Two Cheers for Tunisia

Two Cheers for Tunisia

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Alan Philps

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On Wednesday, the Islamist-led government of Tunisia resigned and handed power to a technocratic government entrusted with holding new elections. So what? Sounds like quite a normal and reasonable process. Actually, given the background of Arab turmoil from Libya to Iraq, this simple act is nothing less than revolutionary.

It overturns the often-held view that Islamist political parties would take advantage of the ballot box to seize power, then reveal their true colours as anti-democratic and never face the electorate again.

Mr Djerejian’s theory has taken a knock. Surprisingly, this development has received scant coverage in the non-Arab media, where the dominant narrative is the failure of the Arab revolutions to engender a viable democracy. In Syria, popular protest led to a ruthless crackdown and civil war that is infecting Lebanon and Iraq. In Egypt, the Muslim Brotherhood’s tenure in power has been cut short by the army, apparently with broad support from a population exhausted by insecurity and incompetent government.

With a population below 11 million, Tunisia has the advantage of being a country with little weight in the world. Its oil industry (except for the olive variety) is small. It is not being fought over by regional powers or given much attention by the US.

Even with these advantages, there was no guarantee that Tunisia would be able to draft a new constitution that made all sides feel comfortable. After Ennahda won 40 per cent of the vote in the 2011 elections, it became the majority party in the ruling coalition, and its politicians pulled every lever to change the identity of the state. Given the decades of police repression they had suffered, it is hardly surprising Ennahda felt they had earned the right to rule, even though they did not win a majority.

At the same time, Syria was collapsing into civil war and the Egyptian army stepped in to unseat the Muslim Brotherhood. Mr Ghannouchi saw the disastrous effect of the Brotherhood’s hubris in Egypt and the consequences in Syria of a breakdown in unity. He decided to compromise on the constitution.

On these pages over the past few days, two experts have suggested different ways it could be abused by one side to oppress the other. Hussein Ibish noted that the reference in the constitution to “protecting sanctities” could “set the stage for anti-blasphemy legislation in Tunisia that restricts freedom of speech”. Intissar Fakir noted that the ban on “takfir” – declaring someone an infidel and, by extension, worthy of death – “could create a situation in which secularists use the law to target their Islamist opponents”.

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