Father Coly's open letter to Alassane Ouattara. This Senegalese priest criticizes the perspective of the Ivorian president on the difficulty of the CFA franc.
Mr. President of the Republic of Côte d'Ivoire, former vice-governor and former governor of the BCEAO, former Managing Director of the IMF for Africa, former Financial Advisor of 120 international locations all over the world who’ve all sunk in chapter.
Mister President,
Throughout your intervention on the media, you acknowledged that the CFA Franc has been an African forex since 1960, it’s a property of Africans. That the controversy on the FCFA is a false debate.
We’re as soon as once more obliged to show you concerning the foundations of a forex and the historical past of the FCFA. In authorized phrases, “property” is “the correct to get pleasure from and eliminate issues in essentially the most absolute method” (Article 544 of the French Civil Code). Allow us to inform you that the FCFA doesn’t belong to us!
A patent is filed by France on the FCFA. She is the proprietor of the FCFA and lessor, she rents it to us. Just because minting cash is solely the need of the folks or their representatives.
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There are three lessons of residents concerned within the creation of a forex, these are:
1-) Consultants who put their experience on the service of politics for the advantage of the folks, to exhibit the benefits and drawbacks of getting a forex correct to the folks.
2-) Politics in flip, research the nationwide and worldwide geopolitical context, the capacities of the folks to make sure the survival of a sovereign forex, the statement of convergence standards on the subject of a Financial Union, c is to say the membership in an Optimum Financial Zone (ZMO) (in response to the phrases of Mendel 1961)…
The politician, who doesn’t have the final phrase, appeals to the only real sovereign: The Folks.
Three-) The folks of final resort, by referendum or by their representatives, resolve whether or not or not they need their forex.
Instance: on September 20, 1992, earlier than France rejected the French franc for the Euro, the French folks have been known as by referendum and at 51%, the French folks rejected the French franc for the Euro.
We noticed very just lately Greece which did the identical to reject the Euro.
We now have gone by means of all of the constitutions of the African international locations of the FCFA, there may be in no structure, nor in any official journal a single article or a single decree which acknowledge the CFA Franc as being the forex of the African folks.
The CFA Franc just isn’t a colonial heritage however a colonial forex in contrast to the French language which is acknowledged in all of the constitutions of French-speaking African international locations because the official language.
The one decree on this planet that acknowledges the FCFA is: article Three of decree N ° 45-0136 of December 26, 1945. The signatories of this decree have been: Charles de GAULLE, President of the Provisional Authorities, René PLEVEN, Minister of finance and Jacques SOUSTELLE, Minister for the colonies.
Mister President,
We additionally inform you that the BCEAO which you had directed as an worker of the French treasury, just isn’t legally acknowledged on the worldwide market and France, solely, has the facility to promote and purchase the CFA franc on the worldwide chessboard.
The BCEAO by no means participated within the worldwide forex convention organized by the IMF. The CFA Zones have all the time been represented by France within the first week of October of every 12 months of the worldwide forex convention. And for the file:
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1-) Info report N ° 2907 produced by the Nationwide Meeting of France says that it’s: “The Banque de France which buys and sells currencies each day on the international change market on behalf of issuing establishments African girls ”.
2-) Edouard BALLADUR, former Minister of State for the Economic system, Finance and Privatization and former French Prime Minister stated that: “the FCFA was devalued on the initiative of France”.
Three-) On Friday September 30, 2016 in Bercy, the French Minister of Economic system and Finance Michel SAPIN had gathered his counterparts from the 14 international locations of the CFA Franc to “talk about the foremost financial and financial problems with frequent curiosity.”
This assembly had one other goal: to maintain them knowledgeable of the conferences of the IMF and the World Financial institution organized within the first week of October 2016 with the participation of all of the official currencies of the entire world in Washington with the theme: “Development, funding, growth …” The large absentee represented by France was: the CFA franc, a forex within the service of France for greater than seventy years.
Mr. Speaker, you’re telling us concerning the technical nature of the forex and its stability. Let's see the perspective of those that created the FCFA.
The identical Edouard BALLADUR stated that: “the forex just isn’t a technical topic, however a political topic which touches with the sovereignty and the independence of the States”.
Within the Structure of america of America, Part 1 of Article 1: “Congress could have the facility to mint cash, to find out its worth. Thomas Jefferson, the third President of america stated: “A non-public central financial institution that points the folks's public cash is a extra critical risk to their freedom than a educated military.” He continued in 1791: “If the American colonies enable personal banks to manage the issuance of cash, then these banks will undergo inflation after which deflation to deprive the folks of their items. Till one morning, their kids get up having misplaced their dwelling and the land their fathers used to farm. “
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Mister President,
The financial texts on which you rely to defend the CFA Franc have been all drawn up by France. And till right this moment, the BCEAO, the BEAC, the BCC are the one Central Banks within the World who don’t have the correct to maintain their gold inside them, making France the fifth largest gold reserve on this planet, behind Italy.
If the French authorities have been actually sensible, they might have chosen another person to defend the FCFA.
We now have not but crossed a single sentence about economic system in an article revealed by you. You had by no means been paraphrased in an economics faculty. The 120 international locations during which you’ve been an financial advisor are the final on this planet within the rating.
