Ahmed Benbitour to Echorouk's Forum: “I decided to resign from the Premiership when I realized that the state was drifting”

Echorouk's weekly Forum hosted Tuesday the former Algerian Prime Minister Ahmed Benbitour who shed light on the latest developments unfolding in Algeria and on his decision to quit his post at the head of the government as a result of his divergences of opinion with President Bouteflika notably on the latter's boundless propensity to rule by presidential decrees without any regard for the consent or appreciation of the country's Parliament seen as a rubber-stamp, he said.

•  

•  

• Mr Ahmed Benbitour, the official speaker of “initiative against corruption is everybody’s case” has branded the reforms adopted by the current government in education, banks and justice sectors as a failure insofar as political will is absent, in addition to the fact that officials are monopolizing decision making which should be of the State ‘s prerogatives alone, he explained.

• Ahmed Benbitour told Echorouk’s Forum that the government is relying only on hydrocarbons and that would have bad results, he doubted that punishment is applied to some people and he called for a stop to be put to corruption spreading into government institutions and administration.
• 
  

•  
• He declared that some persons are monopolizing power decisions, taking advantage of the difficult economic transition Algeria is woefully witnessing.
• 
  
• 
  
• Benbitour focused on the necessity to quickly find suggestions and urgent solutions to help the authorities to fight corruption and to encourage those who condemn corruption whatever its source.

•  
• The speaker, who was the first prime minister under Abdelaziz Bouteflika, ruling from 2000 to 2001, pointed out that the spread of corruption in the various institutions of the State, and other public bodies and departments had brought him to resign from his post  arguing that the state was taking a bad turn, as he put it.
• 
  

•  
• Former prime minister Ahmed Benbitour, a critic of what he calls the unresponsiveness of the army-backed administration, said the January unrest showed the authorities should pre-empt more turmoil similar to those of Tunisia and Egypt by promoting equity, transparency and cleaner governance.
• 
  
• 
  

• “We need to work rapidly for a salutary  democratic change and set the conditions for its success in the interest of the Algerian people, or change will impose itself by force,” he asserted.

• 
  
• Power is concentrated in the presidency embodied exclusively by Mr Abdellaziz Bouteflika, with parliament seen as a rubber-stamp, Benbitour hammered.
• 
  
•  
•  
• Some 75 percent of under 30-year-olds are unemployed and despite a state pledge to build a million new homes by 2009, demands for more housing are made daily, he explained.
• 
  

• “Algerian Citizens, above all the young, compare what goes on in the country to other nations. They seek a living standard and a future akin to what they see on foreign TV,” Benbitour said.

•  
• Ahmed Benbitour added that the recent violent street disturbances “were now at the centre of the concerns of the wary public authorities” and the government should embark on an effort to understand the violence and identify its causes by promoting genuine socio-economic reforms and unleashing political freedoms in the country notably through the repeal of all emergency laws.

•