The battle for democracy in Tunisia began after the fall of the
regime, and the hurried escape of the tyrant which spoke volumes about his
fears and his cowardice.
Ben Ali was generally fearful of his own people, although he feared those who
truly objected to him most, imprisoned some and forced the others to flee the
country. At the same time he bribed into existence a false opposition to
participate in fraudulent elections by splashing offerings from the ‘Muslim house
of wealth’ on them. They played along and Ben Ali enjoyed two decades in power
with continued electoral distortion and human rights abuse. This conniving
alliance acted as a fake veil covering the corruption and allowing the
appearance form of continual success in the ballots, without ever being
challenged by a valid opposition.
Ben Ali had learned his lesson from a previous ballot when he allowed the Ennahda
movement to take part in the elections. Shocked by their success, the
president and party’s reaction was to immediately reverse “the good deeds”
announced in his inaugural speech on Novemeber 7, 1987, and to oust Ennahda.
In early 2011, Ben Ali fled in fear and left thousands frightened behind him.
The era we have been living in since January 14 has seen the beginnings of the
yearned for democratic reform, but the process has been constantly interrupted.
The battle for democracy has been repeatedly disturbed by unrestrained party
campaigning and a confusion between ideology and democracy. Under the banner of
freedom of expression together with plots aimed at terrorising people into
casting a particular vote, attacks
on what is holy occurred on a regular basis.
Disruptive campaigning has appeared in parallel to the electoral campaigns,
succeeding in igniting religious strife and in dividing the Tunisian people
into ‘believers’ and ‘sinners’. Leftist lobbyists engaged in such activity,
often behind the mask of cultural commentators, have monopolised some of the
media platforms with their panic calls. They have been warning people of the
gravity of such a vote and its repercussions on generations to come.
This is really a battle between parties with contradicting histories. However,
this does not justify resorting to dirty tactics. Such methods should be banned
since they threaten the reversal of everything the revolution has achieved thus
far, most importantly the freedom to be different, the right to express
oneself, and the right of choice. They are dirty tactics precisely because they
undermine the political and democratic process longed for by the Tunisian
people and undermine social or food security.This is a scandalous effort to
abandon or fake the real democratic route through terrorising, intimidating,
and confusing the voter’s thoughts instead of improving the general atmosphere.
Therefore, what must be said without hesitation and with a sense of all due
responsibility, is that all that has been happening in Tunisia since the
success of the revolution has been nothing but tribal prejudices to which
dozens have fallen victim. In this context, the sudden rise of food prices and
withdrawal of basic foods from the market was no coincidence and is not
unlinked to political interference. Also, the screening of Nadia Al Fani’s film
in Africart hall was an attack on people’s sacred beliefs. Similarly, the
screening of the Iranian film on Neesma TV was aimed at enflaming and confusing
people’s convictions. These types of actions are unsettling the peaceful ways
Tunisians have believed in for centuries.
These
organised campaigns use ‘spiteful words’ as weapons, words that don’t settle
for long enough to be visible, but which leave irreversible damage in their
wake. Their equivalent in military warfare is banned internationally and
forbidden for use. Anyone employing such techniques brings opprobrium upon
themselves, just as the Israelis were castigated for the use of phosphorus
bombs in the war on Gaza. The calculated use of the personification of the
divine being to show contempt towards religious teachings has the same effect,
as we can see from the Islamic world’s reaction to the film ‘Fitna’ by the
Dutch MP Geert Wilders, as well as what happened in Tunisia after the screening
of the Iranian film.
In
a truly democratic battle the weapons used are ones that present the public
with a clear and coherent programme, one with a factual substance that will
enable understanding of the planning and the promises - challenging
candidates to a dialogue while treating them with the utmost respect and
without resorting to a variety of offensive exchanges like those we currently
permit our media outlets. In particular, it is wrong to target parties with an
Islamic background claiming that they incite terrorism, are primitive, and
oppressive, in a way designed to provoke violent reactions. All of this has
occurred in Tunisia during the electoral campaign. It scares people and
increases their skepticism of the achievements and success of the revolution,
and might ultimately deter some from participating in the coming election.
The general mood in this narrowing of the perameters of revolution has revealed
people’s true enemies. Some parties aim to withhold freedom and dignity,
echoing the previous repressive regime. This is despite the cultural quality
and education that Tunisians enjoy, a people that deserves to live in a
democratic country with institutions and wide rights to all in a lawful
society. The enemies of the people are those who fought against the
establishment of the democratic state that the martyrs fell for. They are
encouraged in using their dirty tactics by the incendiary colonialist powers
who have recruited them for their own purposes and advantage.
They represent nothing more than the old repressive regime and continue down
the same trajectory. Their behaviour will betray them sooner or later to
whoever is unfamiliar with them, isolating them, exposing their tricks, and
exhibiting them as the true enemies of liberty and democracy.
Perhaps the results of the ballot will show them that the Tunisian people are
too smart to fall for the tricks aimed at terrorising them, and preventing them
from planting the tree of democracy and freedom, firm with it’s branches up
high in the sky. Perhaps we will prove that Tunisians are tolerant Muslims that
have no sects, tribes, or dangerous divides amongst their nation that prevents
them from enjoying the shade from this great tree that includes all the people
of this nation in green Tunisia.
Translated by Mazen Zoabi from Nawaat.org
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