Tunisia Revisited

In the past couple of weeks, the world has been engrossed by scenes of defiance, strength and deliberation of the Egyptian people. We forgot to look or ask about the nation that started it all, Tunisia.

Despite Ben Ali fleeing, many are still dissatisfied, and protests as well as death continue each week. The interim government has many stalwart Ben Ali supporters who refuse to quit or go. The youth are impatient for jobs, they demand progress, and change.

The political situation continues to untenable, and unstable. So risky that many investors have stayed away, and tourism, which traditionally is a big chunk of the economy has been reduced to almost nil.

The supporters of Ben Ali rub their hands in glee, falsely claiming that things were better under the deposed leader.

As they say the patience is a virtue. And all is not lost. But if we are going to assign blame I think it’s safe to place it at Ben Ali’s door. Honestly it is quite difficult to have robust opposition parties and organize civil society when they’re banned.

Technically, according to the constitution there needs to elections in the next two months after incapacitation of a president, but it is in no one’s best interest to have elections so soon. The interim government has assigned a commission to prepare the country for elections sometime in July. It is a huge task, as in the first real elections ever, heralding in a second republic if you will.Simultaneous presidential and parliamentary elections, with the new constituent assembly drafting a constitution.

Preparing the country for elections is going to be hard work. According to many on the election commission, the electoral code and related laws were full of legal tricks inserted by Ben Ali to ensure his rule, and abate any challenges. Tricky bastard.

Although this commission is a-political shall we say, they are mandated to consult with main opposition parties including the Islamist party. Some in Tunisia and outside are very concerned about them. Some going as far as lobbying to continue Ben Ali’s ban on them. The belief is that they might very well come into power. Once in power the story is that they’ll be up to no good and do all sorts of naughty things becoming a ‘Ben Ali’ so to speak but using Sharia law instead of secular law.

The party has already ruled itself out of presidential election, but this has not abated the many concerns. Since they are a party that has committed itself to democracy and civilian society, they are entitled to all the rights of any given political party.

This will indeed be a test of democracy. After all democracy is measure of how well you respect the rights of your citizens, including the treatment of minorities and minority views.