Makri to Echorouk: “The power establishment has adopted a brinkmanship policy and is accountable for might happen”

In an exclusive interview with Echorouk, the leader of the MSP opposition party, Abderrazak Makri, has flatly denied reports that the Coordination for Democratic Change made up of several Algerian political parties and national figures, has reneged on its pledges for achieving the objectives set during last summer’s broad – based Mazafran meeting, stressing that the Coordination is pooling efforts to impose a genuine political change on the power establishment as early as possible.

What is the scope and objective of the opposition Coordination’s message addressed to the Algerians to foster all-out change in the country through bona-fide democratic reforms?

“Well, the opposition party leaders and national personalities making up the Coordination for Democratic Change have already outlined a program aimed at bailing Algeria out of its current political crisis as the regime is intent on clinging to the status quo synonymous with tensions and socio-economic decline. The current authorities are against any genuine democratic overture and a serious dialogue with the opposition parties. The spirit of the glorious November Revolution which should be bolstered at all levels of the state institutions has been brushed aside by the current authorities because of their boundless thirst for power, their over-bearing nepotism and their outright marginalization practice

Some people argue after making a deep perusal of the coordination’s declared stances that the latter is in a virtual logjam. What did it want to foist ostensibly the accountability of a much-awaited political change in the country on the men of the street?

“As a matter of fact, we as opposition parties comprising this Coordination don’t want to foist the responsibility on others.  We are still determined to carry on with the peaceful political struggle with the aim of achieving our objectives set during our broad-based encounter a few month ago at the Mazafran Hotel on the western coast of Algiers.

In so doing, we will strive to forge ahead by stepping up our awareness-raising endeavour through the holding of numerous popular meetings to sensitize the maximum of citizens and the mass media to the imperious necessity of ushering-in genuine democratic change in Algeria at all levels.

What is left for the opposition – led coordination to try and salvage its declared initiative aimed at ensuring this real democratic transition which is now being forcefully stymied by the power establishment for obvious reasons of survival?

“This objective could be fulfilled only through the pooling of efforts and energies on the part of all the components of the Coordination for Democratic Change. We must duly expound to the Algerian people the current deleterious political situation gripping the country because of the regime’s prolonged logjam attitude. This imposed status-quo situation barring any dissenting voice and excluding the opposition parties from the political spectrum could have surely nefarious repercussions on the country’s stability and cohesion”.