from MicroWave@lemmy.world to world@lemmy.world on 03 Apr 11:13
https://lemmy.world/post/45109051
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).
#world
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Or you could post the important part of the quote:
“Democracy was “false”, the 37-year-old said, adding: “Democracy, we kill children. Democracy, we drop bombs, we kill women, we destroy hospitals, we kill civilian population. Is that democracy?””
They identify ‘democracy,’ as the hypocritical western nations call it, with fascist imperialism. Since that’s all they’ve been subject to; and they’re not wrong to say that.
Burkina Faso also pulled themselves out of the International Criminal Court with similar logic. They said America, Isreal, Russia, and China all get to do basically whatever they want globally while Burkina Faso is constantly slapped with sanctions
Now those sanctions are because that country is one of the most dangerous on the planet, so it’s hard to take the military leader at his word. Even if he had a valid point
No those sanctions are because Europe lost control of their resources and were not compensated. Those sanctions are for a lesser country fighting back without permission.
Burkino Faso, unironically, has done nothing wrong in their search for freedom.
A military dictatorship isn’t particularly representative of freedom.
Ye…eah, that seems like a bit of “doing something wrong” to be actively regressing on personal freedoms.
If you aren’t free to oppress someone, are you truly free? (/s)
Some 30% of Burkinabés are Christian or Catholic. It could be argued that homophobia in Burkina Faso is a result of western colonialism via mission trips and schools.
Even assuming that this has anything directly to do with religion which is already a big leap it is a Muslim majority country that had no laws against homosexuality prior to or right after independence from France… Sorry but this sounds like a pretty difficult one to pin on western colonialism.
To put it simply, when western forces colonize a people, they simultaneously suppress and frame their traditions as barbaric and prop up their own western values as civilized. The colonized people experience unconscionable violence from these western forces, seeing first hand the inhumanity being caused in the name of ‘civility’. Naturally, as anti-colonial resistance mounts, the most anti-West voices gain the most momentum, seen as less corruptible to those western forces and more unwavering in their resistance. So it’s no surprise that reactionary attitudes on civil rights come as a reaction to western colonialism.
It’s only once a people are able to reclaim their sovereignty that civil rights movements are able to build, fight for, and win those rights domestically. Without being co-opted by foreign powers with the only goal of destabilization.
I wasn’t aware of the connection myself until I read Fanon’s works at length
One of the most infuriating aspects of western imperialism and corruption is how douchebag leaders in non-western countries can point at it and say “See? This is why you need the kind of strong ruler who is willing to massacre unarmed protesters.”
I think it’s hard for any American to accuse any country of being “the most dangerous on the planet” when you look at history.
What did they do to beat out Russia and America?
Same way as “socialism” is linked to the Russias puppet dictators in eastern Europe and the corrupt shit circus they created.
Yeah, but it also shows a detachment of both history and political manipulation.
Democracy is not a “nice to have”. It’s supposed to be a check and a balance on centralized powers.
But the past decades more and more rights - which manifestly is power - is taken away from the citizens of the west and given to either the nation state - or actors within private sector, i.e oligarchies.
The calls for direct democracy is heard across the west, but falls on deaf ears without even further context. So let’s take my country of Norway as an example.
In the 90s you could not only vote for a party and the individual representatives of that party, but also individual representatives from other parties. You could basically vote for who you thought was best for each public office.
The liberals and conservatives got rid of that right and now are getting rid of voting for individual candidates. There’s an insidious reason for this and that’s to “toe the party line” - even though several of the major political parties want the exact same policies.
The liberal will go and be more direct and honest with what they want, whereas the conservatives - who wants the same policies - will keep their mouth shut. The liberal becomes unpopular, the conservatives get into office and enact those policies - and vice versa. It is in many cases a false dichotomy, because there is very little difference between the liberal and the conservative - in all actuality.
The solemn fact is that there is only a few - if even any - liberal, conservative or neo-liberal who believes in democracy. To all of them the “free markets shall reign”, in that power should be privatized. It should be subject to think tanks, media engines and optics - because constituents are so stupid that they need to be manipulated in “the right direction”.
Their premise of “voting with your wallet” also falls flat, as consumer choices already well studied and directed, as monopolies, duopolies, triopolies, monopsonies and oligopolies span the west. The supply and demand rule explains why. The more you can produce, the more of the supply chain you control, the more costs you can cut per unit. The consumer, having to deal with personal economy, goes for the cheapest option and ipso presto: you have centrally controlled markets.
The politicians, being given insider access to these markets, become subject of lobbyists, well wishers and gift givers, who help to nudge policies “in the right direction”. This in turn leads to a conflict of interest mountain that soars ever higher by each year. The elite play together, pray together, slay together and tut tut each other only when faced with a camera. They have goals, they have agendas, they have closed door meetings - as well as large grandiose get togethers.
Western politicians therefore largely pay lip service to democracy in front of podiums and audiences, but will let slip through interviews, associations and quotes that it is more of a burden to them - and it shows in their legislatures and approach. You’re supposed to “watch what a politicians does, not listen to what they say” - but both are acts, and if not in lock step shows clear signs of corruption.
