Moustapha Diakhaté has just been sentenced to two months in prison. Prosecutor Ibrahima Ndoye charged him with “insulting a group of people distinguished by nationality through an electronic system” and “public speech contrary to good morals”. While it is difficult for me to comment on a court decision, it is nonetheless clear that during the interrogation, the discussions were more philosophical and linguistic than legal. We felt like we were in a university lecture hall rather than in the temple of Themis. The judge was heavy-handed against the former parliamentarian, as if seeking to silence a discordant voice.

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Let us move on from the justice of the victors and the double standards, and salute the heroic posture of Diakhaté, who remained firm in his boots, in line with what we know of the man and his trajectory. « His frankness has not finished causing him setbacks, since the regime of President Abdou Diouf, and I remain convinced that he will take it to his final resting place, as late as possible, if it pleases God. I have no doubt that he will very quickly find his family, because we cannot indefinitely reproach a citizen for expressing his opinion, to care about the future of the Nation to which he belongs, and which he has chosen to serve, whatever the cost. Moustapha Diakhaté is made of a single block: that of frankness, loyalty, immoderate love for his country, respect for humanist values, the Republic and the sacrosanct democratic principles. This is what we share in common.

To remain silent is to roll out the red carpet for Pastef’s creeping fascism

This Moustapha Diakhaté affair is an opportunity to challenge a big brother whose affection I am honoured to have, on his new stance. At the beginning of the week, Madiambal Diagne, author of this quote in the previous paragraph, decided to adopt a “new stance, that of remaining silent,” and even suggested it to Moustapha Diakhaté. An attitude dictated by the “Senegalese voters (who) decided, on November 17, 2024, to vote massively for the Pastef list and entrust full powers to Ousmane Sonko.” Giving himself « time to observe, at least for a semester, in silence, to know where all this will lead us », Diagne wants to « devote the next six months to literary production and the spectacle of football matches ». Not without saying: « Do as you please, we will keep quiet! »

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Unlike Madiambal, I will not opt ​​for a six-monthly silence. With force, but with respect and courtesy, I will stand up against any act that plunders democracy, threatens our freedoms, or tramples the rights of individuals. Such logic leads me to invite the public prosecutor to break the perception that is beginning to take hold; this perception that would have him be the prosecutor of power on the heels of the opponents of Pastef and its leader, Ousmane Sonko. Is he belly dancing to please the new authorities? In any case, the observation is that all those who are being prosecuted for crimes of opinion have shown their opposition to the government. And that at the same time, all those who have had to make more serious statements are strangely free and not worried. So Madiambal, keeping silent at the moment is opting for the attitude of intellectuals towards the Nazis.

To remain silent is to fail to assist these “alku” (lost, screwed) people.

Since Madiambal Diagne relies on Voltaire here to better illustrate himself, I will in turn rely on Evelyn Hall in her quote wrongly attributed to this same Voltaire, saying that « I do not agree with what you say, but I will fight to the end so that you can say it », just for the respect of freedom of expression. A good citizen like Madiambal, who did not keep quiet in front of Abdou Diouf or Abdoulaye Wade, aware of the serious dangers that threaten Senegal, has no right to incite his compatriots to abandon themselves lasciviously in the hands of Pastef. To give up criticizing this power, when necessary, even for a day, is to be complicit in a huge forfeiture: the failure to assist a country in danger. It is failure to assist this “alku” (lost, screwed) people. It is to roll out the red carpet for Pastef’s creeping fascism and, incidentally, for Senegal’s decadence. By deciding to remain silent (which amounts to implicitly advising the Senegalese to keep quiet), Madiambal invites us to let things happen without reacting. Senegal is not the property of Sonko or Pastef so that citizens are forced to live in a spiral of silence. This evidence must be shouted in his ears until he is out of breath, so that he is aware of it. So that he finally comes out of his bubble and stops attacks on freedom of expression.

They fear that their own weapons will be used against them.

Today, those who imprison were the imprisoned of yesterday. They fear that their own weapons (social networks, invectives, disinformation) will be used against them. The new strategy of this power is intimidation, threats, invectives, to silence any discordant voice. So, in these troubled times, seeing a « watchman » of Madiambal’s calibre move away from public debate is like seeing a General abandon his men in the middle of battle. A General does not desert. Neither in times of war nor in times of peace. Freedom of expression is threatened in Senegal by the Pastéfien State (Alioune Tine said) under the complicit gaze of civil society organizations or intellectuals. As my friend Hamidou Anne said last March, we must « face up to it », and Madiambal must be among those who face up to it. Even in a military regime, we will speak. If these people believe they can muzzle our subversive and dissident opinions, they are miserably mistaken. And Madiambal must be among those who have the obligation to remind those in power of this. « They will have to embody institutions that they have desacralized, command the police, the Army and the gendarmerie that they have insulted, and preserve a Justice that they have vilified. They will have to accept reigning over ruins, » writes my essayist friend.

The Three Dangers Facing Senegal

Today, Senegal, like all countries living in the era of populists, faces three dangers. First, the rejection of “elites” can also spread the rejection of science and empirical facts, the craze for conspiracy theories and simplistic short-sighted solutions to complex problems. This does not create a climate conducive to tolerance, mutual respect and the advancement of human rights.

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Second, a penchant for authoritarianism. The Pastef party represents a step backwards for democracy and the rule of law when a populist leader (Sonko can promise revenge with impunity on Barthélemy Dias, after having openly criticized the government he heads), in the name of protecting the People against the elites, concentrates power in his hands and weakens or politicizes the institutions that hinder this concentration: the independence of Justice, freedom of the press, civil society, religious leaders, etc.

Third, by presenting the « real people » as a homogeneous entity, some manifestations of populism constitute a direct threat to human rights, and more particularly to the rights of minorities. It seems to be said that those who did not vote for Pastef have no right to exist or to speak in public debate. 

“When they came for the communists, I didn’t protest because I’m not a communist. When they came for the Jews, I didn’t protest because I’m not a Jew. When they came for the trade unionists, I didn’t protest because I’m not a trade unionist. When they came for the Catholics, I didn’t protest because I’m not a Catholic. And when they came for me, there was no one left to protest.” So that this doesn’t happen to us, Madiambal, your little brother is giving you… 15 days of silence.

By Bachir FOFANA

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