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[2007.05.24]Algeria - Sour and prickly
Algeria阿尔及利亚地区
Sour and prickly腐败的政心 痛刺人心
May 24th 2007 | ALGIERS / 阿尔及尔
From The Economist print edition
A general election has made almost nobody any happier
一个全国性的总统大选几乎没让多少人快乐起来
AS ELECTION day drew to a close last week, the narrow streets of Algeria's capital erupted. Young men draped in flags hung out of car windows or dodged traffic on their scooters, hooting as they went. But this was no celebration of democracy. An Algerian football team, Entente Setif, had just won the Arab club cup, causing nationwide excitement. By contrast, barely one in three Algerians had bothered to vote in the general election that day. Many polling stations were all but deserted. In one, an election official was fast asleep on a pile of ballot papers.
随着议会选举临近到最后一个星期,阿尔及利亚首都狭窄的街道上已经人声鼎沸。年轻人用伸出轿车窗户的国旗包围着全身或者是踩着他们的单脚滑行车在窒息的交通中闪来闪去,口中还不时地发出让人难忍的呵斥声。这些都不是在庆祝民主。一个阿尔及利亚足球队恩坦特塞堤夫(Entente Setif)近日在阿拉伯俱乐部杯中赢得了冠军,举国上下为之兴奋至极。而相比之下,在全国大选的当天三个阿尔及利亚人中有一个愿意投票的情况都很少。许多的选举投票站几乎就是“荒无人烟”,而在有一个投票站竟然出现选举的工作官员趴在了投票单上呼呼大睡的现象。

Reuters / Bouteflika's flickering faith in democracy
路透社图片 /布特弗利卡对民主制中表现出了飘忽不定的信心
It was the third time Algerians had voted for a parliament since 1992, when the army abruptly interrupted a short-lived experiment in democracy by calling off the country's first multi-party election after the fundamentalists of the Islamic Salvation Front (FIS) had swept the board in the first round, whereupon the generals stepped in to annul the process. That intervention triggered a conflict of extraordinary brutality that is yet to be fully extinguished, with some 200,000 dead.
这次选举是自1992年以来第三次进行投票进行选举议会成员。1992年之时,阿尔及利亚举行了历史上的第一次多党选举;伊斯兰拯救阵线(Islamic Salvation Front)中的信奉正统派基督教的人士在第一轮选举中就席扫选举理事会,也就致使军队的将军们就步入其中并终止了选举进程,之后阿尔及利亚军队采取了干预并取消了国家这次短暂的民主选举的行动。军队的干预引发了一场极其野蛮的冲突,造成了大约20万人死亡,该冲突迄今为止尚未完全扑灭。
In that vote 15 years ago the FIS, which is now banned, offered a real alternative to the regime. Today there are plenty of parties but less real choice. As the recent campaign got under way, many Algerians were more interested in the presidential election across the Mediterranean, in France. In Algeria, the National Liberation Front, the country's sole legitimate party from independence in 1962 until a political opening in 1989, easily won the day, with its allies in second and third place. Two parties with strong traditions of opposition were almost entirely excluded: the Islamists of el-Islah, which had been the largest opposition party in the last parliament, were reduced to three seats after the government blocked their former leader from standing for reasons that were never clearly explained; and the Socialist Forces Front, a liberal party based in the Berber region of Kabylia, decided, for the second time in a row, to boycott the proceedings.
在15年前的那次选举中,现已被取缔的政党伊斯兰拯救阵线为阿尔及利亚政体制度提议了一个切实可行的办法。目前,在阿尔及利亚尽管有多数政党存在,但却缺少可行的治国之路。而正当总统竞选进行得如火如荼之时,多数的阿尔及利亚人民却更加关心地中海对面的法国总统大选。在阿尔及利亚,民族解放阵线(National Liberation Front)是本国从1962年独立到1989年第一次政治选举期间唯一合法的政党,它曾对政府领导权垂手可得;而它的其它盟友也只能位居第二和第三。本国中有两个政党通常都会有很强的反对情绪,因此在政党选举中几乎完全被剥夺了参选资格。一个是国家改革行动党(Islamists of el-Islah),它是一个伊斯兰主义政党并在上次议会中是最大的反对党,国家政府曾由于某种无法澄清的原因阻止了该党派领导人的代表权,之后该党派的席位被限制为三个;另一个则是社会主义力量阵线,这是一个设在卡比利尔省贝尔贝地区的自由政党,他们决定再一次对选举进程进行联合抵制。
In any event, the vote will barely affect policy. All three main parties line up obediently behind President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, championing his reconciliation plan to draw a line under the civil war and pay for a big public-works programme. But the low turnout dispelled hope that Algeria may be edging towards true democracy. Few people voted because they know that power is concentrated in the president's hands and parliament has little influence. They also see politicians and the establishment as corrupt, unaccountable and distant. That perception will be reinforced by the election, which returned a notably aged clutch of deputies, many of them chosen at party headquarters in Algiers, to represent a young, frustrated populace.
