APPEAL TO THE ALGERIAN PEOPLE

Appeal to the Algerian People

We Algerians, the signatories of this appeal have decided to stand before our nation and before history to call for a permanent mobilisation of the Algerian people against the present illegitimate political power and to call for the installation of a state of law as defined in the historic declaration of the 1st November 1954.

More than ever we view those now in power as institutionally illegitimate, politically incompetent and morally discredited.

This is an authority that has deprived its people of their legitimate sovereignty and has used the riches of this nation for their own means.

This is an authority that views itself as royalty, a political power based on the arbitrary, on favouritism, on laxity and on corruption. This has profoundly affected the authority of the state in international role and constitutes a real threat to our unity and national integrity.

This appeal is a continuation of the National Movement, the principles found in the Declaration of the 1st November 1954 and the Soummam platform.

We Algerians, the signatories of this appeal, strongly express our deepest concern for the self-destruction and continued deterioration which has characterised our country’s socio-political culture, our economy and our morale. We therefore categorically refuse to actively or tacitly condone these actions. We have decided to put an end to our inaction, to our silence and to our disengagement (whether this be through cowardice, selfishness, fear…)

This free and independent initiative has a fundamental and structural basis which has grown out of:
• The persistent and worsening crisis of legitimate power which from 1962 to the present day has become both a threat and a permanent danger for our nation;
• The persistent oligarchy which has excluded our people from debate and from political participation. This is a violation of constitutional and natural rights of both choice and of creating one’s own destiny;
• The failure of this mediocre political offices and the abasement of the so-called opposition and the resulting lack of clear perspective for all the nation.
• The culture of chaos and violence which has been extended to all social groupings and the ongoing state of emergency which has been used to dominate and enslave the Algerian people.


Our goal is:

To work for the firm objectives of the national liberation movement so that people can regain their right to sovereignty and for a radical and peaceful change to the political system.

To work for the installation of solid and reputable institutions that ensure the democratic functioning of society; to guarantee the transparency of government and its powers and lastly to create a state where powers belongs to a sovereign people and whose institutions remain free from interfering forces. The principles for the running of our institutions will remain true to the constitution and to the laws voted in by the legislature in accordance with our civic values, our culture and our secular traditions. Our institutions will, by their very nature, work to consolidate the linkages between the people and the values they hold dear.

The time has come to change this illegitimate political system by peaceful and democratic means and to return political sovereignty to Algerians so that they can freely and democratically chose the institutions which meet the political and socio-cultural realities of the nation and to enable an equitable distribution of national wealth (to be shared regionally, locally as well as individually).

This appeal is open to all our compatriots who share the same attachment to our mother land and who share in the moral and cultural values of Algerian society in all its diversity – including all those involved in officialdom. It is a call to all those who stand against the marginalisation and exclusion of Algerian people from public life. Finally, it is an appeal to all those who, aware of the delinquency and conceit of public institutions, wish to work together for decisive change in the Algerian Nation.

This appeal proposes above all, a force for action for a peaceful transaction to a state of law.

We free Algerian men and women wish to achieve our ideal of a peaceful resistance and a dynamic of change in sectors of Algerian society, without exclusion.

We will work towards a rallying of all patriotic forces with the aim of peaceful and radical change based on values of democratic principles that are clearly defined, accepted and respected by all. These are:

• The values of the civilisations in the Algerian nation – Islamic, Amazigh, Arabic – are the basis of our ALGERIANESS. This, the key to our national unity, must never be the instrument or the monopoly of any political party or tendency.
• The equality of all in the eyes of the law.
• The upholding of the rights of the individual.
• The sovereignty of the masses: the people are the only source of power and of legitimacy.
• The putting in place of institutions which guarantee the expression of the public’s wishes especially the separation of executive, legislative and judicial powers.
• The respect and protection of individual and collective freedom.
• The election of opposition parties through universal suffrage.
• The respect and promotion of national cultures.
• The promotion of the individual based on merit and competence.
• The fair and equal distribution of national resources.


