervene that Algeria had sufficient police forces to contain the movement when its size was normal, but when it comes to an entire people, that is something else, he said.

The opposition in the country, divided by the French historian to regional opposition; as in the tribal area, and there is an active electronic divide on the networks, in his opinion, in addition to the opposition between professional components such as lawyers or even modest political formations that joined the movement or expressed Solidarity with them.

Asked why he chose to name the Maghreb opposition in the split, the historian said that long before the Arab Spring he had the impression by reading the press that there was resistance in the region.

"I've lived a long time in the Maghreb countries, I've seen tyrannical regimes work, and resisting these opponents has always seemed unreasonable to me and we thought we should salute them," he said.

He stressed that opponents in the Arab Maghreb suffered the same kind of treatment suffered by dissidents in totalitarian communist regimes, such as abandoning their speech and endangering their lives. He said that they were initially opposed, but after decades of impossible opposition they became "dissidents" before they went into exile .

He concludes by defining what the dissident calls the dissident. Unlike the opposition, he does not necessarily belong to a political party, and his better character is not his political ideology but his moral and philosophical requirements.

He concluded that in the Maghreb people believed in the promises of independence, national independence and democracy. Unfortunately, many of the regimes that emerged after independence did not fulfill the promise of democracy. At the same time, the inadequacies mentioned were unacceptable, such as questioning independence itself, Who called for pluralism of parties, freedom of expression or social justice from the political game and became "dissidents".