在任何情况下,投票都几乎不会对国家政策有任何影响。所有三个主要国家政党都在总统阿卜杜勒阿齐兹•布特弗利卡(Abdelaziz Bouteflika)的统治之下遵从地各就各位,并支持着总统的和解计划-让人民彻底摆脱内战与为一项大型公共建设工程预算支付款。但是,支持这些计划的人数之少让走向民主之路的希望烟消云散。几乎没人对此项目给予投票是因为他们知道总统集所有权力于一身,议会是无能为力的。而他们对政治家与当权领导人看法也是其腐败成性、无法被信任并且根本就不会为人民的利益着想。他们的这些观念又一次在选举中被增强,选举中产生了许多年龄过大的旧日国家部长,其中有许多在首都阿尔及尔的政党总部中直接产生,并代表着阿尔及利亚年轻且丧失斗志的平民阶层。
It is hard to gauge how much support a party like the FIS would have got, had it been allowed to stand. Algerians may have become depoliticised, as Berbers and Islamists have been bought off with minor concessions and as public spending, paid for by oil and gas profits, has soared.
很难猜测出一个像伊斯兰拯救阵线需要获得多少支持才能站得住脚。阿尔及利亚人可能已经变得不在关心政治对其生活的影响,就像贝尔贝党人与伊斯兰教主义者在做出了小小的让步之后便完成了自己的使命,而在获得原油与天然气利润之后的公共费用开支也得到好转。
This has brought back a modicum of stability. And Mr Bouteflika has piloted other changes for the better. He has returned Algeria to the international stage after its isolation in the mid-1990s; he has used some of the hydrocarbon windfall to pay off debt and amass more than $80 billion in reserves; and he has built up the power of the presidency, winning himself room for manoeuvre from the generals who ushered him into office in 1999.
这些成就挽回了些许的社会稳定。布特弗利卡先生并进一步实行了惠民政策来改善国家现状。首先,在结束了1990年中期实行的闭门锁国政策之后,他决定实行多国外交来使阿尔及利亚走向世界;其次他用一部分碳氢化合物的意外横财偿还了债务并且在国库中储备了800多亿的美元。此外,他还建立起了其政府的绝对权力,这也让他赢得了军队将军们的支持并使他有了更多机会来部署策略,就是这些将军们在1999年将布特弗利卡先生推上了总统的位置。
But problems persist. Remarkably protected from the forces of globalisation, Algeria has a dated charm but still feels isolated. Tourism, booming next-door in Tunisia and Morocco, is minimal. Privatisation and other economic reforms are impeded by a secretive, Soviet-style bureaucracy. The country—both the government and people in general—is twitchy about foreign meddling.
但是问题还是持续不断地涌现。阿尔及利亚在全球化的压力之下没有受到过多负面影响,这会让人们觉得到了他的强势之处却难免感到他的孤立无援。旅游业在邻国突尼斯与摩洛哥可谓是蒸蒸日上,可在阿尔及利亚却微不足道。政府的阴谋和苏维埃式的官僚作风也让私有化与其它经济改革屡屡受阻。而对于国外势力的干涉,政府与全体人民的态度都是愤怒不已地抵制。
And it is still deeply wounded by the violence of the 1990s. Those were the years when writers and musicians had to flee, foreigners often felt threatened, and people stayed at home after dark. Despite the official policy of national reconciliation meant to heal the wounds of that harrowing period, those touched by the violence still nurse their grievances. The effort has been set back recently by a troubling resumption of violence, notably suicide bombings that killed 33 in the capital last month and were claimed by Algeria's Salafist guerrillas, who recently rebranded themselves as a branch of al-Qaeda.
阿尔及利亚受到的沉重打击仍然还是来自于20世纪90年代的暴乱行为。在那个年代中,作家与音乐家无处藏身只有奔逃,外国人经常会受到人身威胁,而平民们一到天黑就不敢外出。国家政府采取了一些非常正式的全国范围的协调措施以弥补那段悲惨时期中的人民所受到的伤害,可那些在暴乱中饱受折磨的人无法就此忘却他们的冤屈。最近出现的一些暴乱的恶性重演有一次让政府安抚民心的努力付诸东流。上月,在阿尔及利亚首都发生了一次触目惊心的自杀性爆炸,致使了33人死亡。据称,阿尔及利亚的萨拉菲斯特游击队(Algeria's Salafist guerrillas)承认他们制造了这次爆炸事件,并且该游击队最近自称自己是阿凯达组织(al-Qaeda)的一个分支。
Meanwhile Mr Bouteflika, rather than strengthen institutions like parliament, appears to be gearing up for a constitutional change that could boost presidential power and let him run for a third term, in 2009. His health, which has been poor since he was rushed to hospital for several weeks in Paris at the end of 2005, has made this course look even less wise. If he pursues it, hopes of a more open Algeria may shrink, making it that much harder for the place to emerge from its gloom.
