Criminalizing Colonialism… The Paragraph President Tebboune Completed in the November Proclamation – BY: Marouane Cheibani

✒️ 𝓣𝓻𝓪𝓷𝓼𝓵𝓪𝓽𝓮𝓭 𝓫𝔂: 𝓓𝓻. 𝓗𝓪𝓷𝓪 𝓢𝓪𝓪𝓭𝓪

What President Abdelmadjid Tebboune is doing with France can only be compared to what the Group of 22—or the immortal Group of 6—once did: a radical redefinition of Algerian-French relations. True, they fought with arms at a time when President Tebboune was not yet of age to do so. Yet what has gone largely unnoticed during his tenure is that, prior to 12 December 2019, Algeria had effectively been an undeclared “Franco-Emirati protectorate,” concealed behind a presumed cordiality of bilateral relations, while in reality those relations were founded on a legalized and scandalous plunder of Algerian wealth.

If the Group of 22 liberated Algeria territorially, and President Houari Boumediene liberated it in terms of energy and oil, then President Tebboune has liberated it through full sovereignty over both—ending the cheap sell-off of the nation’s energy and resources, revising contracts and relationships, and restoring them exclusively to the country and its people, without contest.

This Algeria, once treated as protected prey by those who fancied themselves eternal godfathers—abetted, regrettably, by the shameful complicity of some of its wayward sons—has seen its complete independence displease them. They resent the full sovereignty President Tebboune is determined to safeguard, and they lament the evaporation of their investments in keeping Algeria dependent. Having rejected the principle of parity, they now seek chaos that might return Algeria to them on a silver platter, just as it was handed over by predecessors.

President Tebboune’s message answers this mindset with unmistakable clarity. Despite its malice, it carries one virtue: it reveals Algeria’s true enemies in the world, as well as its genuine friends.

Hence the law criminalizing colonialism—a step no previous Algerian president dared to take. This is no disparagement of their patriotism or loyalty to Algeria; rather, President Tebboune is simply different. He demanded equal respect in all its meanings—political, economic, cultural, and memorial. He demanded sovereignty for the Algerian people over their affairs, decisions, and property, without extending a hand to anyone. He demanded the sovereignty of a people who were never consulted when they were placed under the guardianship of states claiming fraternity and friendship, only to betray both.

The law criminalizing colonialism is not political escalation, as the French and their allies allege. It is merely the restoration of just balance in international relations—so that no one’s rights are diminished, and Algeria’s rights are not diminished either.

It is a simple, clear, and fair equation, opening the door wide to all who genuinely seek their country’s good alongside Algeria—but with respect. Some took far too long to treat the Algerian people, endowed with capability, intelligence, and will, with the respect embodied by their president, who stands ready to embrace any sincere partner of Algeria and its people.

The criminalization of colonialism, as charted by President Tebboune, is not political escalation; it is a roadmap for Algeria’s new generation—the generation the president pledged to prepare to assume the destiny of its homeland.

The law criminalizing colonialism is the paragraph inadvertently omitted from the November 1954 Proclamation amid the yearning for martyrdom. It should have been corrected on 6 July 1962, yet Algeria’s perennial adversaries persisted in exhausting men—sometimes to make them forget, sometimes to entice them with hopes of improved and sincere relations with those lying in wait. Then came a generation that realized such hopes were merely circumstantial readings, no longer tolerable without explicit clarity.

Today, Algeria is clear. No part of its thinking is hidden from the world. And this clarity has had a president—Abdelmadjid Tebboune—who, endowed with the freedom and sovereignty entrusted to him by his people, ensured that colonialism would be condemned in his era in the name of Algerians, just as France once glorified it. Thank you, Mr. President, for your fidelity to the blood of the martyrs.