Unless structural reforms are undertaken, Algeria could see a second Arab Spring | The Indian Express

Unless structural reforms are undertaken, Algeria could see a second Arab Spring | The Indian Express

Written by Ramin Jahanbegloo |Updated: April 2, 2019 9:17:33 am

The writer is Noor-York Chair in Islamic Studies, York University, Toronto.

Unless structural reforms are undertaken, Algeria could see a second Arab Spring

Now there is a strong feeling among the Algerians that even if the state is controlled by a few individuals, they have the power to bring down the government.

Following several weeks of intense demonstrations by artists, intellectuals, students, lawyers and many other representatives of the Algerian civil society, the 82-year-old president named a new government on March 31. (Reuters)

“The task of men of culture and faith,” said Albert Camus in Algiers in 1956, “is not to desert historical struggles nor to serve the cruel and inhuman elements in those struggles. It is rather to remain what they are, to help man against what is oppressing him, to favour freedom against the fatalities that close in upon it.” This speech was given in order to save the lives of countless civilians, Arabs and French alike. For Camus, the main idea was to hold tight to the moral compass, resisting oppression while resisting one’s own tendency to oppress. Camus proposed that the FLN (National Liberation Front) and French authorities agree to a “civilian truce”.