Pages
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
Topic Discussion I
Politics of Hard Choices
Political Transition and Economic Restructuring
Room 1
(15 of 20 pages)
Margaret de Boer: Thank you, the three to five percent rule, I think that's
a very wise thing. Mr. Samlac from Morocco, but also please, very brief.
Mr. Samlac: I would like to react problematic at the beginning, so when we spoke about the discussion and
when we spoke about some countries where democracy was born. Actually, the problematic is particularly in our countries
that were mostly colonized, their orientations in terms of economic development took place on the level of the
metropole (ph), thus consequently after their independence in order to continue to have hard currencies and to
keep on rotating they had to build up their economies on the needs of the big urban centers and at present, we
are finding ourselves in the same system, however it is much more difficult to manage such a system. We are finding
ourselves in places where it's hard to find the labor, so we are being asked to try to settle the social problems,
and on the other hand, we are being required to be competitive, however we cannot be competitive unless we have
a good labor. So we have this problematic and I believe that we have not taken into account -- in all the development
project, we have not taken into account the location of the project to be undertaken, thus we have practically
all experienced a structure adjustment program and in fact, the mean guidelines are identical in all the countries,
but I believe that the mean local elements in terms of integration and development have not been taken into account
during these transformations, thus the social problems arose, the problems we're facing now. However, how could
we find a solution for such problems? I believe that in each country there are specificities, however there are
some common points that we need to reconsider by saying that probably we need to question the democratization process
that is being undertaken. However we cannot dismiss it because it's a matter of conception of human being evolution,
in his life, his structure, everything, and we relevantly know well that it is a development element, yet how could
we settle the social consequences of this multi-partyism, if I can call it as such, I would like to react on two
points.
First, multi-partyism, I think it is a problem and I think it is a problem relating to the errors made by the party
rulers who are represented in government. I think that those who are in government should fight against illiteracy.
We cannot have two poles, actually we can see that very clearly, the big countries that are democratically developed
have reached two poles, two political poles. I would say as what just one of you was saying -- as somebody said
it, we're either on the left or on the right, but when we are in the opposition, I mean, they are the rulers in
the center, so the policy is to try to find a means in order to fight this illiteracy and to push the parties in
order to have a well established program and to make people being interested in a program. I think that in most
of our countries, our parties have only generalized, they don't have a specific program and practically everybody's
fighting against unemployment, poor health services, and so on and so forth. So we need to say that the parties
should assume their responsibilities in such a way to tell in their campaigns what they are going to do, so in
order they should avoid ideas only to attract the population for voting purposes and I think that this is an element
that may be a big risk for the full of democracies in these countries, so the political parties, as I'm saying,
because the law gave them the right to live, so they need to enjoy this right, they need also to have their obligations
being to politicize the population for some specific issues and to adopt the adequate choices for that population.
And when they speak about this change, it's important also to speak about another change, being the problems of
labor unions, as Michael was saying, how would you like to change a political system in order to move into democracy
without changing the mentality of labor unionism. Actually, it is an inheritance of the colonialist era, thus there
should be a transformation of the labor union and we should reach a stage just like the other countries have done
to have partnership. What about the public strikes, the general strikes that we experience in our countries? These
are very scarce cases. Every time there is a problem in a sector we have a general strike that destroys other sectors,
thus there should be the responsibility assumed by the political parties in order to have a program and for the
labor unions to say realistically what is possible. It's useless, I mean, to warm up a population that is illiterate
basically in order to access power only with this objective in mind, without having a change. Thank you, this is
what I wanted to say, thank you.
|
[ Discussion Board ] [ Forum Home ] [ NDI Home ] |