By Dawud Aisha
The street of Algeria have seen unprecedented change in street discussion on football and other less important things to Politics and on President Abdelaziz Bouteflika to leave power. The discussions in coffee shops, barber shops and host of other joints were people gather are more centered on the President leaving power.
Many Algerians have for years avoided politics in public, fearing trouble from the ubiquitous security services, or having simply stopped caring as the country has been run by the same group of men since the 1954-1962 independence war with France.
Bouteflika himself has ruled since 1999 and is credited with ending a decade-long Islamist insurgency early in his rule. Many Algerians have long tolerated a political system with little space for dissent as a price to pay for peace.
But since protests erupted in the capital and some 40 other towns on Friday against ruling party plans for the 81-year old leader to stand for a fifth term, a decades-old taboo on public discussion of politics appears to have evaporated overnight.
Almost 70 per cent of Algerians are under 30 years old and most know their leader only from still pictures on the evening television news. He has been seen only a handful of times in public since suffering a stroke in 2013 and has not given a public speech in years.
Monday saw a pause in the capital after three days of street battles between police and demonstrators. Shops reopened in the centre of Algiers, with owners lifting shutters they had hurriedly closed on previous days when police fired tear gas at crowds.
Reporters at state media who have been barred by their bosses from reporting on the demonstrations have called for a sit-in on Friday. Some private channels, such as Ennahar TV which is close to Bouteflika’s circle, have started reporting about the protests, albeit cautiously.
The ruling elite made up of members of Bouteflika’s FLN party, the military and business tycoons have dug in its heels, warning of the prospect of unrest.
Algerians have dark memories of the civil war triggered after the army cancelled an election that Islamists were poised to win in 1991. Two hundred thousand people are believed to have died in a near-decade of fighting.
Algeria saw major street unrest during the 2011 “Arab Spring” that brought down the rulers of North African neighbours Egypt, Libya and Tunisia. But police managed to contain it without Bouteflika’s grip on power loosening.
More than a quarter of Algerians under 30 are unemployed, according to official data. The economy is dominated by state-owned firms controlled by the elite, under a system that dates to an era of close ties to the Soviet Union.
Bouteflika is expected to resign just as his predecessor Liamine Zéroual. Who remains popular because he quit voluntarily.
There has been speculation of a former foreign minister recently appointed as a diplomatic adviser, Ramtane Lamamra, as possible successor.
Such an appointment might appease protesters for a very short while for it will keep the power system in place, analysts say. Their have always been change of hands after public cries since independence but yields no success. The problem is that you can change the players in a team but if the rules of the game are not right, no one will really win.
Umar ibn Al-Khattab, may Allah be pleased with him, said,
“Verily, we were a disgraceful people and Allah honored us with Islam. If we seek honor from anything besides that with which Allah has honored us, then Allah will disgrace us.”
This is a simple lesson and for the sincere and political astute, the failure of democracy is evident. So, it is time to replace this idea with an Islamic political model of governance, which is the Khilafah on the method of the Prophethood.