The National Dialogue to which the Head of State invites political and social actors in order, to exchange and build « lasting consensus on major issues relating to national life » will be launched this Wednesday, May 31. Object of disapproval, divisions, fantasies and various blackmails, but still desired by a good part of the body politic and civil society, the dialogue will bring together organizations which are relentless in a merciless struggle for ten years around political issues.

There is currently no speculation on the outcome of this series of meetings, which will see opposition, proposals and counter-proposals, unrealistic demands and offers on the altar of each other’s interests. But what has remained constant from the beginning and which from my point of view is important, remains that if the dialogue succeeds in reconciling the current conflicting positions of the political parties concerned, it will bring about a turning point after ten years of exercise of the power of President Sall. Indeed, the Khalifa Sall and Karim Wade cases have tensed the political climate since 2012 and made suspect, any legal action against a member of the opposition or a certain civil society, in reality a band of opportunistic politicians.

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Also, the execrable relations, for years, between Presidents Wade and Sall have been a thorn in the side of leading actors in the Senegalese democracy. Fortunately, to ease tensions, the handshake at the Massalikoul Jinane mosque we happened. The situation that led to the absence from the 2019 presidential election of candidates who represented two major currents of Senegalese politics within the opposition, social democracy and liberalism, was not such as to allow for a serene and peaceful debate as well as a plurality of serious alternative offers. This situation and the following developments, with in particular the entryism of the Rewmi party, allowed the emergence of a far-right force as a focal point of the opposition, with a dangerous, burlesque figure as leader of the opponents to the government.

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I have always been opposed in principle to dialogue, considering that in a democracy, the majority governs by virtue of the confidence conferred on it by suffrage, and the opposition opposes itself by proposing an alternative project in order to hope to come to power. Democratic vitality is thus a debate between divergent projects in peace. But given the context, the strong threats to our country, the insurrectional attempt emerging from a party and its associates and the cracks in our social body, it would be appropriate to allow exchanges between political currents. In any case, the State will win against the seditious will of the Pastef party as it suppressed the rebellion of the Mfdc. But the country, in the long term, if nothing is done, is going towards a great risk of splitting on socio-cultural basis.

It is indisputable that Senegal is no longer a normal country due to the collapse of public debate, the tyranny that barbarian hordes want to impose on citizens, attempts to destabilize institutions and the end of moderation, nuance and restraint. From now on, political discourse is enveloped in a heap of insults and insanity in the hope of gaining aura and listening. The republican homeland no longer has any meaning for many who should nevertheless make it their breviary. Thought has left politicians and we are heading towards a devitalization of the very nature of politics.

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How to recover the meaning of a Nation? How to reconstruct a common purpose? How can we repair what we have collectively damaged? How can we bring out a new viscerally republican project? These are issues that should be raised in dialogue, beyond simple electoral concerns or the consequences of the legal adventures of each other.

Civil society activists and political parties attached to Pastef, for mainly electoral reasons, refused to take part in the dialogue. So much the better, because my conviction is that we only dialogue with Republicans, the others are to be excluded from any discussion on the present and the future of our country which they only seek to disintegrate. Due to my intransigence on the Republic, I am opposed to any form of compromise with Pastef which I have already stated that is not a respectable party. Nobody should invite this formation to anything concerning public affairs, in view of its anti-republican nature and its fetid values, oriented towards excess and violence, in the hope of carrying civil war. A political current whose leader flouts human dignity, insults and threatens our republican institutions on a daily basis, should only inspire a republican with repulsion. The Republic was built in history on the hatred of tyrants. Moreover, on the left the maxim is old: we do not argue with the far right, we fight it.

Dissensions Within Yaw: Deadly Dialogue

The Ps, the Pds, the Apr, the three major political families that have successively led our country, are represented at the National Dialogue. They all remain within the Republican arc and include among them measured and responsible leaders who must confront, beyond their differences of approach, the imperative need to preserve the Republic from the various current threats, because if the Republic disappears, it is Senegal that evaporates. Political leaders of a great country like ours must cherish the temptation of history, the one that goes beyond and surpasses egos and calculations to sanctify what is sacred, which remains when all is lost.

I pray that the foundations of a new republican narrative will be laid during this dialogue, to think about a future for Senegal in civil peace, social progress and justice, in order to once again build a reconciled country concerned with a desirable future.

By Hamidou ANNE / hamidou.anne@lequotidien.sn

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