Redha Malek

Redha Malek ( _ar. رضا مالك) (b. December 21 1931) was Prime Minister of Algeria from August 21, 1993 to April 1994. In his short term of office, which came in the early years of the Algerian Civil War, he pursued a hardline anti-Islamist policy and successfully negotiated debt relief with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), following the implementation of an IMF reform plan.

In October 1999, Prime Minister Malek went on Faisal al-Kassim's television show, "The Opposite Direction". After receiving a critical question, Malek told Al-Kassim to stop taping. Al-Kassim replied, "I can't. We broadcast live. You're not in Algeria." Malek cursed at the host and left in the middle of the program. [Hefner, Robert W. "Remaking Muslim Politics: Pluralism, Contestation, Democratization". Page 48.]

He was born in Batna on December 21, 1931, and was editor of the FLN newspaper "El Moudjahid" between 1957 and 1962, during the Algerian War of Independence (1954-62). After 1963, he was sent as ambassador to Yugoslavia, France, the Soviet Union, the United States (1979-82), and the United Kingdom; he also briefly became Minister of Information and Culture (1977-9) and later Foreign Minister (February 3-August 21, 1993). He later became head of the a minor political party, the National Republican Alliance (ANR), founded May 5, 1995 shortly after a presidential election.

Books

*L'Algerie a Evian: Histoire des negociations secretes, 1956-1962 (L'epreuve des faits); ISBN 2020238985

References