Night in Tunisia

Good Man, Bad Man?

There's one thing that we haven't really mentioned that you can't walk down the street (any street) without seeing. Every business, office and public space has one. Some have two or three or four. They come in stickers, posters, banners and framed images. They call them pictures, but we call them propaganda. It's the president's happy, smiling, ever youthful face, beaming at his loyal, supportive voters everywhere you go.

Yes my friends, this is a democracy. Yes it is a dictatorship too. The latter of course is a dirty word, and you really shouldn't use it in public.

I thought I might cover a bit of the presidential history of the country and get you all up to date.

Following a great deal of fuss from its North African colonies, France decided to pull out of Tunisia in 1956. Elected by popular vote was a visionary Tunisian. Arrested and then freed by Nazi Germany during the Second World War, Habib Bourguiba was always a figurehead for his people, and once elected he proved to be a visionary leader.

His policy of Westernization and secularization consequently reduced the role of religion in society, abolished religious schools and Islamic law courts, and banned polygamy. The regime repressed Islamic fundamentalism and established rights for women unmatched by any other Arab nation, making Tunisia one of the most liberal countries in the Arab world. - Country Watch -

At that time it was a one party government, and in 1975 Bourguiba was elected Presedent for life. In 1981 a multiparty system was implemented (as a salute to democracy perhaps?), but after a strong united opposition dominated the elections in 1981 and 1986 elections were boycotted.

It's at about this time that I start having trouble distinguishing: good guy? bad guy?

On November 7th (a date you see everywhere here - there is even a street named after it) Bourguiba was deposed in a "constitutional coup". The mastermind? Bourguiba's Prime Minister Zine El-Abidine Ben Ali who proclamed Bourguiba unfit to rule due to insanity.

As the new President he did enable certain positive reforms, enabling banned political newspapers to publish once again, and granted amnesty to more than 8000 prisoners jailed by the former government. He also renamed the Destourian Socialist Party to the Democratic Constitutional Rally, or RCD, and reformed the constitution to allow for a multi-party system and a five year presidential term (limited to three terms). These reforms have become known as "The Change".

Ben Ali (as he is called for short) is now on his fourth term as President. He continues to win elections with 99% of the vote. He is in his early 70s, though you wouldn't know it from his pictures or media shots, which always show him with dark hair and no wrinkles. And, if you can believe it, he recently had a newborn son (February, 2005).

It would be nice to believe, in light of the positive reforms that he put in place, that he is a benevolent dictator of sorts. Maybe that is true. I can't access Amnesty International or Human Rights Watch from here as the internet is sensored and those pages aren't allowed. If ever you are interested, check out the Country Reports on their sites and read about the human rights violations still taking place in this country. The people here never even hear about it.

In fact two weeks ago there was a protest involving thousands of students, and unless you were there to see it, it never happened. At all. You might remember Loren mentioning more police officer than civilians on the main street. That was about the only tip off...

Good? Bad? Doesn't make a difference? I'm still trying to decide. So is the population.

posted by tiaraletourneau @ 11:19 a.m.