Tunisia’s Democratic Curve
October 7, 2014, 6:26 pm

Tunisia’s October 26 parliamentary elections will be the most democratic ever in the history of the Arab Middle East. They represent a learning curve for Tunisians and Arabs alike.

The elections – now governed by a democratic constitution adopted early in 2014 – build on the October 2011 elections after the ouster of dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali. They are set to open up an arch of possibilities thanks to three features specific to Tunisia’s political culture that prevent the return to the executive excesses of the ousted regime.

The Gender ‘Monument’

This is integral to Tunisia’s nascent public sphere. There is enough of a cumulative civic, ethical and practical learning and struggle that has created a gender factor – ‘monument’ as it were. The crux of it is that women in Tunisia, against all odds, lead, struggle and speak for themselves.

The civic space they occupy is their own.

It is not the gift of a state or a statesman. In this way, gender-consciousness has run deep in the revolutionary moment from the first forms of organisation and mobilisation against Bin Ali.

It is also entrenched in its aftermath, in Tunisia’s public squares of revolt and within formal and informal networks of political participation and activism.

From the outset, Tunisia’s women, including from within the rank-and file of the Federated Union of Tunisian Workers (UGTT), have asserted themselves as an integral dimension of the January 14 Revolution.

One specificity of the country’s democratic learning curve is that the engendering of gendered citizenship has placed a high premium on universal rights of worthiness, and inclusiveness, which in turn lends credence to the revolutionary demands of social justice, dignity and freedom.

The gender ‘monument’ in Tunisia feeds into the social capital that is today feeding into gender democracy as symbiotic with a holistic democracy that weds, women and men, and the political and the personal.

The ‘parity law’, even if still in its infancy, came to translate women’s prestige and leadership in Tunisia’s democratic learning curve.

The electoral lists generally leave much to be desired in women’s inclusiveness but this is something that will improve in future elections as they become more political engaged through self-empowerment, including through employment and education.

Islamist and secularist Women today organise and mobilise as well as create forums committed to the ideals of gender democracy as part and parcel of the country’s fledgling democracy through both partisan and non-partisan forums such as ‘Democratic Women’ and ‘Coalition for Tunisian Women’, amongst others.

The parliament to be elected democratically on October 26 will feature many dynamic female voices equipped to add value to democracy-learning in Tunisia. Women will contest the presidency in November 2014.

Civic Islamists

Millions of Tunisians will again head to the polls to elect a president a month after parliamentary elections [Xinhua]

Tunisia’s Islamists, namely, the Nahda (or Renaissance Party) come closest to being a fully-fledged civic political force in the Arab Middle East and North Africa.

That is, civic in terms of adaptation to the rules of democratic engagement in the contestation of power, negotiation and coalition for the purpose of ordered democratic transition, enlightened understanding of religious scripture, non-violence, and proclivity for coalitional politics with secularists, including both liberals and leftists.

Under the leadership of its president, Shaykh Rashid Ghannoushi, the party has stretched its political imagination for the greater sake of sustainable democratic transition.

This included giving up power for the purpose of socio-political decompression at a time when tensions ran high. Once the constitution was secure, the Nahda-led government resigned, passing on the baton to a national unity government, the incumbent care-taker polity currently leading Tunisia to this month’s democratic polls.

A flavor of Nahda’s civic identity was revealed in Ghannoushi’s address to his party’s Shura Council last month.

He stresses commitment to the twin objectives of the revolution (freedom, dignity and social justice), and democratic transition (not to cede power to dictators).

The speech’s key messages include combatting terrorism at a time when Tunisia itself is drenched in this problem: Libya’s conflict is now considered as a matter of national security: both weapons and refugees enter the country daily.

Never before has terrorism featured in the public domain as at the current historical juncture. Hundreds of Tunisians have been recruited either by Al-Qaida or ISIS and this is of major concern to the country’s leaders as well as the public at large. The media debates the topic incessantly.

More importantly, Ghannoushi has stressed the ‘civilian’ (legal-rational) state and a moderate political know-how and posture in his address.
Central to this message is the urgency to avoid at all costs ‘warring’ with the party’s morbid foes and shun exclusionary politics; the only arena is that of democratic competition in its full gamut.

All of this, for the Islamist leader, is vital for a consensual type of polity capable of producing stability and democracy.

The final and perhaps the most important concessionary note to all Tunisians is that Nahda will not contest the presidency after the October 2014 elections (basically putting a fundamental lesson from the Muslim Brotherhood’s political approach into practice: not to monopolise power).

This judicious decision will put a damper on the presidential ambitions of Nahda’s former Prime Minister, Hammadi Jebali. What matters is that the decision to search for a consensual presidential candidate is better for democratic transition and overall power-sharing in a fledgling democracy.

A Politically Agnostic Public

If Tunisia remains steadfast, on track to inaugurate a promising democratisation process unique in the Arab Middle East, that is thanks to the learning acquired by its people. They believe in Tunisia first and foremost.

The Ben Ali years have immured them from blind faith in politicians of all kinds. They are not afraid to change whom they vote into office. They will go to the polls on October 26 with open minds, only to repeat this exercise and may be affirm it as integral of the democratic learning curve they are measuring up to.

As put succinctly by a Tunisian woman who will be voting for the second time since the revolution: “To earn the right to vote, we had all to change via revolution, today we change by voting.”

That is why change will be part of the ensuing stories that will shape Tunisia’s democratic learning curve.