Guinea’s Junta Leader Slow-Walks a Transition To Democracy While Undermining It
NEED TO KNOW
Guinea’s Junta Leader Slow-Walks a Transition To Democracy While Undermining It
GUINEA
One would think that a referendum asking whether a country’s military junta should step down and shepherd the government’s transition to a constitutional democracy would be a no-brainer for many voters.
But things aren’t so simple in the West African nation of Guinea.
Current Guinean interim President Mamady Doumbouya launched a coup d’état in 2021. A year later, he proposed a vote to return the country to an elected leadership but never organized an election, reported Reuters. He also missed a December 2024 deadline for a return to civilian rule. Then, in April, he announced that a referendum on a new constitution – a precursor to a transition to civilian rule – would take place on Sept. 21.
Military juntas aren’t necessarily very adept at giving up their power, though.
For example, Doumbouya cracked down on freedom of the press, expression, association, and political dissidents. Enforced disappearances, once rare in the country, are now becoming increasingly common.
“Each of us is afraid for his own safety,” Abdoulaye Kourouma, a leader of the opposition Rally for Renaissance and Development political party, said in an interview with the Guardian earlier this year. “Whether you are a scientist, a university scholar, an opinion leader, a … journalist, no one speaks today.”
The trend hasn’t abated, despite the interim president’s apparent desire to embrace the will of the people.
British international human rights organization Article 19 described the civic space in the capital of Conakry and elsewhere as “shrinking” in the run-up to the referendum. In recent months, Doumbouya’s underlings have suspended political parties, banning them from organizing demonstrations or other campaigns that they would launch to sway voters on the choice between the junta and the ballot box.
The banned parties complained that the move was designed to squelch healthy debates about the important vote, explained the Jurist.
The country’s leadership also briefly banned media outlets from quoting those parties. Further, the government suspended access to Guinee360.com, a local French-language news website, from this September to December. The rationale was “professional shortcomings” and “manipulation of information.” The interim president has since reversed that decision, but the prohibition against citing opposition parties still stands, Africanews reported.
Meanwhile, he appears on posters and at rallies across the country.
The fact is, Doumbouya has no intention of returning Guinea to democracy, argued World Politics Review.
“Ever since the coup three and a half years ago, the… junta… has implemented delaying tactics to postpone the return to constitutional order: It organized ‘national consultations’ and ‘political dialogues,’ all of which were boycotted by the main political parties, and claimed that it needed to conduct a census to create a new electoral roll. It has spent the past year drafting a new constitution, whose text so far remains a closely guarded secret,” it wrote. “The goal was to gain time to consolidate power and eliminate opponents, even as Doumbouya promised he would hand power back to a democratically elected civilian government.”
If he is embracing democracy, moreover, he’s likely doing so because he wants to run for president, the Africa Report added. He then could continue to run the government as he sees fit while enjoying the legitimacy of popular support.
Would the voters support him? That’s not clear, say analysts.
Among the issues worrying the public in the run-up to the vote is a liquidity crisis in the country – there simply isn’t enough cash floating around. That’s shaking public confidence in the economy and the government.
Small vendors such as Mariama Kamara, who sells vegetables in Conakry’s Tower Market, say they have hardly done any business recently because customers don’t have any cash, a development that’s to be expected in a country where only 15 percent of the population have bank accounts.
“There are no buyers, it’s been like this for days,” she told Al Jazeera recently. “Look at my goods, they are just rotting away.”
THE WORLD, BRIEFLY
South Korea to Arrest Unification Church Leader
SOUTH KOREA
South Korean investigators on Thursday said they are seeking an arrest warrant for the leader of the Unification Church, following allegations that church officials bribed the wife of imprisoned former president, Yoon Suk Yeol, and a lawmaker from his party, the Associated Press reported.
Investigator Park Sang-jin said a court will decide Monday whether to approve the warrant for Hak Ja Han, the 82-year-old church leader and widow of its previous leader and founder, Sun Myung Moon.
