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WEEKLY NEWSLETTER
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Ivory Coast
Index
Since independence, Ivoirian leaders had insisted that
the PDCI
have no opposition, although Article 7 of the Ivoirian
Constitution
specifically guarantees freedom of expression to "parties
and
political groups" as long as they respect the principles
of
"democracy and national sovereignty." At one time, some
political
leaders had argued for a legal--but
constrained--opposition to
generate enthusiasm for elections and to vent political
pressures
that might otherwise threaten the position of the
governing elite.
A recognized opposition, it was argued, would also provide
Côte
d'Ivoire with some of the forms--as opposed to the
pretenses
already in place--of democracy. However, the ruling elite
and even
some dissidents continued to believe that a single-party
system was
best for a developing country like Côte d'Ivoire, where
class and
regional cleavages threatened unity.
Houphouët-Boigny himself had always considered forging
a
national constituency out of Côte d'Ivoire's more than
sixty ethnic
groups to be his greatest responsibility if his economic
agenda was
to be achieved. If unchecked, he said, rivalry between
ethnic
groups or geographical regions would erode nationalism and
dissipate valuable resources that would be better spent on
economic
development. Left unstated was the concern that this
rivalry also
would threaten the ruling elite's control over crucial
aspects of
political life. National unity therefore came to mean
party unity.
There was room for opposition, Houphouët-Boigny insisted,
but only
within the party. Thus, in the early years of independence
Houphouët-Boigny promulgated laws that severely sanctioned
individuals who published, disseminated, divulged, or
reproduced
false news or documents that, in good or bad faith,
"undermined"
the morale of the population, discredited political
institutions,
or led others to disobey laws. With virtually all avenues
for
criticism closed, platitudes replaced political debate.
Although generally successful at co-opting political
foes,
Houphouët-Boigny was not averse to bullying his opponents
when he
felt they threatened stability. He stated on several
occasions that
if forced to choose between disorder and injustice, he
would not
hesitate to choose injustice. He added that "When there is
disorder, the lives of people and a regime are at stake,
but an
injustice can always be corrected." Nonetheless, he
resorted to
force only rarely
(see Consolidation of Power
, ch. 1).
Côte
d'Ivoire had no preventive detention laws and, by its own
definition, no political prisoners, although the army,
under
instructions from Houphouët-Boigny, commonly conscripted
political
foes into the military for what he called "judicious
training."
Data as of November 1988
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