This Arabic African country that many don't know that it is member in the Arab League ,which is usually mentioned in Egyptian Newspapers as some sort of villain Arabic country that has strong relations with Israel and America , strangely we have even stronger relations with Israel and America !!!
Anyhow we always underestimate this country , consider it poor and its people live according to tribalism
Yet those tribal people proved to be more advanced and respectful then us with our 7000 years civilization, they proved that they understand the word of democracy better than , not only us but better than the rest of the Arab world from the ocean to the gulf.
In August 2005 the army there made a coup that ended the dictator rule of Maaouya Ould Sid'Ahmed Taya,who ruled the country for 21 years "sounds familiar is n't it ??!!"
That coup was led by colonel Ely Ould Mohamed Vall
It could have been any other coup and to tell you the truth not all the media in Egypt received it happily in fact the official media didn't mention it all for fear that something similar would happen in Egypt and the opposition media hated the fact that new ruling regime didn't cut the relations with Israel nor America , I don't know why they aren't sad that the Arabs don't have a stronger relations with Mauritania !!
Mohamed Vall and his comrades from the army promised the people there with a real democracy and it happened , they promised them with free presidential elections , and they gave it to them , they also promised to change the rule in the country from a military one to a civilian one and to say the truth is something unusual to hear in the Arab world
Vall promised his people to stay only for two years as a transitional government in that period there was a referendum on the 26th of June 2006 where 96% of the people there approved on a new constitution which limited the duration of a president's stay in office "Article No.77 anyone ??!!"
Well I guess after this new constitution we should have expected what was going to happen this year , but as I said Mauritania is underestimated in the Arab world !!
On March the 11 2007 , the first democratic presidential elections since 1960 took place , several candidates including women run for presidency elections , plastic transparent boxes were used , you know the boxes we wish to use in our official elections but we never see them except in our dreams and TV !!
The first round ended was two candidates , two civilian candidates I forget to mention this very important remark
Today is the second round and from two days ago for the first time in the modern history of the Arab world , there was a debate between the two candidates on TV just like in the west , this is in Mauritania not in Lebanon and surely not in Egypt
The two candidates are Sidi Ould Cheikh Abdallahi and Ahmed Ould Daddah, and you will surprise to know that the difference between them was only 4% , Abdallahi received 20% from the votes and Daddah received 24%
I congratulate the people of Mauritania and I bow in front of Vall and his friends who proved to be wiser and braver than many armies in the Arab world
Already for the record they are not the first to do such clean coup in order to establish democratic rule in an Arab or African country ,President or general Abdel Rahman Swar Al-Dahab did the same thing .
I won't lie and say we don't need those types of military generals and colonels and those types of coups but the general idea in the minds of the most middle eastern Arabs now about the coups is a bad idea of a police military state against freedom and democracy and this general idea is not from void , but it comes from a long experience , a bloody one whether in Syria or Iraq or our Egypt with our glorious revolution , which to be honest it could have been like Mauritania thanks to the great man who didn't have a chance general Mohamed Naguib.
Anyhow believe or not in the time of despair , the Mauritania's experience is giving a dime of light , a hope that there can be patriotic armies like the Mauritanian,and some now wishes that the army would wake up and thinks that it is matter of time , well I won't lie and I say I am not from these some , in fact I pray that this will happen and it is only a matter of time when we have our own Egyptian experience based upon the Mauritanian experience
del.icio.us tags: Mauritania, President, Democracy, Africa, Middle East, Arab, Presidential elections, Abdallahi, Daddah, Vall, Swar Al-Dahb, Sudan, Egypt, Politics, regional, international
Technorati tags: Mauritania, President, Democracy, Africa, Middle East, Arab, Presidential elections, Abdallahi, Daddah, Vall, Swar Al-Dahb, Sudan, Egypt, Politics, regional, international
This was a very interesting read. Oh, and AHA! I finally got a hold of you here on this blog.:P
ReplyDeleteHi, I am Mauritanian living in the west for many years fleeing the former dictator Maaouiya, every time I watch the American campaigns,I wish to live to see something like that happens in any arab country and I feel ashame to be arab where we still live in prehistoric systems of governance.I used to look at the world map and count the kingdoms,Emirate,Sheikhdoms,dictatorships and I find most of them are in our region,then I say what happend to us, we used to lead the whole world now we are at the back of the back of it's behind,we used to teach people justice and egality now those words don't even exist in our justice systems.This elections gave me hope that change is possible if people really act for it,did you know that before Vall's coup there were three attempts, the leader of all of them was a candidate for the presidency, I consider him the father of change. Right now I am folowing the announcement of the results, can you imagine the difference between the two candidate is always so small (1 to 2%)I can't believe it I want to scream to the whole world WE DID IT, WE DID IT,WE HAVE IT NOW, WE HAVE IT.
ReplyDelete@aisha , wow it is glad to see to here , well you busted me on this blog :P
ReplyDelete@anonymous ,let me say to you that I am so proud of you and your people , and also proud of Vall and the man who tried twice , you should be proud because you gave us hope a great hope at least for me and others like me , Bravo 1000 times , you know when I read more about the elections in your country I feel sad for my country yet so so so happy for yours , you have all the right to scream sir for the whole that you made it :)