Ibrahim Traoré, who took power in 2022 coup, tells state broadcaster ‘we must tell the truth, democracy isn’t for us’

Ibrahim Traoré, who took power in 2022 coup, tells state broadcaster ‘we must tell the truth, democracy isn’t for us’

People in Burkina Faso should forget about democracy as it is “not for us”, the military president, Ibrahim Traoré, told the country’s state broadcaster.

Traoré took power in a coup in September 2022, toppling another junta that had taken power just nine months earlier. He has since stifled opposition and in January banned political parties outright.

A transition to democracy had originally been planned for 2024, but that year the junta extended Traoré’s rule until 2029.

“We’re not even talking about elections, first of all … People need to forget about the question of democracy … We must tell the truth, democracy isn’t for us,” Traoré said in an interview on Thursday with the state broadcaster Radiodiffusion Télévision du Burkina (RTB).

  • acargitz@lemmy.caEnglish
    17·
    10 hours ago

    Le président du Faso s’est prononcé sur l’idéologie politique en cours au Burkina. « Nous ne sommes pas dans une démocratie. Nous sommes bien en révolution progressiste populaire. Il faut que tout le monde comprenne cela », a affirmé Ibrahim Traoré.

    Pour lui, aucun pays ne peut se développer dans la démocratie qui est « l’aboutissement ».

    « On passe forcément par une révolution et nous sommes bel et bien en révolution », a-t-il déclaré, tout en invitant les Burkinabè s’en approprier.

    Selon lui, la question de démocratie ou de libertinage d’action ou d’expression, n’a pas sa place. Elle débouche sur une « société de désordre ».

    « On ne fait pas de révolution dans le désordre, c’est impossible. Et nous allons faire régner l’ordre et la discipline pour que nous puissions progresser. Parce que les réformes sociales, économiques, politiques, idéologiques ont besoin d’ordre et de discipline. Et chacun a son rôle à jouer », a insisté le Chef de l’Etat.

    https://fr.apanews.net/news/nous-ne-sommes-pas-dans-une-democratie-capitaine-traore/

    So, basically what’s he’s saying is that the situation is too volatile for democracy, that they want to do certain reforms that require order. The concept of a provisional transitional dictatorship to stabilize things is not an aberration per se, in the context of a chaotic situation. In theory it could be reasonable.

    So far so good. One can debate his sincerity, can have different assessments of whether he’s right or not. That’s legitimate political debate.

    But the other things he said, equating democracy as such with crimes, that’s extremely alarming. The problem is that he’s making an ideology out of a necessity. He’s not saying “the country is not ready, we need to first stabilize and then democratize”. He’s saying that democracy isn’t even an horizon. And even worse he’s not even qualifying what kind of democracy he’s rejecting, he’s rejecting democracy as such. Really Existing Socialist countries at least maintain that they are higher forms of democracy. He’s done away with the concept altogether.

    • lacaio 🇧🇷🏴‍☠️🇸🇴@lemmy.eco.brEnglish
      1·
      8 hours ago

      I think the exact opposite. Saying that “democracy isn’t for us” banishes any kind of democracy that could happen in the country. It even bans the possibility that there is a right way of democracy for the country.

      The current crimes linked to western democracy are just connected to the current state of democracy. That Burkina Faso shouldn’t buy into a democracy that kills, that doesn’t build hospitals, and so on. That doesn’t mean the concept of democracy cannot change for implementation on the country for the future.

      Anyway, exact opposite.