Since February 16 last year, Algeria has been witnessing a quiet citizens’ movement, which will observe its first anniversary this week. Peaceful demonstrators have congregated in urban spaces every week for the past 12 months, comprising anything from a few hundred to hundreds of thousands of participants on Tuesdays and after Friday prayers. Crossing all generations and social divides, the demonstrations have shown no sign of stopping, even if overall numbers have fluctuated in recent times. However, with regional differences, and no notable rural support, cracks are beginning to show in the movement’s unified facade.
The most striking aspect of the Hirak – or the Revolution of Smiles – has been the absence of violence in its leaderless ranks, which is impressive given Algeria's history of a decade of internal conflict in the 1990s. Combined with restrained official policing, local protesters have rigorously blocked attempts to infiltrate their ranks. Three people have been reported to have lost their lives over the past year and, while that is three deaths too many, the number of casualties has been low – even as several thousand activists have been arrested on a variety of public order and insurrection charges since March.
The prevailing question, as in all loose-knit protest movements, is whether the Hirak has a viable future in its current form. At first, the demonstrators demanded the resignation of the then president Abdelaziz Bouteflika, whose declared candidacy for a fifth term in office sparked the first spontaneous demonstration in Kabylia to the east of the capital Algiers. Via social media links, protesters in other towns and cities – above all Algiers, Oran and Constantine – joined the call for Mr Bouteflika to stand down, culminating in mass rallies by March that secured his resignation in early April and the delay of presidential elections scheduled for that month until December.
However, what looked like a victory for people power by the spring of 2019 was neither complete, nor did it fully reflect the political dynamics at play. The weekly protests continued after April to target the entirety of Algeria's political establishment, with increasingly vocal demands for a complete overhaul of the elite structure and constitution. Even with the recent election of Abdelmadjid Tebboune to the presidency – in polls largely boycotted by the protesters – it will take more than a top-level change of guard to alter the Hirak's objectives. The new president, himself a former prime minister who suffered at the hands of Mr Bouteflika's entourage, is no newcomer to the system under attack. But the stakes are high, above all in avoiding the risk of more direct conflicts now that political battle lines are being re-drawn this year.
A year ago, Algeria's political establishment – or Le Pouvoir, as the mix of military and civilian elites are popularly referred to – was split over how to engineer a discreet departure for the ailing Mr Bouteflika, who had rarely been seen in public since suffering a stroke in 2013. His younger brother, Said Bouteflika, was widely accused of abusing his position at his sibling's side to allow a corrupt network of oligarchs to challenge the vested interests of Algeria's military establishment. It thus suited the military, above all its most senior member – the army chief of staff Lt Gen Ahmed Gaid Salah – to listen to the street in early 2019 and remove both Bouteflika brothers from power.
In May, Gaid Salah authorised the arrests of Said Bouteflika and his closest associates, together with the two most recent heads of the DRS, Algeria's military intelligence service, the much feared Mohamed "Toufik" Mediene and his erstwhile deputy Athmane Tartag. All were charged with an attempted coup and sentenced to 15 years' imprisonment in the case of the main culprits – a sentence reconfirmed on appeal this week. Once again, this manoeuvre was presented as a response to popular demands for an end to high-level corruption and the abuses of power committed by the shadowy state-within-a-state of the intelligence services. Yet the protesters persisted in identifying Gaid Salah as a central plank of the establishment they sought to overhaul, leading to further arrests of the most outspoken critics of the presidential campaign being planned for December.
In the event, Mr Tebboune's electoral victory on December 12 seems to have opened the way to a more conciliatory approach to the protesters, as he put forward a road map for constitutional reform, promising legislative elections by the end of 2020, and set about liberating thousands of Hirak detainees. The sudden death of Gaid Salah on December 23 has also left room for changes in the military leadership, if not its overall direction.
Still, there remains a divide over what direction the country should take. Rural Algeria, which voted in greater numbers at the polls than the urban boycotters, now seems more ready to engage in the dialogue offered by the new presidency, influenced by the stability offered by the military. But for many in the Hirak, the proposed changes lack credibility while the main pillars of the establishment remain in place, including the military’s veto over decisions made by the president and the rest of the largely unreformed civilian political establishment.
Absent a political platform of its own, the Hirak risks being overtaken or divided by the initiatives of others. A coalition of established opposition parties under the umbrella of a Democratic Alternative Pact claims to be championing the street in setting out its own demands for constitutional reforms within a process of dialogue with the new president. Others warn that the focus of engagement should be on the mechanisms needed to enforce existing laws and the constitution rather than on declarations with no practical impact.