与此同时,布特弗利卡总统并没有向议会那样极力加强国家公共设施的建设,他似乎想的只是如何加速对宪法的修订以扩大他的总统权力并在让他在下届2009年选举中继续连任总统。可是,自从2005年底身在法国巴黎的他一连几个星期都光顾医院之后,他的身体就一直很差并让他目前的行政表现不尽人意。如果总统先生执迷不悟,一个更加国际化的阿尔及利亚将停而不前。那样的话,阿尔及利亚是很难走出其黑暗的历史阴影的。
Background:
Algeria阿尔及利亚
May 24th 2007
From Economist.com
Algeria, a former French colony, has been wracked by violence since 1992, when the army cancelled an election to prevent an Islamist party from taking power. The struggle has since continued between the Islamists and the army; the latter controls the government. Western powers looked on helplessly as the violence escalated into savage butchery in 1997-8. Abdelaziz Bouteflika, elected president in 1999 and re-elected in April 2004, has sharpened Algeria’s international image by giving the Islamist rebels an amnesty and releasing imprisoned opposition party leaders. His Charter on Peace and National Reconciliation was approved by Algerians in a referendum in October 2005. But bombings and a cynical public response to a general election in 2007 suggest Algeria's wounds are a long way from healing.
阿尔及利亚以前是一个法国殖民地。1992年,阿尔及利亚的军队取消了一个全国大选,以避免伊斯兰教政党获取政治权力。而自那以后,阿尔及利亚人民就饱受暴行的折磨,并且伊斯兰教主义者就持续着与军队的斗争,因为军队控制着阿尔及利亚国家政府。在1997年至1998年期间,暴行日益恶化为野蛮的屠杀,而做为旁观者的西方强国无能为力去挽救。阿卜杜勒阿齐兹•布特弗利卡在1999年被选为总统并在2004年4月获得连任,他通过给予伊斯兰教主义叛军特赦与释放被囚禁的反对党领袖而让阿尔及利亚的国际形象大打折扣。在2005年10月的公民投票中,阿尔及利亚人民一致认可总统先生的关于和平与全国调和宪章制度。但是爆炸事件的发生与人民在2007年的总统大选中愤怒的反应都说明了阿尔及利亚人民要忘却伤痛还要有很长的路要走。
本篇人物:阿尔及利亚总统阿卜杜勒-阿齐兹•布特弗利卡 (Abdelaziz Bouteflika)
阿卜杜勒-阿齐兹•布特弗利卡 (Abdelaziz Bouteflika) 生于1937年3月2日,曾在阿尔及尔大学文学系学习。1956年,他参加阿尔及利亚民族解放军,投身民族解放事业。1962年,布特弗利卡当选为制宪议会议员,并在阿尔及利亚第一届独立政府中担任青年、体育和旅游部长。1963年,他当选为立法议会议员,同年任外交部长至1979年。1964年,他当选为阿尔及利亚民族解放阵线中央政治局委员。 布特弗利卡曾参加阿尔及利亚革命复兴运动,并担任革命委员会委员。1981年,他流亡国外, 1987年回国。1989年,他当选为阿尔及利亚民族解放阵线中央委员。1999年4月,布特弗利卡作为独立候选人参加阿尔及利亚总统大选并获胜。2004年4月,他再次在大选中获胜,连任总统。 布特弗利卡曾担任非洲统一组织非洲解放委员会主席、不结盟国家部长会议主席、第29届联合国大会主席、非洲统一组织执行主席和阿拉伯国家联盟轮值主席等职,是“非洲发展新伙伴计划”的发起人之一。 布特弗利卡兴趣广泛,喜欢下棋、玩阿尔及利亚纸牌,并爱好绘画和古典音乐。 布特弗利卡是中国人民的老朋友,一贯重视发展同中国的友好合作关系。他曾于1971年和1974年来华访问。2000年10月来华出席“中非合作论坛——北京2000年部长级会议”,并对中国进行国事访问。2006年11月来华出席中非合作论坛北京峰会后对中国进行国事访问。
http://news3.xinhuanet.com/ziliao/2002-08/15/content_525365.htm
[ 本帖最后由 jerrywhitt 于 2007-6-4 12:18 编辑 ] |
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