Diomaye Faye-Ousmane Sonko : la position de Mbougar Sarr
In the text we offer below, the writer pits the head of state and the president of the National Assembly against each other, highlighting the quarrels between them. "This term, I regret to say, is already practically lost. It is too mired in the mud of egos to move forward in the most effective, just, humble, and hardworking political direction," he declares, "somewhat dismayed and saddened."
“What I’ve been observing for the past few months at the highest levels of the Senegalese state is indeed politics, but of the most farcical kind imaginable; and I would laugh heartily if I didn’t remember, amidst this doubly bitter laughter (Njaaréem’s teeth…), that this bad theater, whatever its backstage machinations, produces concrete and appalling effects on a country, its people, its economy, its credibility. I’ll put it rather bluntly: everything seems mediocre and lacking in vision. Above all, and this is the most dramatic thing, everything seems devoid of imagination.”
"So, yes: there are people of great worth who work and keep hope alive. Yes: the previous regime left behind a degraded social fabric and a shameful economic situation. Yes: betrayals in every direction. Yes: defections, disappointments, the reality of power. Yes: the structural slowness of reforms. Yes: others weren't doing/aren't doing any better. Yes to patience. Yes, as in love sometimes, to the difficult task of 'breaking up.' Yes to all categories of mitigating circumstances and all the nuances of justification and complacency. Yes, no one is perfect. Yes to campism, whose logic is simple: my party is always right and whoever isn't in it is wrong. Yes to all of that: that's politics."
“But we must also be able to say this without being immediately labeled as belonging to a particular group or suspected of hating someone or hiding an agenda: the country continues to hiccup from swallowing, every day, a new bitter pill (bitters that make a country hiccup—not sure about my metaphor here, but anyway…). Someone has to be held responsible. I'm willing to take my share, since the work of clear thinking begins with oneself and one's own self-examination, and since it's not about giving comfortable moral lessons while absolving oneself. I am also responsible, in one way or another, for the decline in the quality of public debate. I'm willing to accept that. But what about the others? What will those who actually hold power say? What will those who once held power say? What will those who aspire to it say?”
“This term, I regret to say, is already practically lost. It’s too bogged down in the mire of egos to move forward in the most effective, just, humble, and hardworking political direction. I fear it will be weighed down to the very end by revelations and counter-narratives, obstruction and revenge, trials and settling of scores. A friend told me all this recently; he was right, alas. Some other friends think this interlude will strengthen our democracy and confirm the country’s political maturity. Perhaps. That’s the optimistic view. My impression remains that the entire system is being held hostage by individuals.”
“A few days ago, I used the image of the cockfighting arena and the fighting cocks to describe the warlike tribulations of the two men (several, in reality) who are putting on a show up there. I am changing the arena and the animal: I am choosing a beast that the peasant in me loves very much, the donkey—and I am adding, in light of recent events, my favorite Latin sentence, even if I am completely reversing its meaning (but it works that way too, I think): Asinus asinum fricat. Ci wolof, ñu maye bii, te jéem kaa lemmi te jàngat: 'mbaam gàtt na, waaye ci jur gi la bokk'.”
PS: This isn't even (yet) an 'intellectual' analysis: barely the dejected look of a somewhat dismayed and saddened citizen.
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