Still missing is an agreed process by which the next steps are shaped, including discussions over the elephant in the room: the economy. In a state that still derives 95 per cent of its foreign earnings from oil and gas exports, competition over state-dominated receipts has always divided the Algerian establishment, even at times when high levels of public spending were unleashed to pre-empt the risk of popular protests a decade ago.
Now, with public expenditure outstripping financial reserves at an alarming rate – foreign currency reserves are predicted almost to halve from $62bn in 2019 to $34bn in 2021 – the size of the dividable cake is dwindling. For years, Algerians have evoked the need for a new social contract, but they have lacked the vision and leadership required to reform economic structures that have relied far too long on patronage rather than productive endeavour.
Demands for representation and a political system in which all Algerians have a stake might continue to be the rallying cry of the Hirak. But translating those demands into a viable economic model to underpin this aspiration requires the engagement of an entirely new set of actors, above all drawn from Algeria’s burgeoning start-up, social enterprise and new technology sectors that represent the present as well as a still-distant future.
For a society that has suffered so much within living memory from the deep mistrust of others as well as the state, the spontaneity and self-control of the Hirak protesters is a clear sign of lessons having been learnt about the real dangers of an overspill into violence. However, without a clear strategy for managing diversity and difference – and exploring new ways of turning protest into concrete propositions – the movement could still implode. Compromising over the detail of how to move forward, as well as initiating the process to do so, are now needed far more than slogans.
Dr Claire Spencer is the former head of the Middle East and North Africa Programme at Chatham House
Water waste
In the UAE’s arid climate, small shrubs, bushes and flower beds usually require about six litres of water per square metre, daily. That increases to 12 litres per square metre a day for small trees, and 300 litres for palm trees.
Horticulturists suggest the best time for watering is before 8am or after 6pm, when water won't be dried up by the sun.
A global report published by the Water Resources Institute in August, ranked the UAE 10th out of 164 nations where water supplies are most stretched.
The Emirates is the world’s third largest per capita water consumer after the US and Canada.
Five%20calorie-packed%20Ramadan%20drinks
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The National's picks
4.35pm: Tilal Al Khalediah
5.10pm: Continous
5.45pm: Raging Torrent
6.20pm: West Acre
7pm: Flood Zone
7.40pm: Straight No Chaser
8.15pm: Romantic Warrior
8.50pm: Calandogan
9.30pm: Forever Young
How much do leading UAE’s UK curriculum schools charge for Year 6?
- Nord Anglia International School (Dubai) – Dh85,032
- Kings School Al Barsha (Dubai) – Dh71,905
- Brighton College Abu Dhabi - Dh68,560
- Jumeirah English Speaking School (Dubai) – Dh59,728
- Gems Wellington International School – Dubai Branch – Dh58,488
- The British School Al Khubairat (Abu Dhabi) - Dh54,170
- Dubai English Speaking School – Dh51,269
*Annual tuition fees covering the 2024/2025 academic year
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
THE BIO
Born: Mukalla, Yemen, 1979
Education: UAE University, Al Ain
Family: Married with two daughters: Asayel, 7, and Sara, 6
Favourite piece of music: Horse Dance by Naseer Shamma
Favourite book: Science and geology
Favourite place to travel to: Washington DC
Best advice you’ve ever been given: If you have a dream, you have to believe it, then you will see it.
What the law says
Micro-retirement is not a recognised concept or employment status under Federal Decree Law No. 33 of 2021 on the Regulation of Labour Relations (as amended) (UAE Labour Law). As such, it reflects a voluntary work-life balance practice, rather than a recognised legal employment category, according to Dilini Loku, senior associate for law firm Gateley Middle East.
“Some companies may offer formal sabbatical policies or career break programmes; however, beyond such arrangements, there is no automatic right or statutory entitlement to extended breaks,” she explains.
“Any leave taken beyond statutory entitlements, such as annual leave, is typically regarded as unpaid leave in accordance with Article 33 of the UAE Labour Law. While employees may legally take unpaid leave, such requests are subject to the employer’s discretion and require approval.”
If an employee resigns to pursue micro-retirement, the employment contract is terminated, and the employer is under no legal obligation to rehire the employee in the future unless specific contractual agreements are in place (such as return-to-work arrangements), which are generally uncommon, Ms Loku adds.
Director: Laxman Utekar
Cast: Vicky Kaushal, Akshaye Khanna, Diana Penty, Vineet Kumar Singh, Rashmika Mandanna
Rating: 1/5
SPECS
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What are NFTs?
Are non-fungible tokens a currency, asset, or a licensing instrument? Arnab Das, global market strategist EMEA at Invesco, says they are mix of all of three.
You can buy, hold and use NFTs just like US dollars and Bitcoins. “They can appreciate in value and even produce cash flows.”
