North Africa Revisited-Two Articles

...The coup of June 19 was hardly surprising, since the old regime was neither democratic nor popular...

...Those African leaders who realize this, and who can grow with their jobs, stand a good chance of keeping them...

...This dramatic entry into international politics once again presents a contrast with such countries as Algeria and Morocco, where "radical nationalism" and irredentism served so long as escape valves for popular discontent...

...Some groups, notably students, protested Ben Bella's removal...

...The general Lorna Hahn is the author of North Africa: Nationalism to Nationhood...

...judging from Western press reaction, he may even be a strong candidate for this year's Nobel Peace Prize...

...Tunisia has quieted down since the great aberration of the Bizerte crisis in July-August 1961, and the subsequent attempt on President Habib Bourguiba's life...

...De Gaulle has expressed his displeasure in many ways, including his effort to hamper Tunisia's entry into the Common Market as an associated member...

...It is largely because the internal political scene has been so calm— and because no colonial dragons remain to be slain—that Bourguiba was recently able to undertake the dazzling diplomatic maneuver of suggesting a de jure Arab-Israeli detente...

...Nothing, of course, will come of the Bourguiba proposal, given the vested interests on all sides of the Arab-Israeli squabble in keeping the issue alive...

...After a bit of politicking, he won backing for his plans from several key individuals in the security services, too, including Ben Bella's own bodyguard...

...success of the first Triennial Plan, which came within striking distance of most of its goals, has justified Bourguiba's "Destourian Socialism" and its basic concept of using government aid to encourage private initiative...

...that is, to accommodate the interests of various groups within the country, to make and administer laws, and to perform all the other unglamorous tasks involved in directing and protecting the people...

...Meanwhile, cooperation with Algeria's North African neighbors is increasing— in part, of course, because Boumedienne wants to gain support for the Afro-Asian Summit meeting that was postponed by his coup (it is scheduled now for November...

...In addition, many former FLN leaders still in Algeria were becoming less concerned with perfecting Socialism than with learning capitalism, less interested in affairs of state than in strictly personal matters...

...Modifications in the structure of the ruling party, put into effect during the Party congress held at the end of 1964, also seem to have satisfied the Young Turks who had demanded greater representation in party councils...

...Future discussions at Brussels could prove quite interesting to American observers, particularly in the light of French efforts to sabotage the whole EEC...

...But they were protesting a bit too much...

...The suggestion was easy to justify to most Tunisians and to many other Arabs because it was actually not as heretical as the Western press generally indicated: Other Arab leaders—including Nasser himself, in private conversation—had already indicated that they too would accept Israel if it would return to the original boundaries set by the United Nations in 1949...

...Indicative of the ill health of the Algerian body politic was the fact that many erstwhile FLN leaders remained either in "forced residence" in the land they helped liberate or in exile...

...With party and governmental agencies functioning haphazardly, and with many officials worried about the country's worsening economic plight and their own positions under a conformist regime, Ben Bella really had no loyal support...

...they were interested simply in earning, wheedling or conning some daily bread...

...The French President bears an enormous grudge against Bourguiba, not merely because of Bizerte and Tunisia's subsequent nationalization of remaining French-owned lands, but because Bourguiba is the one North African head of state who has not depended on him for political guidance and financial support...

...Most ordinary people in Algiers seemed bored with it all...

...With per capita income falling, he and his propagandists churned out constant tributes to the people's willingness to make further sacrifices in order to build Algerian Socialism and consummate the Revolution...

...But those who consider slogans a substitute for substantive achievements, or foreign ventures an excuse for shirking domestic chores, or one-party rule tantamount to national unity, are apt to be as disillusioned as the people they have failed to serve...

...Changing its name from Neo-Destour to Socialist Destour has given the ruling party a beneficial face lifting, while leaving the old Bourguibiste image intact...

...Boumedienne recently granted concessions for oil exploration to three U.S...

...Close ties with France will be retained (a matter about which Boumedienne has little real choice), and the general "neutrality" line will also be preserved...

...The fact that the new Plan will be able to rely less heavily on foreign investment than did its predecessor further testifies to the soundness of the government's practice of creeping up on socialism cautiously...

...The Colonel is head of state and government, and has decreed that ministers are loyal to him personally, yet he has resurrected the wartime concept of "collective leadership" by making his ministers "collectively" responsible to the "Council of the Revolution.' In addition, the government has announced its intentions to hold a new party congress and new parliamentary elections, to write a new constitution, and to reorganize the trade unions so that they can "participate directly and genuinely in the economic life of the country...

...They categorically refuse to be tied to France politically or economically, and have openly professed their pleasure with, and continued desire for, the unencumbering aid that has come from other Western countries —notably the United States...

...Though Ben Bella was making extraordinary attempts to pardon and perhaps woo back some of his recent opponents, notably Hussein Ait Ahmed, it is doubtful whether many of them would have accepted his overtures to participate in a government whose energies were devoted so heavily to extolling the number one frere...

...Given this atmosphere, frictions spawned by policy conflicts, as well as by personality clashes, easily developed...

...The result was a remarkably quiet takeover...

...When it appeared that Ben Bella was about to dismiss Boumedienne's protege, Foreign Minister Abdel Aziz Bouteflika, and perhaps Boumedienne too (with military assistance from Egypt), the Colonel decided to act...

...which can do a great deal for Algeria...

