Thiam Says He Would Make Best President
Thiam Says He Would Make Best President
February 16, 2000
Aly Coulibaly
PANA Correspondent
DAKAR, Senegal (PANA) - Presidential candidate Iba Der Thiam, leading the seven-year old Convention of Democrats and Patriots party, will be 63 years old on the eve of the 27 February ballot.
This is the second time that Thiam is contesting.
The first time he ran in 1993, he said the experience left him disgusted due to the results: he won only 2 percent of the vote.
He said there were some irregularities such as his party having four different ballot papers in certain polling stations, and none in others.
"That is why I still refuse to accept those fabricated results," Thiam, a former education minister, said as he prepared for his latest campaign.
The academic-politician tirelessly speaks out against the massive poverty faced by the majority of his compatriots in his quest for a society built on equal opportunity.
"I stand up against the poor living conditions of all those who are suffering," Thiam added.
He said he started politics in 1955 by being active in workers' union. "I had just started teaching then," he recalled.
In 1966, he was elected general secretary of the Union of Secular Teachers of Senegal.
Like many other Senegalese politicians, in 1958 he joined the African Party for Independence.
Seven years later he joined the Party of African Rally where he met fellow activists like Amadou Mahtar M'bow, former UNESCO director-general.
After 45 years in politics, he said he has adequately prepared himself to be president of Senegal.
"I am dedicated to the relentless fight against poverty and related scourges in order to achieve balanced development," Thiam told PANA.
He has been education minister (1983-1988) under incumbent President Abdou Diouf. When Diouf was prime minister in 1975, Thiam was director of the teacher training school in Dakar.
He recalled one day Diouf asking him for a report following a strike by students protesting the poor quality of food on the campus.
"He sent me a congratulatory letter, saying that he had never read a document as honest as mine," Thiam said.
Very talkative, Thiam said he sometimes liked to have solitary moments to read books, reviews and newspapers.
Re-elected member of parliament in 1998, Thiam has continually refused to be paid his lecturer's salary on top of his pay as a lawmaker.
He said he has been trying to impress upon his colleagues in similar positions to do the same.
"I am for justice, tolerance and respect of the common good," he said.
Dubbed as a "man of the people" because of his repeated calls in favour of the disinherited, he acknowledged that one of his major weaknesses was "excessive generosity and tolerance."
"Iba Der has given a new meaning to our assembly which is no longer a rubber stamping chamber," Mamadou Fall, a labourer, said.
In his march to the presidency, Thiam has taken heart from the support of his followers as expressed at his nomination congress.
"My comrades tell me that I was the best education minister this country ever had, and that I am currently the best MP. I could be the best president," he declared.
Thiam said Diouf has no chance of winning the election.
If there is transparency, the ruling Socialist Party "will be decisively defeated," he added.
On the contrary, the Socialist Party leadership claims that Diouf will retain the presidency in the first round. The party has been in power since independence in 1960, and Diouf has been in the hot seat since 1980.
Winning the February election for a seven-year term would make Diouf one of the longest serving African leaders.
But Thiam added that the majority of the Senegalese are disgusted with "this never ending rule."
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Copyright © 2000 Panafrican News Agency. All Rights Reserved.
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