VZCZCXRO6523
RR RUEHMA RUEHPA
DE RUEHDK #2134/01 3061226
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 021226Z NOV 07
FM AMEMBASSY DAKAR
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 9481
INFO RUEHZK/ECOWAS COLLECTIVE

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 DAKAR 002134 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
SENSITIVE 
 
DEPT FOR AF/W, AF/RSA, DRL AND INR/AA 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV PHUM PREL KDEM SG
SUBJECT: SENEGALESE SOCIALISTS IN SEARCH OF LEGITIMACY 
 
 
SUMMARY 
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¶1.  (SBU) Senegal's main opposition party, the Socialist Party (PS), 
held its 14th Congress on October 27-28, 2007. Under the theme of 
"nouvel lan," they announced the beginning of a new march to regain 
the power they lost in 2000 when President Abdoulaye Wade's victory 
ended 40 years of Socialist rule in Senegal.  Although a Congress is 
supposed to be held every three years, the PS's last congress was in 
1996, leading to questions of the leadership's legitimacy.  Through 
a democratic process of elections at grassroots levels, the party 
confirmed Ousmane Tanor Dieng as its Secretary General.  However, if 
Dieng has defined a new strategy favoring confrontation with Wade, 
he seems to have failed to relegate the PS's old guard and promote a 
new leadership that embodies the alternative that the PS is claiming 
to offer to the masses who are dissatisfied with Wade's government. 
END SUMMARY. 
 
THE END OF A CIVILIZED OPPOSITION 
--------------------------------- 
¶2. (SBU)   The PS has indicated that it will no longer be a civil 
"Opposition Republicaine," and will adopt more confrontational 
approaches in response to Wade's aggressiveness.  This new strategy 
was underlined by the election of Barthelemy Dias, as Head of the 
Youth Movement.  Dias earned his political spurs in 2006 by being 
imprisoned for denouncing bad governance and corruption in the Wade 
government.  Dias supports meeting fire with fire to counter any 
violent actions that the ruling Democratic Party of Senegal (PDS) 
may launch against the PS.  Ms. Aminata Mbengue Ndiaye, who does not 
shy away from confrontation with Wade, has been reelected as head of 
PS women's movement.  She was the first PS leader to organize a real 
demonstration against Wade in her hometown of Louga.  The PDS 
responded by ordering arbitrary police arrests that a judge 
eventually threw out.  Dieng, energized by his new legitimacy, set 
the tone of the PS Congress by vigorously denouncing Wade's 
policies.  What was remarkable at the Congress is that Dieng, 
reputed to be gray, rigid, and introverted, seems to have overcome 
his lack of charisma by cracking jokes and appearing relaxed and 
confident. 
 
A NEW VISION 
------------ 
¶3.  (SBU) The PS Congress outlines a new vision and a new way of 
doing business, under the slogan "Nouvel Elan."  The new party 
platform envisages taking small steps to break away from the past. 
The corner stone of the PS's new communication strategy will be 
"telling the truth to the people."  They will, with or without 
Wade's accord, organize a "National Dialogue" to build a consensus 
with other political movements on what Senegal's priorities should 
be.  Dieng calls this new approach "consensus democracy to 
supplement the weaknesses of majority democracy."  In Dieng's view, 
Wade has corrupted the mechanism of the majority by tinkering with 
elections and appointing sixty- five per cent of the members of the 
recently recreated Senate.  This consensus will be the foundation 
upon which they plan to regain power.  The PS believes that no 
single party can win transparent elections in Senegal, and that a 
coalition is needed to defeat Wade.  Gorgui Ciss, Chair of The 
Network of Socialist Academics at Dakar University told Pol FSN, "We 
will go beyond alliances based on the current to build an alliance 
based on doctrine and the long term. This may go as far as merging 
parties."  The PS vowed in its introductory report presented to the 
Congress that it will abandon the practice of "clientelism and the 
purchase of votes" for the promotion of political activism that is 
"an act of faith rather than an investment." 
 
SENEGAL'S DEMOCRACY IS IN TROUBLE 
--------------------------------- 
 
¶4.   (SBU) The Socialists deplore what they consider to be the 
institutional crisis that is affecting Senegal.  They are deeply 
worried by Wade's supremacy over all the institutions of State 
saying that it has resulted in the trivialization of the Government 
and a loss of credibility for the National Assembly, which has no 
real opposition party as a result of the PS decision to boycott the 
last legislative elections.  The PS also denounces Wade for 
weakening of the judiciary and the alleged bribing of judicial 
officials by the executive branch officials.  The Socialists also 
condemn the erosion of the separation between religion and state, 
the erosion of the rule of law, and the weakening of national unity 
through Wade's policy of divide and rule that plays on ethnicity, 
regionalism and religious denominations. 
 
THE USUAL SUSPECTS 
------------------ 
 
¶5.  (SBU) While the Socialists succeeded in legitimizing their 
Secretary General they failed to bring about change in the party's 
 
SIPDIS 
leading organs such as the "Bureau Politique" and "Comite Central." 
Mr. Khalifa Sall, who is in charge of elections for the PS and who 
chaired the Congress, is thought by many Senegalese as representing 
the old PS regime that was rejected in 2000.  Ms. Aissata Tall Sall, 
 
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the leading PS figure in the region of Saint-Louis and one of the 
party's more popular names, told Pol FSN that the leadership was so 
afraid to announce the names of the party leadership that they 
instead asked the Congress to give the Secretary General and his 
entourage a blank check to shape the party's leading organs in the 
coming weeks.  If the old guard should prevail, it will create 
frustration among those who are advocating change within the party. 
They will interpret an old guard victory as a slap in the face of 
younger leaders from the network of academics or youth movements 
such as Vision Socialist who they say are vital for the party's 
renaissance. 
 
COMMENT 
------- 
 
¶6.  (SBU) Although the PS is not represented in the National 
Assembly as a result of its own disastrous decision to boycott the 
last legislative elections, the PS has for the time being survived 
Wade's vigorous and repeated attempts to eliminate it from the 
political scene.  However, it is still faced with the challenge of 
installing the kind of leadership that will get rid of the stigma of 
corruption and inefficiency that many Senegalese still associate 
with the PS of old.  The Fourteenth Congress heralded a new vision 
and strategies for dealing with Wade and the ruling PDS but failed 
to tackle this urgent issue of developing a credible alternative to 
the PDS program.  If Dieng cannot surmount this challenge for fear 
of alienating his entourage, it will be extremely difficult for the 
party to lead a significant coalition and become a true force for 
change in the eyes of Senegalese voters. 
 
SMITH