Chadli Bendjedid

1929 -

Third president of Algeria, 1979 - 1992.

Chadli Bendjedid was born near Annaba, Algeria. His father was a small landholder. A veteran of the Algerian War of Independence (1954 - 1962), Bend-jedid became a professional officer in the Armée Nationale Populaire (ANP). After his deposal of President Ahmed Ben Bella in 1965, Colonel Houari Boumédienne appointed Bendjedid to the Conseil Nationale de la Révolution Algérienne (CNRA). Bendjedid was entrusted with the command of strategic military regions - Constantine, then Oran. He also monitored French troop withdrawals, including from the strategic naval base at Mersel-Kébir in 1968. After Boumédienne's death in December 1978 Bendjedid emerged as a compromise presidential candidate within the Front de Libération Nationale (FLN) and the military. He was elected president of Algeria in February 1979.

Bendjedid was less ideological than his predecessors. Characterized as a pragmatic man, Bend-jedid tempered Algeria's ambitious state-planning and foreign policy. His five-year plans emphasized more balanced sector development, with more attention to agriculture and services. He also reorganized the large state companies and encouraged smaller enterprises. In addition, he pursued tentative economic liberalization. Bendjedid also strove to realize Maghrib unity through amity treaties with Tunisia and Mauritania in 1983. Relations were restored with Morocco in 1988 after having been severed over the Western Sahara conflict. Though Western Sahara's future remained unresolved, the Arab Maghreb Union was proclaimed in February 1989. Bendjedid also was accorded a state visit to France in 1983.

Bendjedid consolidated his power internally by promoting military officers and removing Boumédiennist rivals such as Abdelaziz Bouteflika, a future president. He was reelected in 1985. The National Charter of 1976 was revised in 1986. The "enriched" charter included a section commemorating the historic struggle for independence and mentioned Messali Hadj and Ferhat Abbas, who had been previously proscribed. The revised document reaffirmed Algeria's Arab identity. This particularly dissatisfied restive Berbers, notably the Kabyles, who were fearful for the future of their distinct culture and language and had demonstrated in violent outbursts in 1980 and 1985. The continued official ideological attachment to secular socialism also alienated populist Muslims. Chronic unemployment exasperated the disillusioned younger generation. Furthermore, the collapse of oil prices, which were indexed to natural gas prices, crippled the economy. These variables contributed to widespread discontent that produced rioting in October 1988 resulting in hundreds killed and wounded and a state of siege.

Bendjedid quickly promised and delivered reforms - including political pluralism and civil rights - highlighted by the Constitution of February 1989. He was reelected president in 1989, but he failed to acquire political and popular support, as illustrated by a quick succession of prime ministers (Kasdi Merbah [1988 - 1989], Mouloud Hamrouche [1989 - 1991], and Ahmed Ghozali [1991 - 1992]). The rise of the Front Islamique du Salut (FIS) and its stunning success in regional elections in June 1990 astonished the ruling elite, but Bendjedid was determined to permit the democratic process to complete its imperfect course. Parliamentary elections in June 1991 had to be postponed, however, because of inflammatory protests and pronouncements by the FIS that were provoked by eleventh-hour gerrymandering by the FLN. The FIS's first-round electoral success in the rescheduled December 1991 elections incited a military and civilian coup in January 1992 that forced Bendjedid's resignation. He was kept under house arrest until October 1999. Since then, Bendjedid has criticized the policies of President Abdleaziz Bouteflika and has denounced the U.S.-led war against Iraq in 2003. Although Bendjedid's presidency is popularly discredited, he rehabilitated nationalists and helped restore Algeria's historical memory.

Bibliography

Entelis, John. Algeria: The Revolution Institutionalized. Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1985.

Mortimer, Robert A. "Algeria after the Explosion." Current History 89 (April 1990): 161 - 168.

Mortimer, Robert A. "Algeria's New Sultan." Current History 80 (December 1982): 428 - 431; 433 - 434.