The announcement came a day after authorities interrogated Han for hours over accusations that her organization provided luxury gifts and cash in exchange for political favors.
The church leader rejected the allegations.
Authorities allege Yoon’s wife, former First Lady Kim Keon Hee, accepted two Chanel bags and a diamond necklace – together worth about $58,000 – from a Unification Church intermediary, who sought various business favors, including the church’s participation in a Cambodian development project.
Kim was arrested last month on various charges, including bribery and stock manipulation, charges she denies.
Her detention marked the first time that both a former president and former first lady have been jailed in South Korea, according to the BBC.
Meanwhile, the conservative People Power Party’s lawmaker Kweon Seong-dong was detained this week on accusations of receiving more than $72,000 in bribes from the same church official.
Kweon, a prominent Yoon ally, rejected the claims.
The arrests and probes are part of wider investigations into Yoon’s presidency, including his controversial decision to impose martial law in December, which contributed to his impeachment and official removal from office earlier this year.
Observers noted that the probe also underscores the growing scrutiny that the Unification Church has been facing in recent years.
Moon, a self-proclaimed messiah, founded the church in 1954 and preached a new interpretation of the Bible and conservative family values. He turned the church into an international movement with millions of followers and large business interests.
Critics, however, have described the church as “cult-like” and accused it of pressuring members to donate large sums of money.
The church has been banned in a number of countries, including Singapore and, recently, in Japan.
It made global headlines shortly after the 2022 assassination of former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. The alleged assassin accused the organization of bankrupting his family and expressed anger at Abe’s promotion of the church.
Mass Protests Intensify in Argentina While Milei Attempts to Soften Austerity Measures
ARGENTINA
Tens of thousands of people Wednesday took to the streets of the Argentine capital of Buenos Aires, calling for increased funding for universities and pediatric hospitals, sectors hard hit by libertarian President Javier Milei’s sweeping austerity measures, despite his newly announced plans to boost social spending next year, France 24 reported.
Protest organizers said their intention was to pressure legislators to overturn Milei’s recent vetoes of laws that would have increased funding of public universities and pediatric hospitals. The president said the laws would harm the country’s fiscal balance.
Congress’s lower house voted on Wednesday to reject both vetoes. Now, the Senate would need to do the same for it to take effect.
Milei’s popularity has taken a steep dive following his severe budget cuts: Since taking office in December 2023, he has slashed public spending and successfully brought down monthly inflation from double to single digits, France 24 reported separately. However, the moves have triggered massive ongoing protests. In late August, demonstrators threw stones at Milei and his sister during a campaign appearance in Buenos Aires, with clashes breaking out among supporters and opponents.
Part of his sinking popularity is due to a corruption scandal involving his sister.
Earlier this month, his party had a legislative defeat in Buenos Aires provincial elections.
With legislative elections approaching in October – where half of the lower house and a third of the Senate will be up for grabs – Milei’s party, La Libertad Avanza (LLA), hopes to win enough seats to keep the opposition-controlled Congress from overriding his vetoes.
As a result, on Monday, Milei presented a proposal for next year’s budget that includes plans to boost social spending.
The new budget plans for a 5 percent increase for spending on pensions and another 5 percent for disability pensions, 17 percent for healthcare, and 8 percent for education above inflation. Nevertheless, Milei insisted that balancing the budget remains “non-negotiable.”
Maldives Ratifies Controversial Media Bill That Would Ease Closure of News Outlets
MALDIVES
Maldives President Mohamed Muizzu approved a controversial new media law Thursday, allowing fines and the closure of media outlets that violate its provisions, a bill that critics say would likely stifle free speech and press freedoms, the Associated Press reported.
According to the measure, journalists would be required to respect the nation’s constitution, Islam, national security, social values, and protect personal honor and human rights.
Individual journalists could be fined up to $1,620 and media companies up to $6,485 if they are found to be violating the law. Authorities will also be allowed to suspend media licenses until the end of any investigations they initiate, start the legal process to cancel media licenses, and even send officers to interrupt broadcasts if media outlets are caught violating the law.
