Tunisia: "The dictatorship not just the dictator!"

Submitted by Matthew on 19 January, 2011 - 9:33

Shawky Arif, a Tunisian political activist, spoke to Solidarity.


The situation is still fluid and fast-moving. The head is gone, but the body of the dictatorship remains. So-called “new” leaders coming forward are all members of the old regime and its truly-criminal system. The people of Tunisia continue to demand a wholesale break with the decades of dictatorship.

We need the dissolution of the old ruling-party. We demand that members of the ruling party face justice for their corruption and for sanctioning the use of violence and torture against opponents. The head of the main union is a creature of the old regime. He was among those who called on the ex-President to stay in power back in 2009. But the middle ranks of the unions and the rank-and-file are more independent and oppositional.

The army is on the streets and appears to be instrumental in restoring conditions for the resumption of normal life and economic activity. People feel safer. Politically it is hard to say which way the armed forces will go. Since the French quit Tunisia [1956] the army has stayed out of the civilian institutions. This gave the army a credibility and respect from the people. During the protests, when the army took to the streets to restore order and put an end to the militias of the old regime, people greeted it and cooperated with it. It has been reported that during the protests, Rashid Ammar, was asked to fire on the people, but he refused, telling the overthrown dictator “you are over.” I hope that the army stays outside political life.

Some parties of the opposition rushed to comply when the first minister of the overthrown dictator called on them for talks about the formation of a government of national unity. We want all the old setup out. Mohammed Ghannoushi and Fouad Mbazza are Ben Ali’s men. How can we accept an interim government with the old figures?

What the people demand is, first and foremost, dissolve the old ruling-party that tortured us for 55 years. I would even propose that members of the ex-ruling party be banned from politics for some years. It takes time to wash out dictatorship and its ugly image. What we need is a clean break with the past, its institutions and its personnel. The guilty must face justice for their crimes.

There must be a Constituent Assembly to oversee the framing of a new Constitution, and the drafting of a new Electoral Code. There must be freedom of expression, of the press and of political assembly. There must be no barriers to the formation of new political parties. The courts must be cleansed of corruption: they have rubber-stamped the excesses of the old regime and its mafia-style workings. National businesses that were sold out to relatives and friends of Ben Ali and his wife have to be nationalised again. Businesses that were sold out to foreigners have to be taken back and nationalised. Ben Ali auctioned the economy. We have to get it back.

So far four people have set themselves on fire in Algeria, directly copying the event which set in train the upsurge of resistance in Tunisia. One of these people is reported to have died. Similar acts have taken place in Egypt and Mauritania. The people want freedom.

It was no surprise that Colonel Gaddafi said what he said against the ousting of ex-President Ben Ali. Colonel Gaddafi said on television that nobody was better than Ben Ali and that he ought to be President for life. But the people want freedom and will make sacrifices to win it.

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