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Tunisians will not be intimidated

July 10, 2015 at 4:16 pm

Tunisia was the birthplace of the Arab Spring and remains home to the spark that ignited the entire region. The people participated in a peaceful revolution with their hearts on their sleeves as they were unafraid to use their voices. In doing so they brought down one of the most oppressive regimes in the world. Tunisia is the embodiment of the chant “the people demand the fall of the regime” and they succeeded in making this slogan a reality. It is also a country in transition which has faced a long conflict with a deep-rooted police state.

Now, though, Tunisia is going through a great deal of pain but nowhere in the history of nations was sovereignty achieved without suffering and without effort. Today the Tunisian revolution is facing one of its biggest challenges as armed gangs appear out of nowhere. They are seeking bloodshed and want to threaten the revolution and its values, and seek to gain their freedom by creating a sense of violence, tyranny and chaos across the country.

The recent terrorist operations, which hit the heart of the Tunisian tourism industry, not only had an impact on an integral part of the revolutionary project but also seek to exploit revolutionary gains and the fragile social situation by causing an economic downturn that will drain the energies of the security and military forces. Tunisians have not partaken in violence of this kind for many historical reasons. The country has been was a conduit for many civilisations, which created a sense of coexistence within Tunisian society. Yet, the first era of tyranny, which began with Habib Bourguiba’s dictatorship (1956-1987) and continued with Ben Ali (1987-2010) were the first instances when the order and sensitive nature of the social classes began to crack.

During the time of “Bourguibism” a societal feudal class was born; it was limited mainly to certain families which inherited the legacy of colonialism through land and real estate projects, thus establishing the nucleus of the Tunisian bourgeoisie which was mainly an urban phenomenon. During the rule of the heartless Ben Ali, the bourgeoisie expanded and gained control of much of the nation’s wealth. Corruption spread throughout the state and much of the national wealth was stolen by a handful of companies, which was one of the main factors behind the outbreak of the 17 December Revolution. During this same time and throughout the period of Bourguibism, the state solidified a policy that unified the north and the coast and the south, the centre and the northwest. There are many disparities that exist within these areas, especially within the infrastructure, education provision and deliberate medical neglect. The stark difference in the availability of such services on the coast and the dearth of them in the centre not only served as one of the main challenges of the revolution but also one of the key points that, if addressed, would secure the country’s future and questions of national security.

The above-mentioned factors are the social and regional imbalances that acted as the spark that ignited the Tunisian revolution on the outskirts of the impoverished Sidi Bouzid, which would later spread to the rest of the country. It must also be noted that when the revolution spread to Tunis, it also became the subject of interest in many of the media and ideological circles within the capital. Many of the inhabitants of the capital are originally migrants from the northwest area of Tunisia, as well as the centre and the south. All of this speaks to the fact that revolutionary endeavours are usually due to the efforts of the country’s downtrodden classes and disadvantaged social groups.

Despite this and despite all of the oppressive crimes that have taken place, the country was able to preserve its sense of national unity, although many attempts have been made to dismantle Tunisia’s historic identity and Arabic language along with all of the expressions of opinion that are associated with this identity. These attempts are in line with colonial projects and efforts, which sought to isolate the country from its Arab and Islamic surroundings. Bourguiba tried to use a specific framework to orientate his idea of a nation-state, which he spoke about in his miserable speeches but did not succeed in implementing.

Tunisia has succeeded in absorbing all of the historical attempts to sabotage its historical foundations via a colonial framework and it was a political miracle when its dignified revolution overthrew one of the most oppressive dictators in modern history. While it is true that both Bourguiba and Ben Ali cannot be compared to their heartless counterparts Assad the father and Assad the son, Muammar Gaddafi or even Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi, one must not forget that the nature of the intellectual and behavioural framework of Tunisian society is what required this status quo during the violent tactics exhibited by the security sector during the 1990s.

Today more than any other time, the imperative question of national unity is being pushed on the Tunisian people as a way to secure the security of the country’s future, the values of the revolution and the transitional period. It is essential that the Tunisians hold on to the values of the revolution and the “Where is the petroleum?” campaign.

All efforts to stage a coup and to return to the pre-17 December situation will not succeed because the Tunisians cannot be intimidated and time does not move backwards. The lessons taught to us by history prove that what is coming will be better, despite efforts to stage a coup.

Translated from Arabi21, 9 July, 2015

The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Monitor.