A seven-member committee – three appointed by parliament and four elected by registered media groups – will be tasked with ensuring compliance and investigating any alleged offenses, Al Jazeera noted.
The Maldives Media and Broadcasting Regulation Act was overwhelmingly passed by legislators Tuesday, 60-33, after opposition members were evicted amid protests.
The government said the bill was necessary to create a unified body to oversee broadcast and online media and to “safeguard the constitutional right to freedom of expression” and establish “clear standards and a code of conduct.” It would also “address the challenges of misinformation, disinformation and coordinated manipulation of content.”
A prominent union of journalists pledged to challenge the bill, while the main opposition party called for protests.
“The Maldivian parliament has passed a draconian bill that seeks to muzzle dissent online and offline,” Ahmed Naaif, the secretary general of the Maldives Journalists Association (MJA), told Al Jazeera. “We journalists will stand together in defiance against this takeover of the media by the executive branch.”
The opposition Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) described the passage of the bill as a “sad day for democracy in the Maldives.”
The Maldives, a conservative Muslim-majority island nation of 500,000 people with a high-end tourism industry, has struggled to transition to democracy since it ended 30 years of autocratic rule in 2008.
DISCOVERIES
Thumbs Up
Thumbs are often credited as one of the great advantages in human evolution, allowing our ancestors to grip tools, manipulate objects, and reshape their environments.
Now, scientists have found that squirrels, mice, and other rodents may have benefited from a similar advantage: Tiny thumbnails that helped them become one of the most successful groups of mammals on Earth.
“Rodents make up almost half of the mammal species on Earth, and they’re found on every continent except Antarctica – their thumbnails might help explain why rodents became so successful,” said Anderson Feijó, co-author of a new study on the thumbnail, in a statement.
“Nuts are a very high-energy resource, but opening and eating them requires good manual dexterity that a lot of other animals don’t have – maybe rodents’ thumbnails allowed them to exploit this unique resource and then diversify broadly, because they were not competing with other animals for this food,” he added.
For the study, a research team analyzed hundreds of specimens at Chicago’s Field Museum to map which rodents have thumbnails instead of claws.
There are around 2,500 species of rodents worldwide, and these creatures make up 40 percent of all mammals. But until recently, scientists weren’t clear exactly how many of them had thumbnails.
“Most people don’t (know). I didn’t,” quipped Rafaela Missagia, an author of the study. “I had studied rodents for years, and I didn’t know anything about their nails until I started working on this project at the Field Museum.”
Missagia and her colleagues found that out of 433 genera examined, 86 percent of them had thumbnails. Their research examined both modern and prehistoric specimens going back as far as 55 million years ago.
They found that, unlike sharp claws, the flat thumbnails gave rodents greater dexterity for gripping food and access to high-energy resources such as nuts and seeds. This ability would have fueled the group’s explosive diversification around the world.
The findings also allowed researchers to build a family tree that suggests that all modern rodents descend from a common ancestor with thumbnails.
Meanwhile, the team also discovered a link between lifestyle and the presence of thumbnails: Rodents with thumbnails tended to live above ground or in trees, while species with only claws were more often burrowers.
That pattern echoes primates, which also evolved nails for life in trees – though the two lineages developed them independently in a striking case of convergent evolution.
“This is a nice way to rethink what we consider a human characteristic,” co-author Anderson Feijó told the Washington Post. “We are showing with this paper that rodents actually have very good handling behavior, and we believe that their nail and thumb have played a very critical role in this.”
For David Thybert of the University of East Anglia in the United Kingdom, the new study further highlighted the adaptability of rodents – some species can survive arid climates with little water, while others, such as the naked mole rat, are resistant to cancer.
“They’re fascinating. … They have such fantastic traits that are sometimes similar to humans,” and are sometimes “almost extraterrestrial,” Thybert, who was not affiliated with the new research, told the Post.