Reading the article on China's "new authoritarianism" made me lay a different look on what happened in Gabon (Central Africa) when President Omar Bongo Ondimba (OBO) died after 42 years in power. His son Ali Bongo Ondimba (ABO) succeeded him (with an "electoral coup") but faced many difficulties in controlling the communication networks to legitimize his arrival to power. ABO and his governement had to deal with a network which had opened to private and foreign companies, which could not be totally controlled.
In 1967, when OBO arrived to power, mass media in Africa was certainly not a threat for many of the postcolonial regimes which were to turn into dictatorships (Zaire, Côte D'Ivoire, Togo, Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea, Congo). Most of them had single party systems, public channels only, no internet, no cellphones. With more or less no real political/public contestation, OBO ruled over Gabon for 42yrs.
However, it looks to me that the survival of the new authoritarian regimes in Africa will now highly depend on how they handle the regulation of their communcation networks. Lu and Weber quote Zhang saying "the integrity of the new authoritarianism rests on balancing state control over the public sphere, including political power and public opinion, while allowing the gradual opening of the private sphere for economic prosperity and a limited degree of individual freedom" (p. 938)
When we look at the regimes that collapsed during the past 12 months (Côte D'Ivoire, Tunisia, Egypt, Lybia) we can see that mass media (tv, internet, radio) played a significant role in how those populations started their revolution. Since the communication networks were no longer only controlled by the state, it created room for contestation. In 2009 in Gabon, we had a similar phase, but were not been able to take advantage of it... yet.
Indeed, in June 2009 when OBO died, the Gabonese communcation network roughly looked like that:
3 national channels - RTG1 (public), TeleAfrica (private but owned by the Bongo family) and TV+ (private and owned by Andre Mba Obame, who would subsequently join the opposition)
Satellite cable TV (French owned CanalSat is the biggest provider)
Internet (provided by national companies with GabonTelecom (public) being the biggest provider)
Mobile phone, the biggest providers are Zain (private owned by a group from Kuwait), and Libertis (public, part of the same group as GabonTelecom )
Radio, the biggest news providers are RFI (private French) and Africa N°1 (private but was owned by OBO, who then sold it to Libyan's guide Khadahfi in 2008)
On the early evening of June 7th, French cable news channels I-Télé and France24 announced the news that OBO had just died. However, on national TV no channels dared to cover that kind of news. But people started texting and calling each other so much to spread the news, that by the end of the night everybody knew.The next morning (around 9AM), the national channels eventually reacted. The Prime Minister, Jean Eyéghé Ndong appeared on RTG1 to contradict the rumor and confirm that OBO was still "very much alive" (those were his words!). The Prime Minister explained that he called OBO's doctors in Spain (where the President was hospitalized) and they confirmed that he was not dead. Eyéghé Ndong then flew to Spain the very same day, with a team of reporters from RTG1. Meanwhile in Libreville (the country's capital), it was crazy paranoia because people didn't know who to believe with the contradicting news coming from national TV and cable TV. Indeed, all day France24 had coverage concerning OBO's rumored death, while national channels (all 3) did not interrupt their regular programs. However, on Monday afternoon (just a few hours after the first denial) a female journalist from RTG1 appeared on the screen (with dark clothes and no make up) to read a statement from the Prime Minister announcing that OBO had just died in the early afternoon.
Afterwards, while cable news channels France24 and I-Télé had increased coverage of the news, and started potraying OBO has a dictator, local channels (including TV+, because AMO was still part of the majority at that time) mourned the loss of "papa Omar," the one who "built Gabon and maintained peace for 4 decades". As well, as soon as OBO's death was made official, his son Ali (ABO - then Minister of Defense) appeared on RTG1 to announce that all borders would be temporary closed for secutiry purposes. That created a real frenzy in Libreville, people rushed to stores (including myself) to buy water and food as we all prepared ourselves for likely violence.
Internet was immediately shut down during this time, up untill OBO's funeral. Mobile service was still working though, but people were aware that conversations might be monitored. People with a Blackberry (which was just introduced in the Gabonse market by foreigh mobile provider Zain) were among the only ones who still had Internet access (through satellite) and could post on blogs what was going on in Gabon. The local press (both public and private) would not dare to cover the news of people panicking. Foreign journalists of French news agencies such as France24 and L'Express were denied entry visas to Gabon, even after the borders reopened.
The "democratic" election that followed counted 23 candidates, including ABO and André Mba Obame (AMO who now joined the opposition). It created a "tv channels war" between ABO and AMO. AMO owned TV+, the biggest local private channel, while ABO could easily control RTG1 and TéléAfrica (which started broadcasting nationally during the campaign). ABO's channels were doing Bongo propaganda, while AMO's channel was doing his propaganda. AMO had a little edge in this war, because his channel was the most popular. As well, he was a former Minister of Interior during his time with the regime, during which he was a really close friend of ABO's. They called each other "brothers." Therefore, he was perceived by many as the one who would constitute the real opposition for ABO.
On the day of the election (August, 30th) around 11AM, the President of the National Concil of Communcation (censors) shut down AMO's channel TV+, because it kept on broadcasting political messages, while the campaign period was already over. The big censor confiscated TV+ transmittor. At 8PM, at the time of the evening news, everybody had to tuned to RTG1 to get the official results. The channel had announced that for the first time, it would offer an "election night" program, during which the results would be revealed. But, with frankly no surprise, people realized that they would not. They claimed that the CENAP (national election commission) was not done counting the votes, and had to collect results from all over the country.
African news channel Africa24 (broadcast on cable by CanalSat) was among one of the few international channels that were allowed to cover the elections from Gabon. This favor was granted under the condition that on the night of the election, they would not communicate any results that doesn't come directly from the CENAP. So they too, did not announce any results.
For 5 days, the CENAP was unable to announce any official results. However, people started texting each other saying that the CENAP was changing the votes, that some people had had access to the real results of AMO's victory. SMS of unofficial election results started circulating for a couple of days. Then, all of the sudden, everybody who had a cellphone received a SMS from Libertis (public) saying that the ARTEL (agency for regulation of telecommuncation - censors), temporarily suspended SMS service because of people feeding the paranoia by spreading dangereous rumors about the election.
In the early morning of Sept 2nd (around 3AM) an other transmittor of TV+ was being destroyed, and shot at with guns by an "unknown" commando unit. Indeed, TV+ was part of the communication group GO AFRICA which broadcasts in half a dozen African coutnries. The channel was planning to use this second transmittor to resume broadcasting.
Eventually, on Thusday Sept, 3rd (around 11AM), RTG1interrupted its broadcast to announce that the CENAP was done counting the votes. However, on two foreign websites (Europe1 -French- and Koaci -Panafrican-) I remember reading around 9AM the puzzling news that claimed that the commision was about to declare ABO the winner of the elections. I didn't believe it, because at that time, with all the many rumors that were circulating, every unofficial results had to be dismissed.
Yet, about 2hrs later on RTG1, the CENAP did announce the victory of ABO, with roughly the same results that were published on the two websites. Ali Bongo Ondimba had successfully stolen the election and become the 3rd President of Gabon. Yet, thanks to the non-controllable communication networks, people were aware that ABO had no legitimacy, but unfortunately they did not take it to the "next level".
When I look at what happened in other African dictatorships with similar political regimes, with leaderships struggling to muzzle private media, I can't help but feel upset about the missed opportunity in Gabon...
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