Algeria: Fears of repeating 1988

Algerian activists warned of the danger of deteriorating economic, security and political conditions in the country and the absence of political and economic visions to spare Algeria the risk of sliding into chaos.

The security expert, dissident from the Algerian regime Karim Moulay, said that the economic, political and security conditions that Algeria is experiencing these days are similar to those that led to the outbreak of the events of 5 October 1988 .

Moulay said in an interview with Quds Press that there is a great disappointment among the various political and social factions in the outcome of the attempts since the events of October 1988 to achieve a smooth democratic transition in line with local, regional and international political developments.

Algeria’s rulers have not been able to invest real and transparent oil and gas wealth, especially during the unprecedented rise in energy prices, in order to achieve a social and infrastructure infrastructure that can be a lever for true democratic construction,

he said.

He pointed out that “the latest economic reports, warns of a rapid collapse in the Algerian economy, and that the step of printing securities may not enable the state to meet the salaries of its employees for the next month.”

“The Charter for Peace and Reconciliation (adopted in 2006 ) was one of the boldest legal and political tools after the 1992 coup to abort the demands of the events of October 1988 because it did not do justice to the victims of tyranny, ” Moulay said. Mainly on the most crimes in Algeria after the coup on the electoral track in early 1992.

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He added: “Reflecting on the political scene today in Algeria, there is a great economic deterioration, a near-total absence of peaceful peace of power, a semi-dead president who has ruled some 40 million Algerians in a wheelchair since 2013 and poor relations with neighboring countries and even with traditional allies, France,” as he put it.

The anniversary of the events of October 1988 , a few days after the anniversary of the Charter of Peace and Reconciliation, where the state television for the first time broadcast images about the massacres in Algeria in the nineties of the last century, described by observers as “shocking.”

The founding member of the former Algerian opposition political opposition movement, Mohamed Larbi Zitout, said in his comments on his own Twitter page that he showed the images of the massacres as a violation of the Algerian laws themselves. Just a reference to what happened in the nineties, the fact that the message was clear to judge you looting and dishonesty, and if we objected to you back to the red decade,” as he put it.

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A report by the Algerian newspaper Al-Khobar on Thursday of the events of October 1988 paints a bleak picture of Algeria’s current political situation: “Algeria has a constitution, elected institutions and a legal and legislative system, but in reality, Because it is according to the description that has not changed for the opposition, just a facade of a system based on tyranny and domination. ”

He added:

Despite the diligence of the Authority to deny this view, but all these years have not complied to this, but the level of democracy is deteriorating for the worst in recent years, after the amendment of the Constitution of 2008, which opened the door to unlimited periods for the President, Constitution in 2016, in a non-consensual way, after the opposition refused to engage in the project because it did not recognize his seriousness.

The report warned that the deterioration of the economic situation, will necessarily lead to social unrest, which was controlled by the Authority through the so-called “purchase of social peace,” but today is no longer, but it will resort to the procedures placed in the field of “inevitability” very dangerous On the middle and poor classes, like the monetary issue (the printing of the currency without productive pay), and its destructive inflationary mechanisms on the purchasing power of citizens, which is no less dangerous than the rescheduling routes created by the crisis of 88,” according to the newspaper.

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On Thursday, October 5, 1988, the protests of the Algerian states were raging and the army intervened to suppress the demonstrators, leaving hundreds dead and wounded.

The main cause of the events was the precarious living situation, rampant unemployment, a collapsed economy, exclusion, deprivation and bureaucracy.

The events ended with a speech by the late Algerian President Chazli Shazli Bennid, in which he called on citizens to be prudent, promising a better tomorrow, and reforms in all political and economic fields.

Al-Shazly bin declared a new constitution that recognized the political and media pluralism in Algeria, opened the field of activity to all political trends regardless of their affiliation, and also approved the freedom of expression. , As well as opening up the private sector to the economic spher.