Idrissa Seck responds to Boubacar Boris Diop, Mouhamed Mbougar Sarr and Felwine Sarr. According to the president of the Rewmi party, the words of these Senegalese authors are biased and partisan. He explains to them the posture of a head of state in a moment of crisis. The politician also recalls the conditions of existence of a state and a democracy.Le Quotidien offers you the text in full.

My dear compatriots,

I read with interest a trio of famous intellectuals, Boris, Mbougar and Felwine, but their words seemed to me to lack nuance and balance, even fairness, and gave me the feeling that they were talking under the dictation of masters other than the « Truth », adorned with their attributes of great intellectuals, no doubt to give an appearance of weight to their biased and partisan words.

From the top of the seventh “Heights” they remind me that: when the intellectual dips his pen in his ink to transcribe on his paper the conjectures of his mind, his first duty is to remember “that he is given but little science.” It is only under the constraint of this humility that he must address a people of readers where sojourn those « endowed with intelligence », anonymous and silent, capable of detecting their most secret motivations and the commands which activate them. 

Senegal is a great democratic nation that can experience violent crises at times like France and its « yellow vests » or the United States and its « Capitol attack ». Would it come to the mind of an intellectual to decree the end of democracy in France or in the United States, when gendarmerie and police trucks are burned or mass killings are organized? No. We are delighted that the State is restoring order and the rule of law there. Why don’t we owe the same respect? I repeat: “the President of the Republic has an essential, urgent mission, to protect the Republic, its Institutions, its Constitution and its Laws, its Citizens and their Property. This is the vital national interest. Any weakness displayed in the accomplishment of this mission, which obviously requires the observance by the State itself of constitutional and legal rules, would be a betrayal of the mandate granted by the people. So, for now, let us focus on that.

Violent Riots: Weapons of Evil

The subject of the third term remains central, but it will only become a reality if the President of the Republic announces it, if the Constitutional Council validates it, and if the people grant it. A series of ifs, in my humble opinion, unlikely in their entirety.

Let us also remember that human history is filled with « destroyed cities » whose ruins have yet to be revealed to us by archaeologists. These cities had in common “the reign of injustice”.

If a citizen, because he is a political leader, allows himself the right to insult judges and the security and defense forces, to threaten the Head of State with death, to openly call for insurrection and to remain free, there is no state, there is no justice.

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If a citizen can slander and defame other citizens with impunity, there is no state, there is no justice.

If a citizen can use his leadership to grant himself the favors of a young minor and refuse to submit to the justice of his country, there is no State, there is no justice.

If a Head of State, after two consecutive mandates, extricates himself from the constitutional « No one may… » and imposes a third mandate on his people, there is no State, there is no justice.

However, the deaths of innocent Senegalese and the tragedies of current violence should not happen because of any of the reasons listed above.

Tension in the Country: Macky Won’t Lower his Guard

Finally, let us remember that the fabric of human history can encourage us to be vigilant and cautious. What is this plot? It is the story of a happy couple, living in a huge garden, endowed with all the riches necessary for their happiness. Then they receive a visit from a « stealth adviser » and allows themselves to be tempted, fooled, bribed by a « sworn enemy, proud and contemptible », but endowed with « the ability to observe us without being visible to us ». Then the stealthy adviser manipulated the couple using “his desire for eternity and glory”. Then the couple listened to him and followed him and were « bare and fallen », condemned to immeasurable efforts to find the path to their past happiness.

Senegal can get out of this crisis and all the others, but not without effort, without introspection to overcome stupidity, hypocrisy, dishonesty, in short, without RIGHTEOUSNESS. And each of us is challenged on this subject. Thank you.

By Idrissa SECK (President of REWMI Party)

• Translation by Ndey T. SOSSEH / Serigne S. DIAGNE