Algeria is a dear place to the Muslims and it holds a high status among the Muslim world. Throughout the centuries, Algerians are known for their commitment and love to serve and sacrifice for Islam and the Muslims. They embrace high regard and respect to Islamic rituals and Muslim scholars. May Allah bless Algeria and the Algerians.

Besides what is mentioned, Algeria takes a dominant place among the Muslim nations. Algeria taught the Muslims that freedom demands tremendous sacrifice of blood, time and effort. Freedom also requires one’s outmost preparation, clear vision of the ultimate goal and unquestionable readiness to sacrifice in order to free the land and liberate it from occupying enemies. All the above made Algeria a role model to all Muslims in struggling for liberation. Algerians for over one hundred and thirty years, persistently and restlessly, fought against French occupation which cost more than million martyrs until they achieved freedom in 1962.

Algeria -like all Arab countries, unfortunately- suffers corruption in its government, military and election system. This is saddening to the Muslims because Algeria was ready to set an example for others for its honest elections and true freedom. However, continuous problems and tribulations have caused the Algerians, and consequently the Muslims, to suffer.

In 1990, through honest elections, the Algerians chose –by their free will- the Islamic direction by electing the Rescue Front. That was an exciting move to the entire Islamic nation which approved the Islamic inclination of the Algerian people. It reassured the Muslims that all these years of occupation did not change the pure Muslim nature of the Algerian people. It showed those who felt hopeless because of the never-ending dictatorship that prevailed in our countries that it was possible to have honest elections in a Muslim country. At the very last moment though, the army interjected to rip the people off their free choice and to hurl the country into a civil war. This civil war lasted about a decade and left thousands of people –all Muslims- killed.

A new hope appeared in 1999 when Abdelaziz Bouteflika was elected for a president. Bouteflika presented what is known as the “Charter for Peace and National Reconciliation” which brought peace and stability to Algeria. This reconciliation project was an appreciated effort and a stepping stone in the history of the region.

Bouteflika ruled from 1999 to 2004, followed by reelection of a second term from 2004 to 2009. We will not comment on the reelection and its honesty and people’s reactions as it is not our topic of discussion.

So far, everything is moving towards making Algeria a role model in honest and free elections, freedom of choice, respect and following the constitution. Unfortunately however, the Muslims in Algeria and the entire world were shocked by the announced plans to amend the Algerian Constitution to allow the President to run for office indefinitely. This was a slap in the face to the rights of all Algerians; it meant that constitution had no meaning just like in all other Arab countries. Can the constitution be altered and changed as we please? The army threatens people and backs up the plans with full support while people are stepped on and humiliated!  What is this?

We are not concerned in this article about evaluating the ten years Bouteflika ruled Algeria, neither are we comparing two situations and which one is worse. We are concerned about the disrespect and disregard to the constitution, the greedy leaders who can not seem to be able to let go of the throne.

Former leaders Jacques Chirac, Tony Blair, Helmut Kohl and Vladimir Putin all ruled and then stepped down when their terms expired. They did not step down due to corruption or rejection by the people. In fact, they were generally accepted by their people.

Changing the constitution to keep someone in power -regardless of who that person is- is a crime against the people. It seems that Arab leaders feel that their countries will collapse if they leave their positions. For that matter our nations are under the Martial Law for twenty, thirty years and some for eternity.

We live at a time where presidents can not stay in power forever. In fact, power need to circulate to utilize the people and their opinions. With Allah’s will, Muslims will never unanimously agree on misguidance.

We can clearly see the problems with presidents staying in their positions forever:

First, leaders feel that staying in power is their ultimate goal, rather than serving the people. They will utilize all available means: media, money and military to stay in power.

Second, the leader feels that he owns the country and its facilities so he goes on using them all to his own benefit in complete disregard of

Third, based on the above point, the leaders tend to pass down their power to their successors regardless of the will and desire of the people.

Forth, staying in power for long increases the government’s cruelty, savageness and viciousness, therefore making oppression and force its only means to achieve security.

Fifth, due to the increase in oppression, the number of rebels from the people increase. The ruler then fears for his life, isolates himself from his people and tries to stay in power to keep himself safe.

Sixth, all the active energy in the government is downplayed and is converted to one opinion and one direction, despite the existence of other meaningless parties.

Seventh, the ruler is not concerned about his people and what is best for them because he guarantees his position forever. On the contrary, in Europe, United States, Latin America and even the Zionist occupation, the ruler tries his best to satisfy his people and attend to their needs so he can be reelected a second term.

Eighth, people lose excitement, feel extremely frustrated and lose loyalty to the government. This leads to loss of production and backwardness. Furthermore, the people reach a point where they hate their country and try to migrate away because their country is not theirs anymore; it belongs to the ruler!

Ninth, amenities and faculties are wasted towards benefit of the rulers and their helpers. Then inquiring about the source of the wealth of the ruler becomes an unforgivable crime. Corruption prevails and penetrates to the roots while correction becomes impossible.

Tenth, all these problems are carefully watched by the enemies who know who is in power and it becomes very easy to control the whole country through controlling this one ruler and his gang. This is what we see in almost all the Arab countries.

These are complete ten problems.

Again I want to stress that this analysis is not meant to comment on Bouteflika.  Rather, it is an analysis of the wrong principle of changing the constitution.

I know that some of our readers will write to us saying that the security situation has improved and the reconciliation has become a reality under the Bouteflika administration. That is all good and we thank President Boutieflika for that. We also thank all the different powers in Algeria for cooperating in order to improve stability in Algeria. However, we need to look at the situation widely and deeply. We also need to look at the future of the county under this situation. Furthermore, we need to look at other aspects of the president’s responsibilities. Security is important but it is not the only aspect. The human development report in 2008 revealed that illiteracy is still prevailing; it reached 25.4% in people older than 15 years old. Poverty is 18.1% in jobless people under the age of thirty-five.

Moreover, transparency reports confirm that corruption has penetrated all administrative, political and governmental mediums. Algeria scored 3.2 out of 10 in the transparency report of 2008. This confirms that the country needs true correction.

Besides these reports and statistics we see the general frustration of the Algerians, which led to drop in the numbers of people voting in 2007 to only 30%. This leads to the prediction of more decrease in voting in the next presidential elections. This also means the loss of people’s involvement.

The biggest problem is that since Bouteflika has all the government and army’s support behind him on the next elections, the elections will be no more than a joke. Bouteflika has no real opponent. So people will feel no need to wait in line to vote. Why would they bother if he is winning anyway?

What we see in Algeria is nothing strange, this happens to a greater extent in the rest of the Arab countries. However, we mention this because Algeria was true role model that was ruined before it reached completeness.

I know this is an extremely complex situation, and getting out of it is difficult but it is not impossible. Maybe the first step is to understand what had happened was a mistake that should have never happened. There is no need to beautify the picture and dwell on the good nature of people. Rather, we should encourage the people to stand up for their rights.

I have big hopes for hearing from the free Algerians, and know what they think and in which path they’re going. I hope to hear from my beloved Algerians –and they are so many- about their present plans and future visions.

May Allah preserve Algeria and the Algerians and elevate their status in this life and in the Hereafter.

We ask Allah to honor Islam and the Muslims,

 By Dr. Ragheb Elsergany

https://islamstory.com/en/artical/3407483