Since the summit of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), held in Accra on June 4, on the political transitions in Burkina, Guinea and Mali, things seem to be moving at an big V in Bamako. Indeed, only five days after this date, the Malian authorities announced a new transition lasting 24 months. Shortly after this announcement, and while the stormy debates it aroused have not yet died down, the head of the junta, Colonel Assimi Goïta, signs a decree establishing a commission responsible for drafting of a new constitution. The drafting team of the preliminary draft of the fundamental law, will include a president, two rapporteurs and experts. All these personalities will be designated by Assimi Goïta. However, within the framework of their work, these personalities will be able to consult “all the living forces” of the Nation, including political parties and civil society. To this fringe of the population, we must add the armed groups that signed the agreement for peace in northern Mali, the trade unions, the religious organizations as well as the traditional authorities.
The big question is whether the new Constitution will go in the direction of the refoundation so much advocated, or if it will turn its back on the general interest.
It is not superfluous to specify that this preliminary draft Constitution must be drafted in accordance with the spirit of the refoundation. The political orientation is therefore already declined. Another precision which is worth its weight in gold, is that the drafting of a new Constitution for Mali, is one of the key recommendations of the national meetings, held in Bamako, shortly after the coup against Ibrahim Boubacar Kéïta ( IBK). From this point of view, we can say that it is already good that Colonel Assimi Goïta wants to translate into action, one of the major decisions of the national meetings. And if this framework, which brought together almost all the sensitivities of Malian society, perceived the need to provide the Nation with a new fundamental law, it is because, somewhere, we can estimate that the need arose. The big question, therefore, that we can ask ourselves is whether the new Constitution announced by the junta will go in the direction of the refoundation so much advocated, or if it will turn its back on the general interest, in fine, mark the ground for a perpetuation of the regime of the putschists. For all those who know the political history of Mali, the second hypothesis cannot be excluded. General Moussa Traoré, for example, upon his accession in 1968, following Mali’s first coup d’etat, drafted a new Constitution, swearing on his honor that it would help pull democracy upwards. In the end, the man not only spent more than three decades in power, but also ruined Mali economically and socially. The real problem lies less in the Constitution than in the application of the provisions it contains
Strongly therefore that Assimi Goïta is not tempted to draw inspiration from this sad case.
All the harm we can wish him is that he enroll in the school of Amadou Toumani Touré or that of the Nigerian neighbor, General Salou Djibo. These two officers, in fact, had carried out coups d’etat in their respective countries. But they had taken the opportunity to trace furrows for the anchoring of democracy. Their mission completed, we remember, they retired from power in honor. Will Assimi Goïta have the wisdom of these officers? This question torments many Malians and Malians, and certainly beyond Mali, many are asking themselves it. In reality, the real problem in Mali is not the Constitution. Because, this country has almost always endowed itself with a new Constitution each time we have witnessed a seizure of power by coup d’etat. And the coups d’etat, only God knows how many there have been in this country. However, Mali is not doing any better in terms of democracy. From this point of view, one can say, without great risk of being mistaken, that the real problem of Mali resides less in the Constitution than in the application of the provisions which it contains. And this observation can be made for the entire African continent. Indeed, many countries on this continent have beautiful Constitutions, democratically speaking. But, one can have the impression that those very ones who wrote them, do not believe in them at all. And it is this representation of the fundamental law, which is at the origin of our miseries in terms of democracy. In any case, as long as one and the other are quick to wring the Constitution’s neck by operating constitutional or military coups, democracy will always be abused in our tropics. To reverse the trend, it is not necessarily a matter of setting up new Constitutions in an untimely manner, but of ensuring that no one has the right to trample on the Constitution with complete impunity. But it is still necessary that the civilians who exercise power resolutely subscribe to the logic of virtuous governance so as not to have to lend the flank.
” The country “