In short: we’ve allowed the fox to watch the hen house and have only a few chickens left. Democracy has been weakened and is weakened still by each year. But it’s not because western politicians are so evil. It’s because they are literally brainwashed. They’ve groomed each other in a twisted world view predicated solely upon ideological fancies. They drink their own KoolAid and they want all of us to wear the jogging suit to drink with them.
Western liberalism & conservatism is a cult. They truly do believe their “economic sciences”, which to them is scripture - but is merely economic mysticism draped in acedemic language. Their idols, Raegen and Thatcher, the oligarchs and “wealth creators”, stabbing the tax sack with a knife called “New Public Management” to let their friends soak up the revenue. The creators of symbolic economy, symbolic politics, symbolic laws, all to fool you into thinking they are credible candidates - while wasting time, money and lives. Public good is nothing but a prospect to them.
Our political system has been gamed so much that the terms “liberal” and “conservative” have lost all meaning, for they are invariably the same ilk. The liberal, the conservative and the neo liberal are the ones weakening the west, has been killing the west - for decades. Our democracy, our industries, our economies, our financing. It’s all subject to their games and whims.
We sacrificed our democracy at the alter of a supposed “free market” - and it’s time for revolution. It’s time for the people to take the power back from the new aristocracy.
Stop following their talking points, their econom
…running instead into the arms of Russia, who of course is world famous for not killing children, women and other civilians or destroying hospitals. And the children and other civilians killed by the Burkinabè army in their anti-islamist operations of course don’t compare because, that’s something completely different - those were justified. /s
It’s perfectly explainable why the colonial history of Burkina Faso with France has given rise to a leader such as him, but Traoré’s probably admirable anti-colonial and anti-islamist positions do not make him any less of a military dictator who is preventing elections, criminalized being gay, is suppressing freedom of the press and all the other things authoritarian leaders do.
On a more general note: There is this unhelpful tendency by fellow leftists in the west to turn a blind eye to the atrocities of anyone who claims to be ‘anti-colonial’. That’s just righteous bs and we all know it. Being economically left and conscious of western colonialism should not absolve us from critical thinking: Being oppressed does not impart innate moral authority.
Who else would they turn to? They are also involved with China, which is much better, but guess what, the Amerisraeli empire divided the world into the The Amerisraeli Empire and the Enemies of the Amerisraeli Empire. Those are the only two geopolitical factions to exist currently on this Earth. Now it’s weakening and splintering thanks to Trump’s following of Israel’s 50 year long dream war that they want to result in greater Israel, but guess what, the Empire was ridiculously strong in 2014, they owned the EU, and the EU is what Burkino Faso was fighting against for independence. That made them the other side.
As far as his positions… THERE WILL NEVER BE A PERFECT REVOLUTION. THERE WILL NEVER BE A PERFECT REVOLUTIONARY. If they were socially progressive, they wouldn’t have been colonized in the first place, they wouldn’t need a revolution.
Traore’s not preventing elections, he’s securing a country that has NEVER HAD A DEMOCRATIC ELECTION. Maybe they take the internal elections his party has been shown to have and make them external like liberal democracy, except wait, the only examples of that to base their government on HAVE OBJECTIVELY FAILED TO PROVIDE FREEDOM OR DEMOCRATIC CONTROL OF GOVERNMENT. No Liberal democracy has a greater than 50% confidence in their government to do the popular thing. Not a single one.
So maybe they develop towards China’s democracy, or Cuba’s Democracy, but both of those required a period of military control to keep crime and outside influences down long enough THAT PEOPLE COULD BE EDUCATED ENOUGH TO VOTE.
These aren’t disenfranchised skilled petit bourgeois of rich countries that had generations of high levels of education and exposure to propaganda; these are mostly farmers and miners that have not known anyone with any level of education since the 1960s.
Which brings us into the criticism over the INCREDIBLY POPULAR AND LITERALLY DEMOCRATICALLY VOTED ON legislation banning LGBTQ people… That had 86% support amongst the population.
Is that awful? YES. Is that something to criticize them, the population for? No. Not even a little.
Also ‘suppressing freedom of the press’ is and always has been a fascist dog-whistle. Not allowing the CIA in via NED organizations isn’t and has never been ‘suppressing freedom of the press.’
To your snide comment crying about leftists offering CRITICAL (key word) support to anti colonial people even if they’re bad, too fucking bad.
Literally people need to break the chains binding them before they can grow, before they have the opportunity to grow. See: China, which now has a higher average quality of life than Europe, has a much more democratic system than liberal western democracy, and has far more economic freedom at this point.
Have they had issues? Absolutely. But guess what there’s only so much progress that can happen at once, especially with centuries of beliefs that need to be overturned.
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.
Is it just a matter of lowered expectations vs democracy?
Sort of. No one has done more damage to the image of democracy than the US and Western nations.
Typical of the Guardian to push the western propaganda bastardized version of what he said.
warspecial military operation with burkina faso in 3… 2… 1…Didn’t know they had oil