The stakes of the Referendum on a New Malian constitution
/DR
After more than ten years of complete chaos, the West African country known as Mali is about to come back to life again from ashes. It was after the fall of President Moammar Khadafi of Libya, that an attempt to dismantle Mali into different pieces was launched by some independentist Tuareg groups, in partnership with terrorist groups such as AQMI and later ISIS, all supported by Western nations under the umbrella of NATO.[1] The military coup of 2020, followed by another known as the military coup of rectification in 2022, eventually brought obvious improvement, with a clear rise in power of the Malian army in all domains.[2]
No one can contest today that the country that was laughed at a decade ago for the poor equipment of its army has, in no less than 12 months, surpassed all other neighbouring countries in terms military power and armament. As recently as last week, the whole world witnessed the acquisition by the Malian authorities of more than five thousand brand new armoured vehicles. The Malian air space has also become inviolable, thanks to the recently acquired radars and access to satellites through Russia. The Malian authorities have indeed well understood that there is no possible return to stability and development without any strong army.[3]
Preventing Mali from reconstructing itself as a functioning nation is precisely what the enemies of the country, the foreign forces, those who have always been used to creating chaos and undermining the development of African countries, want. This explains the violent propagandist campaign around what has been misleadingly known as the massacre of Moura. Between the 27th and the 31st of March 2023, the Malian army carried out its most successful military operation against terrorist groups, in and around the village of Moura, located in central Mali. For more than a decade, Moura had been the headquarters of some terrorist groups under the commandment and leadership of Amadou Kouffa. Amadou Kouffa advocates for a so-called Islamic state, imposed by his ethnic group and using violence. During their ten years of military presence in Mali, France had never bothered to even try to liberate the village Moura from the grasp of the terrorists.[4]
It was only after the departure of the French form the region, that the Malian authorities investigated for serval weeks; using their newly acquired equipment and technologies, besides the information collected on the ground via the secret services. A three-day military operation with surgical strikes was finally launched on the 27th of March 2023. More than three hundred terrorists were neutralised, and many others were also arrested. It is believed that among the dead and the arrested, many terrorist mercenaries appeare to be French and American nationals; hence the bewilderment of Western countries, and their fake allegations on some supposedly massacre of civilians in Moura. The people of Moura have nevertheless made it clear through different media that no civilian was killed in the Moura operation. The terrorists and their informers are the only victims.[5]
The Moura operation is today known in the African continent as the biggest victory of regular army against the forces of evil.[6]
This military victory clearly set the necessary conditions to move forward in the reconstruction of Mali as functioning state; hence, the decision of the authorities to organise a referendum on the adoption of a new constitution on the 18th of June 2023.[7] Unlike the previous constitutions the country, the new proposed constitution is exclusive the work and the mindset of the Malians rooted in the philosophy of the Mande Charter of the 13th Century.
Several months of a large consultation of the people of Mali and their aspiration led to the drafting of a pan Africanist constitution that should consolidate Mali’s march towards genuine freedom, independence, and consequently economic development, through the exploitation of the Malian resources in the interest of the Malians themselves.
We took the opportunity to read and analyse the new proposed Malian constitution. It is composed of fourteen titles and of a hundred and ninety-five articles. The first thing we have to underline regarding the new Malian constitution is that it obviously put the stress on three axes[8]:
The first point is the mindset and concept on which the new Malian constitution is based. It is, indeed, clearly embedded in the 13th century charter of Mande, with its second article that affirms all lives count. And to complete the African tradition and spirit of that period, an important place is also given to the notion of common good and the protection of the environment, through the articles 25 and 28.
The second thing we can say regarding this new constitution is that it is clearly a pan-Africanist one, with article 186 that explains that Mali is ready to abandon its national sovereignty for the sake of African unity – which, by the way, is the final objective. It is also a pan-Africanist constitution in the sense that all African languages spoken in Mali become national languages, with the vocation of becoming official languages in the future; while French, the language of the former coloniser, becomes the official language of expression, only.[9]
The family and marital conception of the New Mali are clearly set in article nine as being the produce of a union between a man and a woman. Also, under the new Malian constitution, Mali clearly appears as a multi-ethnic, multicultural, and even multifaith country. The Malian conception of secularism distinguishes itself from the French one, as, although ninety percent of the Malian population is Muslim, it accepts and protects the expression of all creeds without any distinction. Mali becomes a secular entity where the head of state, through article fifty-five, swears before God that he will protect the territorial integrity and interest of the nation.
Thirdly, with the articles thirty, thirty-nine, and a hundred and ninety-one, the stress put on the territorial integrity of the nation – as a common good that those in charge of the nation have the duty to protect, lest they be prosecuted for treason- we understand that there will never be any partition of the country as the imperialists and the enemies of Mali so much dreamed of. The resources of the country are the property of the state through article 42.
To conclude it can be said that the new constitution is giving birth to a new Mali, known as Mali Koura. And once again, remembering Marvel blockbuster movie Black Panther, glorifying a futuristic African state; in the case of Mali, it seems that reality has caught up with fiction. Malians are today one vote away from making the dream of all pan-Africanist come true.
So, on the 18th of June,
Let’s Vote “YESS”!
By Dr Moustafa Traore
[1] https://www.nouvelobs.com/monde/20180329.OBS4388/pourquoi-sarkozy-est-il-intervenu-en-libye-la-notion-de-guerre-privee-traverse-l-esprit.html
[2] https://www.studiotamani.org/29451-montee-en-puissance-de-l-armee-les-populations-invitent-les-fama-a-garder-le-cap
[3] https://fr.euronews.com/2023/01/20/le-mali-recoit-de-nouveaux-appareils-de-guerre-de-la-russie-euronewsfr
[4] https://www.lemonde.fr/afrique/article/2023/05/29/massacre-de-moura-au-mali-ce-que-l-on-sait-des-deux-militaires-sanctionnes-par-les-etats-unis_6175335_3212.html
[5] https://www.ohchr.org/sites/default/files/documents/countries/mali/20230512-Moura-Report.pdf
[6] https://www.lefigaro.fr/flash-actu/evenements-de-moura-moscou-felicite-le-mali-pour-une-victoire-importante-contre-le-terrorisme-20220408
[7] https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/5/5/mali-announces-new-date-for-referendum-on-new-constitution
[8] https://koulouba.ml/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/Avant-Projet-Constitution_octobre_2022.pdf
[9] https://www.ouest-france.fr/monde/mali/mali-le-projet-de-constitution-tourne-la-page-de-la-langue-francaise-ed9d4001-b8c3-440a-a2aa-970ba59e3f8c