However, while money is fungible, NFTs are not. “One Bitcoin, dollar, euro or dirham is largely indistinguishable from the next. Nothing ties a dollar bill to a particular owner, for example. Nor does it tie you to to any goods, services or assets you bought with that currency. In contrast, NFTs confer specific ownership,” Mr Das says.
This makes NFTs closer to a piece of intellectual property such as a work of art or licence, as you can claim royalties or profit by exchanging it at a higher value later, Mr Das says. “They could provide a sustainable income stream.”
This income will depend on future demand and use, which makes NFTs difficult to value. “However, there is a credible use case for many forms of intellectual property, notably art, songs, videos,” Mr Das says.
What are the main cyber security threats?
Cyber crime - This includes fraud, impersonation, scams and deepfake technology, tactics that are increasingly targeting infrastructure and exploiting human vulnerabilities.
Cyber terrorism - Social media platforms are used to spread radical ideologies, misinformation and disinformation, often with the aim of disrupting critical infrastructure such as power grids.
Cyber warfare - Shaped by geopolitical tension, hostile actors seek to infiltrate and compromise national infrastructure, using one country’s systems as a springboard to launch attacks on others.
The biog
Hometown: Birchgrove, Sydney Australia
Age: 59
Favourite TV series: Outlander Netflix series
Favourite place in the UAE: Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque / desert / Louvre Abu Dhabi
Favourite book: Father of our Nation: Collected Quotes of Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan
Thing you will miss most about the UAE: My friends and family, Formula 1, having Friday's off, desert adventures, and Arabic culture and people
Sole survivors
- Cecelia Crocker was on board Northwest Airlines Flight 255 in 1987 when it crashed in Detroit, killing 154 people, including her parents and brother. The plane had hit a light pole on take off
- George Lamson Jr, from Minnesota, was on a Galaxy Airlines flight that crashed in Reno in 1985, killing 68 people. His entire seat was launched out of the plane
- Bahia Bakari, then 12, survived when a Yemenia Airways flight crashed near the Comoros in 2009, killing 152. She was found clinging to wreckage after floating in the ocean for 13 hours.
- Jim Polehinke was the co-pilot and sole survivor of a 2006 Comair flight that crashed in Lexington, Kentucky, killing 49.
MATCH INFO
Manchester City 3
Danilo (16'), Bernardo Silva (34'), Fernandinho (72')
Brighton & Hove Albion 1
Ulloa (20')
'THE WORST THING YOU CAN EAT'
Trans fat is typically found in fried and baked goods, but you may be consuming more than you think.
Powdered coffee creamer, microwave popcorn and virtually anything processed with a crust is likely to contain it, as this guide from Mayo Clinic outlines:
Baked goods - Most cakes, cookies, pie crusts and crackers contain shortening, which is usually made from partially hydrogenated vegetable oil. Ready-made frosting is another source of trans fat.
Snacks - Potato, corn and tortilla chips often contain trans fat. And while popcorn can be a healthy snack, many types of packaged or microwave popcorn use trans fat to help cook or flavour the popcorn.
Fried food - Foods that require deep frying — french fries, doughnuts and fried chicken — can contain trans fat from the oil used in the cooking process.
Refrigerator dough - Products such as canned biscuits and cinnamon rolls often contain trans fat, as do frozen pizza crusts.
Creamer and margarine - Nondairy coffee creamer and stick margarines also may contain partially hydrogenated vegetable oils.
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
The specs
Engine: 4.0-litre flat-six
Torque: 450Nm at 6,100rpm
Transmission: 7-speed PDK auto or 6-speed manual
Fuel economy, combined: 13.8L/100km
On sale: Available to order now
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THE CLOWN OF GAZA
Director: Abdulrahman Sabbah
Starring: Alaa Meqdad
Rating: 4/5
The rules on fostering in the UAE
A foster couple or family must:
- be Muslim, Emirati and be residing in the UAE
- not be younger than 25 years old
- not have been convicted of offences or crimes involving moral turpitude
- be free of infectious diseases or psychological and mental disorders
- have the ability to support its members and the foster child financially
- undertake to treat and raise the child in a proper manner and take care of his or her health and well-being
- A single, divorced or widowed Muslim Emirati female, residing in the UAE may apply to foster a child if she is at least 30 years old and able to support the child financially
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
COMPANY%20PROFILE
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More from Neighbourhood Watch:
The specs
Engine: 4.0-litre V8 twin-turbocharged and three electric motors
Power: Combined output 920hp
Torque: 730Nm at 4,000-7,000rpm
Transmission: 8-speed dual-clutch automatic
Fuel consumption: 11.2L/100km
On sale: Now, deliveries expected later in 2025
Price: expected to start at Dh1,432,000
