Amar Ben Aouda to Echorouk: “It's time to end influence of Latin alphabet in Algeria and to break away with pro-France movement”

Colonel Ammar Ben Aouda, emphasized in an exclusive interview with “Echorouk Al Yaoumi” as a follow-up to what he stated during a previous statement to Echorouk on the 60th anniversary of the outbreak of the glorious Revolution of November 1954, that it is time to open a serious debate on the promotion of the use of Arabic language in Algeria, calling on the Algerian citizens to think of their children’s own language, the language associated with their cherished identity.

To start with, you told us that you wanted to add something about the teaching of Arabic in Algeria, what do you want to add, actually?

I wanted to say it’s time for a serious national debate on the teaching of Arabic in Algeria, and for a all-out revamping of the educational curricula that created generations unable to master the Arab language and other languages as well.

What’s wrong now is obviously the padding in the educational programs, leading to a distraction of the mental capacities of school-children who are compelled to learn more than one language at an early age, something counter-productive which is no longer beneficial to this rising generation.

I follow and see my grandchildren; I witness the huge difficulties faced by all our school-children in their education. As a matter of fact, we no longer need the French language. Overall, learning foreign languages has become possible with modern teaching techniques within just six months, so we need a political decision to save our Arabic language from further distortion.

Why not focus primarily on Arabic and delay the teaching of French or any foreign language chosen by the pupil to the advanced stages, even until higher studies at University?

And for those who think that Arabic isn’t the language of science, I tell them that modern Western civilization derived and was spawned greatly from the teachings of Muslim Arab scholars.

Do Japanese or Chinese students learn the French language in their studies to learn technology? Of course not!

 Why do we continue to hide behind technology and science to impose the limited French language? if we need a foreign language to have access to technology nowadays, we’ll have to opt for English of course, and I address my message this time to the pupils’ parents and to ordinary Algerians after conveying it last time to state and government officials.

Regardless of the adverse influence of the so-called “Party of France” which you said is beefing up the French language in Algeria, you were  also close to late President Houari Boumediene, according to you what prevented the success of his endeavors aimed at enshrining and anchoring the Arab language in Algeria?

Late President Houari Boumediene, was serious in his quest for strongly anchoring Arabic starting from the Administration to primary education and even to University level.  He then asked all Algerians to help him, and regretted a lot  that many around him let him down, including both the bi-linguists and the “Arabophones” themselves who left him in the lurch wittingly. They worked out warped and distorted programs to stifle the “Arabisation” or Arab promotion drive in the country for selfish and vested interests.

He then said he wanted the anchoring of Arabic together with Islamic Ethics to be in line with the Algerians’ genuine personality, their upbringing, their cultural heritage and their education but he fell short of achieving fully this commendable objective because of logjams from some ill-advised figures around him, like Benyahia, Belaid Abdesslem among others who tampered with the drafting of the National Charter of 1976 and later on in the 80’s Hamid Brahimi and Abdelhak Brerhi who led people astray through warped policies.

Late President Chadli Benjedid in his turn strove to anchor Arabic within the country’s Administration, but to no avail, so what was behind the failure of such a move?

Chadli Benjedid collided with the refusal of many around him to anchor the Arab language as the prime tool of the Algerian administration although the relevant law was adopted in Parliament at a time when Mouloud Hamrouche was head of Government.  The latter played a role in scuttling behind the scenes Chadli Benjedid’s laudable  project and left the file on the backburner willfully.

Hamrouche once whispered in the ear of the President on the sidelines of the parliamentary voting session saying that the German Ambassador in Algiers protested against the projected “Arabisation” of the Administration and warned that Germany would cut off relations with Algeria the following day if such a law was applied, because he argued that the case involved the survival of the Latin alphabet in Algeria on all accounts.

And what was the adverse impact of such damaging drifts and lapses during the so-called “Black Decade” in the 1990’s which woefully beset Algeria?

In fact, many of those misguided people who took to the mountains during the tragic black decade, didn’t complete university education due to the pervasive influence of French; it’s like learn to walk and then have one’s legs cut off. How can you teach the Arab language to students for more than ten years and then they just did not know anything about the language because of not learning its proper mechanisms, especially in the scientific field? We know that students, who go to study abroad to receive training of a given language, learn it within at least six months.

It should be noted that the “Zaouias” or Koranic schools in the country also witnessed some scuttling moves by the proponents of the so-called “France Party” in Algeria but they stood firm and greatly promoted the holy Koran and the Arab language against all odds.

And can you tell us who hindered the promotion of the Arab language in Algeria during the Ali Kafi era?

Army General Khaled Nezzar and Ali Haroune were among the prominent opponents of the Arab language.