...But since the history (and membership) of the government, party and union are closely entwined, no major repercussions from the incident are expected...

...Though young militants still voice some unhappiness over the work habits of their elders, the criticism is usually expressed more with humor than with rancor and is not a serious matter...

...Thus, Fabian nationalism has evolved into a mixture of Fabian patriotism and Fabian-Tunisan Socialism, with the younger generation carrying on a worthy political tradition...

...In contretemps, newspaper headlines announced such sterling accomplishments as "Le Frere Ben Bella is Touring the Mountains,' and plans for the abortive Afro-Asia conference...

...most of the populace calmly waited for something to happen which might affect them directly...

...Even members of the old guard who remained politically active were apt to make wry comparisons of their lot under Socialism with that of people living under capitalism...

...Piqued at Nasser's declaration (made unilaterally, contrary to Arab League rules) that all Arabs should break with West Germany, Bourguiba decided not merely to ask pragmatic sanction from his Arab brethren for continuance of ties with Germany, but to take the statesmanlike step of demanding peace in place of cold war in the Middle East...

...Nevertheless, Bourguiba himself has gained considerable political mileage at home and abroad...

...Many government fonctionnaires (who comprise about one-eighth of the population) were also manifestly upset by the knowledge that French employees and technical advisors were receiving material benefits which they, as builders of Algerian Socialism, were forced to forego...

...The recent charges of graft levelled against Habib Achour, and his removal as Secretary General of the powerful Union Generate de Travailleurs Tunisiens, brought complaints about governmental domination of the UGTT...

...firms, and in a search for new foreign investment, is committing himself against expropriation...

...In the poverty stricken rural regions, where Ben Bella tried so hard to improve his low popularity rating, there was considerable discontent with the government's obvious failure to back up glowing promises with concrete deeds...

...Further, he has clamped down on government aid to pan-African revolutionary movements, junking the flow of subsidies to a reported 22 of them based in Algiers, and decrying them publicly...

...The one area of possible difficulty for Tunisia concerns the little-discussed problem of its relations with France, where I'etat est de Gaulle...

...And they were aggravated by Ben Bella's increasing tendency to ignore his colleagues...

...The move mushroomed out of Bourguiba's refusal to break with West Germany—a valuable partner in trade and aid—merely because Bonn decided to exchange ambassadors with Tel Aviv...

...Boumedienne, on the other hand, commanded a 60,000-man Army that he had organized, which was loyal to him and not to the political leader who spent most of the revolutionary war years in prison...

...But Algeria's neutralism is likely to be less offensive to the free world, with little or no raucous praise for Castro (for whom Boumedienne has little respect, and who can do little for Algeria), and more cordiality toward the U.S...

...In a juvenile effort designed, apparently, less to indoctrinate the people than to awaken their interest in Algeria's sordid politics, Algiers was plastered with such slogans as "The Party Guides the People" and "Glory to the Collective Farmers...

...Where foreign affairs are concerned Boumedienne has been more restrained about altering the policies of his predecessor...

...Perhaps the best indication of the healthy political climate, however, is the fact that in contrast with the citizens of many newly independent states, whose personal interest and involvement in politics is declining, Tunisians still concern themselves with national affairs...

...Bourguiba himself remains the undisputed chef, and there is still a healthy enthusiasm for him and his second wife Wassila (whose photograph, mirabile visit in an Arab country, appears as frequently and as prominently as does Lady Bird's...

...In Ben Bella's Algeria, a coup d'etat was not difficult to organize nor to execute...

...Some younger civil servants gripe about low salaries or bureaucratic red tape, but they continue to place their skills and services at the disposal of their country, rather than retiring into private business where life could be more bountiful...

...While Bourguiba and his colleagues, whatever their faults, appear to have established paths for national development that their eventual successors will probably follow for a long time to come, Ahmed Ben Bella's successors in Algeria will have to work long and hard to win national confidence...

...He also had followers in several ministries, and in such important lower-level places as the workers' councils...

...Since Boumedienne has long believed that his people's Army should continue to play the role of vanguard of the revolution, it is probable that present or past Army personalities will have leading roles in the party and the government...

...Recent developments in Tunisia and Algeria illustrate the point...

...At the same time, they left undisturbed, in positions of highest authority, the worthier members of the older generation which earned independence for Tunisia during 1934-56...

...A negotiator of the FLN peace accords, for example, is now the Algerian director of a large French-Algerian business enterprise, and is looking forward to the day when Algeria controls the whole company so that his own profits may increase...

...A prominent member of the National Assembly noted that the longer one works in the United States, the more one earns, while after three years in the Algerian Assembly, he was earning 10 per cent less than when he started...

...Eager to erase some of the more blatant evils of the old regime, Algeria's new leader has done much to change the style and format of the government...

...A lack of serious planning and conscientious administration was painfully evident throughout the country, and Ben Bella would not have lasted as long as he did were it not for heavy French financial subsidies and American gifts of wheat which have supported one fourth of the population...

...His attachment to France not-withstanding, Bourguiba is his own man, and he and his colleagues insist that their country's future must be charted by Tunisians alone...

...Boumedienne, then, although an individualist, seems more than willing to learn from the mistakes of Ben Bella and the achievements of Bourguiba...

...Particularly irked was the man who virtually installed Ben Bella in power in 1962, the official number two man, Colonel Houari Boumedienne...