When The Poor Take Matters In Their Owen Hands

A great merit of democracy is that it sets a viable and credible mechanism for peaceful accession to power. When, in a country, people decide to take matters in their own hands and chose their government through ballot boxes and elections in stead of military takeovers and violent social revolts, the result will be no less than a strong bond of trust between the governing leadership and the masses. Trust is key because without it governments tend to be isolated from their people and the more they feel isolated the more likely they grow into dictatorships, clumping down on dissent to stay in power. Until recently we had been on the wrong side of history exactly because of this unhealthy relationship of mistrust and the corrupt crop of leaderships it gave rise to. But for a while we thought that with the fall of the last of the dictators, the country will get back on track as it has been left with nowhere to go but the democratic way. There were fair elections which were fiercely fought by contenders from all the walks of our political life. All Mauritanians put their hands together for the triumphant winner, even his opponent gave him a big hand. It was a successful denouement for our young democratic story and all sides did everything to boost the general feeling of euphoria and satisfaction which swept the whole country. The transition to democracy was so genuinely felt and widely celebrated that Arab vanguard elite begun to sell the Mauritanian model of democracy as the sole way forward for the rest of Arab countries. Even Bush mentioned Mauritania among the nations which boast of true democracies in his address to the UN General Assembly on the occasion of the organization’s sixtieth anniversary. Democracy did not only make us go regional but global as well, and in a country which hardly exports anything, at all, democracy can do a lot to paint our image abroad in the most beautiful of colors. So, what more do we want? Doesn’t it suffice that we have lifted the democratic bar high and were able to measure up? Well, the answer is not very far to seek. True, we set an example of healthy democratic exercise but we want to keep the momentum on so as to prevent any possible setbacks. The only way to keep alive the democratic pulse and to turn the page of political instability forever is for the government to deliver and for the people to hold it to account if it fails to do so. Such was the case with regard to the recent political upheavals, the shockwaves of which still felt nationwide.

The protests which broke out a couple of weeks ago were a vivid example of what could happened when the government fails to live up to its promises and indulges instead into the rhetoric of political complacency. Since it’s swearing in few months back, the new government has been put to task on number of occasions and was given enough time to read the writing on the wall. Yet Sidiocazz failed to learn their lesson despite the host of crises they have been through. They chose to be in denial about the appalling economic conditions of ordinary citizens instead of addressing them and trying to come up with long tem solution to knock them into shape. You certainly still remember the president’s reaction to the water and electricity crisis when he went public on national TV just to tell angry and frustrated citizens that he has nothing to do and that the crisis will go on for three more years to come. You also remember Sidocazz’s firing Ould Leili for sounding the alarms of a certain famine in the country. And so on. To compound the misery of an already beleaguered population, the government kept saying that the skyrocketing prices of basic goods attest to the success of the country’s market-oriented economic policy. There were many times when senior government officers chose to focus on debating theories of economic stability rather than elaborating policies to alleviate the suffering of the most vulnerable. The government spared no occasion to assure the public that everything is just fine and that there’s no reason to worry. To go about this PR campaign, cabinet members and leading politicians from the pro-government majority coalition missed no chance to allay public fear through long speeches in parliament, intensive TV appearances and countless press conferences. None seemed willing to look out from his ivory tower to see the overwhelming state of helplessness and despair gripping over people’s life. But when the government refuses to see the life on the streets, the streets brings that life them. No matters how they try to occlude it, the life of the poor and the disenfranchised will haunt them and soon. The normal course of events has irreversibly been leading to these protests, even though they came violently and by surprise.

All this happened at a time when calls for reforms seemed to be met with deaf ears, alienating even the moderate voices among the political elite. With more and more figures from the old regime being named by the government for high-profile positions in the public administration, one is left with the impression that all official talk about reform is mere political hype. And then, there came the motion to form the so-called “majority party” to crash any hope of moving forward. But the sugarcoating policy which the government has adopted all the way long proved ineffective in the face of growing public outrage and worsening life conditions around the country. At some point down the road things were doomed to spin out of control and it was just a matter of time.


After this sketchy attempt to tell the muffled story of government’s incompetence behind the bloody riots which took place two weeks ago further deep in the southeast of the country, I’ll just say few words about these unprecedented events. But before that let me remind you that the government’s plan to address the issue reveals our leadership’s failure to catch up with the amazing development on the ground. The package of measures which the cabinet announced does not provide along term policy to fight poverty and create wealth through a modern, competitive, productive and transparent economic system. It’s just an emergency plan based on charity handouts to the poor in the rural areas and it keeps silent on the core issues of corruption, favoritism, incompetence which plague our public administration and concentrate money in the hands of the privileged few. Once again, Sidiocazz fail to accurately know the stakes and fathom out the gravity of the situation.

Just to proceed to give this events a lick and a promise, I think that these protests will be remembered for the following:

- They were the first violent riots in the histroy of the country in which protesters were killed and injured by excessive use of force by police.
- They were the first riots in the history of the country in which popular backlash against deteriorating life conditions comes from outside major metropolitan cities like NKTT and NDB.
- They were the first riots in the history of the country which erupts from rural areas, usually unaffected by government policies.
- They were the first riots in the history of the country, and this is the most important, which take place in the southeast region, known as a historical stronghold for successive government since 1978 coup against Moukhtar Ould Dadaha.

All these elements render these riots exceptional and explain why they came as a shock for all parties, government and opposition alike.

In all self-respecting societies, the memory of those who give their lives so that others can live in dignity and peace are kept alive. There are several ways to do it, by building a memorial or setting a day to commemorate them. Since I don’t have the means or the authority to do either, I chose to honor them by telling their story and urge you all to keep their story alive.

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