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).
…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.