Our means of struggle against this illegitimate power will be exclusively political, pacific and democratic:

a. by the reappropriation of our inalienable, individual and collective rights that past generation successively abandoned since the independence for the sake of constructing a national society and obtaining a new state authentically independent. Those rights that are an integral part of our natural powers have been amputated from our body not only due to our ignorance, our coward ness, our unreadiness and lack of political education, but also due to our unconsciousness to the drama that was being concocted and which we had no means to resist.


b. By raising public awareness and mobilising, as largely as possible, the national and international public opinion about their responsibilities with regards to the powers in place in terms of Human Rights and Civil Liberties breaches as well as arbitrary cases, administrative and judiciary abuse of authority and to resist against all these totalitarian drifts.


c. By the denonciation of a certain and flagrant double standard occidental opinion which refuses to distinguish between its short term and long term interest, and which proclaims universal values while privileging narrow interests by supporting illegitimate regimes


d. By the continuous broadcast using all means of communication of our ideas, our propositions and our demands for the advent of dignity and change in our country

e. By the appeal to, among other things, peaceful demonstrations, civil disobedience and to massive abstention in elections.

It is thus clear that our initiative aims at ending about half a century of permanent usurpation of the popular sovereignty and at returning the dignity and free speech to the Algerian People, so that it can choose freely and democratically the political institutions that correspond to its aspirations of freedom, democracy and justice, in accordance with the identity and sociocultural values of our Algerianism which is essentially founded on Islam as well as the Amazigh and Arabic dimension. It is the only way our people can sit a real State under the rule of law.

Propositions to exit the crisis

The current consensus of the real political strengths converges into the election of a Constituent National Assembly. This peaceful evolution towards the legitimacy has to pass by a brief period of transition which should not exceed two years. We are convinced that this phase could not be made without the active participation of the military institution.

With the republican collaboration of the military institution, the main organized force at present, which will have for mission to insure the security management of the country, during the phase of transition, a Provisional Government will be set up and will have for mission, besides the public management of the State, to release two essential tasks:

1. Gather a national conference of all the political wills without exclusion as well as intellectual personalities with the aim of the establishment of a historic political consensus around the values and democratic principles expressed above.


2. Preparation of the elections of the Constituent National Assembly.

This Provisional Government will be assisted by a Council of the wise constituted of personalities stemming from the National movement, known for their righteousness, their integrity, their wisdom and their commitment for the safety of their country. During this phase, the army will know how to impose its mission to conserve public peace of mind and national unity. It will exercise on this occasion, its republican vocation to remain outside the political management of the country, and will protect its political neutrality until the final term that is the implementation of institutions democratically elected.


In the terms of the transitory phase and according to a protocol concluded between the military institution and the elected authorities, the army will begin its progressive disengagement of political affairs, and turn definitively to its exclusively military obligations, clearly defined by the new Constitution.

We Algerians, men and women, alarmed by the gravity of the situation and worried as for the future of the Nation, have to stop assisting powerlessness that devastates our own country. We have to make a commitment as actors of our own History and impose ourselves as masters of our own fate. Algeria belongs to all the Algerians, men and women alike, without neither exclusion nor exclusiveness.

We call upon the conscience, the heart and the wisdom of all, Algerians, men and women, intellectuals and politicians, civilians and servicemen, to unite and work together in serenity, without any exclusion whatsoever, to achieve a real reconciliation and a definitive resolution of the grave political crisis which shakes our country.

We would not know how to turn this sombre page of our contemporary History, without forgetting anything of what was stirred up against the nation. Let us work all together in the reconstruction of our country and in the building up of an open and tolerant society, freed from the yoke of injustice, violence and political terror.

Let us be people of fearless builders who will hoist Algeria in the era of the 21st century, to make it reach a radiant, serene and prosperous future.

Let us work, all together, towards the institution of a sovereign, democratic and social Algerian State, within the framework of our principles, intrinsic values of our identity and values universally accepted.


Only than, we shall have been faithful to the memory of the free men of November, 54 and to the text that founded the revolution which led to liberation.

God and Algerian people are witnesses of our words and our acts.




Signatories : Zineb Azouz, Universitaire. (Constantine). Djamaleddine Benchenouf, Journaliste, (Lyon). Maâmar Boudersa, Universitaire, économiste (Constantine). Abdelkader Dehbi, Universitaire, (Alger). Abdelmalek Djoudi, Ingénieur Documentariste, (Lyon). Kamaleddine Fekhar, Médecin, Militant des Droits de l'Homme (Ghardaïa). Rachid Ghoreib, Journaliste (Canada). Ahmed Kaci, Journaliste, (Paris). Samy Khoukoum, Psychosociologue. (Paris). Madjid Laribi, Journaliste (Paris). Salah-Eddine Sidhoum, Chirurgien. (Alger). Ahmed Si Mozrag, Avocat, (Burkina Faso). Brahim Younessi, Politologue, (Paris). Ziani-Cherif Rachid, Médecin (Sidi Bel Abbés). Mohamed Larbi Zitout, Ex-diplomate. (Londres).

Appel19mars2009@hotmail.fr