THE Algerian President, Gen Liamine Zeroual, has begun a new round of consultations with 100 odd national and political figures, organisations and parties, in preparation for convening a constituent assembly to draft a new constitution for the republic.
Among reforms proposed in a 40 page memorandum were limiting the president to two five year terms of office, establishing an upper house of parliament in addition to the present national assembly, creating a higher state council and a high court to oversee the government's work and prohibiting the participation in political life of parties with religious agendas.
If the new constitution is approved by referendum by the end of the year, parliamentary and municipal elections could be held in 1997.
These consultations signified victory for the government in its political struggle against the Islamic Salvation Front (FIS) and its ally the Armed Islamic Group (GIA) which launched an insurrection in 1992 after the army cancelled a parliamentary poll the FIS was predicted to win.
The President secured this victory by drawing into his circle of consultation six parties - including the former ruling National Liberation Front and the Socialist Forces Front - which had formed an opposition coalition with the FIS early in 1995 and demanded dialogue with the authorities.
The army backed government refused to talk with the FIS and its partners and simply waited until the partners switched sides, which they did in March of this year. As a result, the still banned FIS has been isolated and excluded from the democratisation process.
This political debacle for the FIS came 26 months after the Algerian army defeated the GIA, a victory which prevented the insurrection from taking hold. Although the GIA still kills 50-60 people a week, it has been contained as a military threat to the state.
The FIS and the GIA contributed as much to their own defeat as did the policies of the authorities and the actions of the army. The FIS leadership split over seeking an accommodation with the government while the GIA waged a war of terror against the entire society by murdering intellectuals, sportsmen, journalists, schoolgirls who refuse to wear Islamic dress, politicians and artists; burning schools and universities and attacking foreign technicians, businessmen and diplomats in an effort to isolate the country.
By defeating the FIS on the political front and the GIA on the military front, Algeria has won the war against militant Islamists who seek to replace the secular republic with an Islamic state. But to secure the republic over the long term, the government must transform Algeria's command economy into a free market economy capable of providing employment, housing, education and health services for the country's 26 million people.
Algeria has progressed a certain way along this road in the past two years, reducing inflation and increasing the economic growth rate. But until ordinary Algerians begin to benefit from economic reform the FIS and the GIA can be expected to capitalise on popular alienation to secure recruits for their terrorist campaign against the state.
