THE MUSLIM WORLD The Long and Bumpy Road of Tunisian Democracy Did coalescing with old corrupt rivals compromise Ennahda’s governing experience? BY MONIA MAZIGH
President Kais Saied meets with Prime Minister Najla Bouden Romdhane at the Carthage Palace (© Tunis Afrique Presse)
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n December 2010, I stood on the pavement across the Tunisian embassy in Ottawa. Neither freezing Ottawa nor fear of the brutal Tunisian regime dis suaded us, a handful of Tunisian Canadians, from showing our solidarity with the protest movement that took down Ben Ali’s govern ment and swept the country. It was the start of the “Arab Spring,” born in Sidi Bouzid, a town of people known for their indomitable, revolutionary spirit and unmitigated marginalization by Tunis. Having left for graduate studies in Canada in 1991, I never lost interest in Tunisia’s politics. A small country known for centuries as a crossroads of civilizations, it is nestled between the geographic and economic powers of Algeria and Libya and the northern Mediterranean. As such, the country remains a staple in the Maghreb and Mediterranean basins’ politics.
Since then, our demonstrations have become marches to support Tunisia’s nascent democracy. In January 2011, about 100 of us walked from Parliament in Ottawa to the Human Rights Monument via the prime minister’s offices, singing the now popu lar slogan Ash-sha‘b yurid isqat an-nidham (The people want regime change). Quickly becoming the Arabic world’s slogan, it’s been chanted in the streets of Cairo, Daraa, Sanaa, Tripoli and elsewhere. The nidham (regime) was a dictatorship, a police state in which arbitrary arrests of political opponents, nepotism, corrup tion and violations of civil liberties were commonplace. After President Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali’s flight, angry crowds gathered across from the Ministry of the Interior, the terrifying building in which many Tunisians had been tortured or humiliated, and chanted “degage
40 ISLAMIC HORIZONS JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2022
… degage” (game over). They dared to dream of building a free, dignified and prosperous country. Thus began the era that lasted from 2011 until today. Last July 25, which marks the birth of the first independent Tunisian republic (est. 1956), President Kais Saied, elected in 2019, froze Parliament’s work, removed the prime minister and seized executive power. The ensuing shock waves, still being felt, caused some to take to the deserted streets to express solidarity with this “courageous and timely” decision; others cautiously called it a “coup de force,” avoiding what many defiantly called a “coup d’état.” Beyond the images of euphoria and between the extreme views of “supporters” and “opponents” lay several shades of anal yses and reflections. I remain skeptical, to say the least, about the current situation. The populist excesses taking democracies by storm have become a little too familiar: President Trump, who communicated directly to his base via tweets, speaking and thereby flouting democratic laws and institutions, and Brazil’s Jair Bolsonaro, a former army officer whose populist decisions and disregard for science endangered thousands of lives. Tunisia is neither the U.S. nor Brazil, but its burgeon ing democracy isn’t immune to its leaders’ populist aspirations to reign unopposed. The question arises: How did Tunisia reach this state? The Covid-19 pandemic exposed the county’s poor management of the health crisis, precarious health infrastructure, incompetent politicians, almost nonexistent communication with citizens, some of whom remained skeptical about the vaccination’s importance, and social media outlets, which circulated conspiracy theories that height ened the populace’s fears. It is, above all, a crisis of confidence between the financially strapped popula tion and the political class, which continues playing political cards instead of improving their constituents’ lives. The Economic Crisis. Tunisia never recovered from the 2008 global financial crisis. Its economy is dominated by old and archaic tourism, a mining industry vulnerable to world markets and a cum bersome, bureaucratic administration that has neither modernized nor offered tax advantages to international investors, as Tunis did during the 1970s. In short, the
