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).
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.
“Miller, are you taking notes? I want this in my next speech!” – Tr*mp, probably
I see nothing but mistranslation and poor framing with this article
Another hitpiece by a Western imperialistg outlet because their leader kicked out all the occupiers
and he is right. Western liberal democracy is cancer
Then move to Burkina Faso.
I do not live in west fyi.
What kind of things would you do for one cigarette? ;)
Typical of the Guardian to push the western propaganda bastardized version of what he said.
In the end it’s hard to argue for the so called liberal democracy that was often extremely corrupt compared to Thomas Sankara style populism there.
