Politique 45
Politics Malek Lakhal04 February 2019

Revolution in the Time of Neoliberalism, an interview with Asef Bayat

Author of “Life as Politics : How ordinary people change the Middle East” (2009), Asef Bayat is a sociology professor at the University of Illinois. His latest book “Revolutions without Revolutionnaries” (2017), questions the revolutionnary nature of the Arab Revolutions. He was invited by the Forum Tunisien des Droits Economiques et Sociaux (FTDES) to discuss the possibility of a revolution in a neoliberal context during a conference last month in Tunis. Nawaat met with Bayat to discuss the future of revolutions in a world taken hostage by a dying neoliberal order.

Rights Vanessa Szakal29 October 2014

South to North and the Sea in Between: Politics of Migration in the Mediterannean

At the beginning of the month, Journalist Farhat Othman criticized the Italian Interior Minister’s visit to Tunisia, observing that an offering of patrol boats, in the guise of support against terrorism and contraband, could only be intended for support against clandestine immigration since it consists of «patrol vessels mandanted by the cooperation agreement linking Tunisia and Italy since 2011 after the massive wave of Tunisians to Italy.» As if to provide a caricature of European politicans obsessed by preserving EU security, Nicolas Sarkozy addressed a cheering crowd of supporters in Nice earlier this week, calling for the «refounding» of the Schengen Area and «a real immigration policy to put an end to social tourism in our country.»

Politics Vanessa Szakal27 October 2014

Walkabout Tunis – Election day

Critical observation has been of the utmost importance in this first test of democratic elections, and national and foreign observers as well as journalists and media professionals have undertaken this task, watching, documenting, and reporting on the events of the day throughout the country. The next step will be to assemble all of these notes and testimonies and results to discern whether the inconsistencies and irregularities are a few, apparently isolated or arbitrary occurrences or if they are prevalent enough to indicate otherwise.

Politics Vanessa Szakal16 October 2014

American IRI and NDI Observation Delegations for Tunisia’s 2014 Elections

In Tunisia, public opinion has often questioned the authenticity of foreign initiatives to facilitate the country’s transition to democracy, based largely on skepticism of, for instance, the US’ silence/complicity in (a lack of truly democratic) political processes that kept Ben Ali in power for over two decades. Shortly after the President’s fled the country in January 2011, questions posed during a press conference at the US Embassy in Tunis on 21 February expressed as much; one Tunisian journalist explicitly asked, «How can we trust you?»

Politics Vanessa Szakal10 October 2014

Why has Ennahdha signed on with controversial American PR firm Burson-Marsteller?

Ennahdha’s lack of transparency around its agreement with Burson-Mersteller gives rise to inevitable suspicion that the transaction, contrary to encouraging «free and fair elections in Tunisia» might in fact undermine them. Ambiguity around the financial aspect of the deal (“Fees and expenses to be determined at a later date,” reads the official registration document) is a particular concern after political parties’ financial mismanagement in past elections.

Economy Vanessa Szakal26 September 2014

A Tiger Cannot Be Raised By Sheep – Economic Recovery and Party Politics in Tunisia

In this newest publication, World Bank economists Antonio Nucifora and Bob Rijkers reiterate this background of corruption, characterized by «limited competition and active state intervention» and of which enduring vestiges are manifest in «three dualisms, namely the onshore-offshore division, the dichotomy between the coast and the interior, and the segmentation of the labor market»– to explain the present economic crisis that is its legacy.

Media Vanessa Szakal20 September 2014

Reporting Through the Grapevine: Western and Tunisian Media on “Foreign Fighters” in Syria

Even if it is for the lack of up-to-date and relevant data produced and diffused by Tunisian government institutions, that Tunisian media draws from foreign mainstream reports without questioning the validity of the data, analysis, or sources used–reporting through the grapevine, as it were–is a practice that diminishes rather than enhances the quality of dialogue on current issues. Noteworthy, for example, is the number of news agencies that have referenced the recent CNN International study and imprecisely or incorrectly attributed it to the Washington-based non-profit Pew Research Center.

Politics Vanessa Szakal14 September 2014

Circumventing Political Exclusion – RCD After the Revolution and in the Coming Elections

What Euchi demonstrates in The Disappointment of the Revolution is the falling short of an effective transitional justice process, a degredation of standards since 2011 that has witnessed the successive criminalization of former regime officials to their pardoning, to the concession of their right to engage in politics. Those who were initially seen as “enemies” of the state have gradually come to be recognized as political equals, now rivals now allies as per the momentary needs of political parties vying for electoral ground.

Politics Vanessa Szakal17 August 2014

Between a Rock and a Hard Place: Tunisia and Israel, Tunisia and the US

As much as Tunisia’s initial, post-independence, political transition was influenced by the extent and nature of economic support from the West, the success of the country’s waning post-revolution «democratic transition» is significantly impacted by the same US and EU powers. A misnomer that diminishes the scope and complexity of international alliances and enmities that it encompasses, the Arab-Israeli conflict bears greatly upon Tunisia’s relations with Western democracies, the primary prospective investors and financial backers of political transition in Tunisia for the past half century.

Politics Vanessa Szakal16 July 2014

Interventionism, Systematic Alignment Instill Political Divisiveness – and No Resolve for Gaza

In Tunisia, there is a great deal of skepticism regarding the competency and «responsible governance» of the interim government in juxtaposition with Tunisia’s international image as the ‘sole democracy in the Arab world’ as citizens sense that technocrats and politicians are incapable of rising above their own political and electoral trajectories to synchronise a unified, coordinated national response to aggression that is tantamount to a Palestinian holocaust.

Politics Vanessa Szakal09 July 2014

Moving the Masses to Reject Terrorism / Register to Vote

The interim government’s approach to addressing terrorism is a continual source of public discontentment, and heightened security issues have directly influenced citizenry’s reticence to participate in political processes, according to several La Presse and Nawaat reports. On the same day that the Ministry of National Defense reported on the Jebel Ouergha explosion, the High Independent Authority for Elections (ISIE) announced the markedly low turnout for voter registration.

Media Vanessa Szakal09 June 2014

Tunisia: Harmonizing Politics and Media for and before the Elections

As much as instruments to monitor and ensure transparency and the constitutional operation of state powers and processes, the HAICA and the ISIE are, just several months into their roles, equally accountable for their own transparency and constitutional operation. The next six months will not only measure their competency and capacity to fulfill this dual responsability but will more generally decide the nature and successfulness of elections and the direction of the country through and beyond the transition period.

Politics Vanessa Szakal12 May 2014

One Hundred Days of Lentitude – Assessing Jomâa’s Work in Office

If its delivery is distinctive, the overwhelming message from public figures and ordinary citizens is the same: the gravity of the economic crisis—whether the exacerbated image of a political media campaign or an accurate portrayal of the country’s disequilibrium— is such that the Prime Minister has been called upon to transcend the drawn-out bickering of a politicized National Economic Dialogue, to take actions in measure with the severity of the situation that he has expounded in his discourse and communication with Tunisia and the international community, to devise a roadmap that sets out long-term, sweeping structural reforms.