Naylor, Phillip C. The Historical Dictionary of Algeria, Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2004.

— PHILLIP C. NAYLOR

Chadli Bendjedid
6th President of Algeria
In office February 9, 1979 – January 11, 1992
Preceded by	Rabah Bitat
Succeeded by	Muhammad Boudiaf
Born	April 14, 1929 (1929-04-14) (age 80) Zeitouna, Annaba, Algeria
Political party	FLN
Spouse(s)	Halima Ben Aissa

Chadli Bendjedid (Arabic: شاذلي بن جديد‎) (born April 14, 1929 at Bouteldja^[1], near Annaba) was President of Algeria from February 9, 1979 to January 11, 1992. He served in the French Army as a noncommissioned officer and fought in Indo-China when the rebellion began there in 1954.^[1] He defected to the National Liberation Front (FLN) at the beginning of the Algerian War of Independence. A protege of Houari Boumediene, Bendjedid was rewarded with the military command of the Oran, Algeria region in 1964.^[1] After independence he rose through the ranks, becoming head of the 2nd military region in 1964 and Colonel in 1969^[2]. He was minister of defense from November 1978 to February 1979 and became president following the death of Boumédiènne. Bendjadid was a compromise candidate who came to power after the party leadership and presidency was contested at the fourth FLN congress held on 27 - 31 January 1979. The most likely to succeed Boumediene were Mohammad Salah Yahiaoui and Abdelaziz Bouteflika. The latter had served as a foreign secretary at the United Nations for sixteen years. He was a prominent member of the Oujda clan and regarded as a pro-Western liberal. Yahiaoui was closely affiliated with the communists, permitting the Parti de l'Avant-Garde Socialiste (PAGS) to acquire jurisdiction over the mass trade union and youth organizations.^[1]

In office, Bendjedid reduced the state's role in the economy and eased government surveillance of citizens. In the late 1980s, with the economy failing due to rapidly falling oil prices, tension rose between elements of the regime who supported Bendjedid's economic liberalization policies, and those who wanted a return to the statist model. In October, 1988, youth marches protesting the regime’s austerity policies, and shouting slogans against Benjedid, evolved into massive rioting which spread to Oran, Annaba and other cities; the military’s brutal suppression of the rioters left several hundred dead. Perhaps as a political survival strategy, Bendjedid then called for and began to implement a transition towards multi-party democracy. But, in 1991, the military intervened to stop elections from bringing the Islamist Front Islamique du Salut (FIS) to power, forcing Bendjedid out of office and sparking a long and bloody Algerian Civil War.

Politics

In Algerian politics, Chadli Bendjedid is considered as a symbol for the nations numerous failures as his term in office coincided with a halt in the industrial development policy, militant socialism and engaged third world politics characteristic of the Houari Boumédienne era as well as with the adoption of various policies that transformed the country into a consumer society under the slogan 'For a better life'.

Chadli Bendjedid is also often held responsible for the rise of Islamic fundamentalism in Algeria as contrarily to his predecessor Boumédienne, he tolerated the rise of various Islamist grassroots movements during the eighties as well as the legalizing of the FIS following the riots of October 1988; various conspiracy theories have accused him of being involved in a plot aiming at transforming Algeria into a Muslim fundamentalist state.

References

1. ^ ^{a b c d} Algeria:Anger of The Dispossessed, Martin Evans and John Phillips, Yale University Press, 2007, p. 114
2. ^ El Mouradia, Chadli Ben Djedid

External links

• Biography from rulers.org

Preceded by Rabah Bitat

President of Algeria 1979–1992

Succeeded by Muhammad Boudiaf

v • d • e Heads of state of Algeria Farès • Abbas • Ben Bella • Boumédienne† • Bitat* • Bendjedid • Boudiaf • Kafi • Zéroual • Bouteflika *interim     †military

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