{"id":6272,"date":"2017-04-11T03:08:09","date_gmt":"2017-04-11T03:08:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.congoresearchgroup.org\/?p=6272"},"modified":"2020-07-15T22:17:54","modified_gmt":"2020-07-15T22:17:54","slug":"the-perils-of-factions-congo-edition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.congoresearchgroup.org\/en\/2017\/04\/11\/the-perils-of-factions-congo-edition\/","title":{"rendered":"The Perils of Factions: Congo Edition"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator is-style-wide is-core-separator-block\" style=\"margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;padding-top:0px;padding-bottom:0px\">\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:44px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n  <div id=\"anchor-nav-position-block_5f0f806d78e0a\" class=\"c-block-anchor-nav-position o-wrapper__inner\" style=\"margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;padding-top:0px;padding-bottom:0px;\">\n    <div class=\"js-anchor-nav-position\"><\/div>\n\n    <div class=\"c-anchor-nav__mobile\">\n      <nav class=\"c-anchor-nav \"><span class=\"c-anchor-nav__heading\">   <\/span><ul class=\"c-anchor-nav__links o-list-bare\"><li class=\"c-anchor-nav__item\"><a href=\"#%20%20%20\" class=\"c-anchor-nav__link \">   <\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/nav>    <\/div>\n  <\/div>\n\n\n\n<p style=\"margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:30px;padding-top:0px;padding-bottom:0px\" class=\"is-core-paragraph-block has-space-small-mb\">Alexander Hamilton and James Madison <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gutenberg.org\/files\/1404\/1404-h\/1404-h.htm\">famously<\/a>&nbsp;argued that factions were one of the greatest dangers to American democracy.&nbsp;This week, we learned of the Congolese analogy&ndash;&ndash;in contrast with the American variety (in the 18th century), Congolese factionalism sprang from the elites, as President Kabila continued to peel off former leaders of the UDPS in his effort to undermine the opposition. On Saturday, he named Bruno Tshibala as prime minister, replacing another former UDPS leader, Samy Badibanga, who had only been in power for five&nbsp;months.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p style=\"margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:30px;padding-top:0px;padding-bottom:0px\" class=\"is-core-paragraph-block has-space-small-mb\">In response, the <em>Rassemblement,&nbsp;<\/em>the main opposition coalition, called for nationwide protests in the streets yesterday. Cowed by repeated crackdowns&ndash;&ndash;protests in September and December 2016 were brutally repressed, leaving dozens dead&ndash;&ndash;people chose to stay at home instead, paralyzing downtown Kinshasa by simply not showing up for work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p style=\"margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:30px;padding-top:0px;padding-bottom:0px\" class=\"is-core-paragraph-block has-space-small-mb\">It&rsquo;s the usual&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/MichaelTshi\/status\/851418870455955456\">playbook<\/a>: co-opt and coerce. There are few&nbsp;veteran UDPS stalwarts&nbsp;left around its new leader, Felix Tshisekedi&ndash;&ndash;the past few years have seen such leaders as Moleka, Shabani, Mavungu, Tshibala, Badibanga, and Mubake jump ship. In the meantime, it will be difficult for the remaining leaders to mobilize a population in the face of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hrw.org\/blog-feed\/democratic-republic-congo-crisis#blog-299450\">repression<\/a>. (The younger Tshisekedi&rsquo;s <a href=\"http:\/\/www.reuters.com\/article\/us-congo-politics-idUSKBN17C1NC\">decision<\/a> to leave the country on the day of the protests after having called for mass mobilization will hardly help.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p style=\"margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:30px;padding-top:0px;padding-bottom:0px\" class=\"is-core-paragraph-block has-space-small-mb\">The remaining pressure will now come from foreign donors, many of whom have been bitterly critical of Kabila. The local European Union delegation <a href=\"https:\/\/eeas.europa.eu\/delegations\/dr-congo-kinshasa\/24444\/declaration-locale-de-la-delegation-de-lunion-europeenne_fr\">denounced<\/a> the &ldquo;lack of consensus&rdquo; surrounding the new prime minister, and said that his nomination went against the letter and spirit of the December 31, 2016 agreement. The <a href=\"http:\/\/diplomatie.belgium.be\/fr\/newsroom\/nouvelles\/2017\/didier_reynders_prend_acte_de_la_nomination_de_bruno_tshibala\">Belgian<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/cd.ambafrance.org\/Republique-democratique-du-Congo-Nomination-du-Premier-ministre-7-avril-2017\">French<\/a>&nbsp;governments reacted&nbsp;in similar terms, whereas the US <a href=\"https:\/\/cd.usembassy.gov\/u-s-statement-nomination-new-prime-minister-democratic-republic-congo\/\">statement<\/a> was slightly milder (they didn&rsquo;t explicitly note the violation of the New Year&rsquo;s Eve deal).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p style=\"margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:30px;padding-top:0px;padding-bottom:0px\" class=\"is-core-paragraph-block has-space-small-mb\">However, fissures are already opening up. The UN peacekeeping mission was much softer in its <a href=\"https:\/\/monusco.unmissions.org\/en\/monusco-takes-note-recent-developments-drc-and-stresses-urgent-need-strict-implementation-31\">statement<\/a>, which simply took note of the nomination and encouraged all parties to find a consensus. The African Union has chosen to wait until after Foreign Minister She Okitundu meets with senior officials in Addis Ababa. The Catholic Church, which worked tirelessly to&nbsp;broker the New Year&rsquo;s Eve deal, has <a href=\"http:\/\/www.radiookapi.net\/2017\/04\/06\/actualite\/politique\/nomination-dun-premier-ministre-la-cenco-na-pas-de-commentaire\">not<\/a> commented.<br>A new chapter is opening up in Congolese political history. If the political process collapses entirely, it will lead to radicalization and the erosion of institutional legitimacy.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Alexander Hamilton and James Madison famously&nbsp;argued that factions were one of the greatest dangers to American democracy.&nbsp;This week, we learned of the Congolese analogy&ndash;&ndash;in contrast with the American variety (in&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6273,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[30,2],"tags":[],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.congoresearchgroup.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6272"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.congoresearchgroup.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.congoresearchgroup.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.congoresearchgroup.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.congoresearchgroup.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6272"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.congoresearchgroup.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6272\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.congoresearchgroup.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6273"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.congoresearchgroup.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6272"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.congoresearchgroup.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6272"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.congoresearchgroup.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6272"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}