Vendredi 21 novembre, à quelques heures du silence électoral, omniprésent, Béji Caïd Essebsi est simultanément sur les deux plus grandes chaînes TV privées du pays, sans contradicteur, face à des interlocuteurs complaisants. Son concurrent direct Moncef Marzouki se contente d’un entretien sur TNN, jeune chaine avec moins de moyens. Une bipolarisation médiatique asymétrique reflet d’une société fin prête pour la restauration.
Polemical public figures who provoke protests upon their arrival or an outpouring of public response to their ideologies and work are as telling of the values and issues precious to Tunisian public opinion as they are of the controversial figures themselves.
Le manque de transparence d’Ennahdha autour de son accord avec Burson-Marsteller suscite des soupçons inévitables sur la transaction qui, au contraire d’encourager des «élections libres et équitables en Tunisie», pourrait, en fait, les miner. L’ambiguïté autour de l’aspect financier de la transaction, (“Frais à déterminer à une date ultérieure,” lit-on dans le document d’enregistrement officiel) est un sujet de préoccupation particulier, après la mauvaise gestion financière des partis, lors des dernières élections. En effet, certaines questions s’imposent : qui a financé ce projet ? De quel fond sera-t-il financé ? Quelles sont les modalités de paiement ?
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.
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.
It is the transgression from the notion of censorship as a right and protection against physical and verbal violence that Tunisia’s legislative body must now recalibrate in order to advance in this period designated as democratic transition. That Tunisian law adheres to international standards is not merely insufficient, but ill-fitted, unconstructive, and myopic if compliance with international conventions translates into the copy-paste importation of text and a lack of contextualization and comparative analysis.
The adoption of a charter signifying convergence on the ‘rules of the game,’ is precisely the sort of written agreement recommended by the International Crisis Group for continued, limited consensus that distinguishes healthy political party competition from enmity spurred by the prioritization of personal/partisan gain and power.
مع رسوخ النظام تدريجياً وأعادة تشكله وتموقع اللاعبين السياسين داخله وذهابه في صيغة ديمقراطية مدارة تقوم على إنتخابات شكلانية لا تمس من جوهر النظام، نلاحظ إزدهار عمل الماكينات الإعلامية الحزبية الكبرى والماكينات الإعلامية الرسمية وغير الرسمية المرتبطة باللوبيات المحلية وحجم البروباغندا التي تبثها لإنجاح المسار وتثبيته نهائياً.
Plusieurs études viennent démontrer, aujourd’hui, la position qu’occupe la démocratie tunisienne par rapport à l’ensemble des pays de ce monde. En effet, prenant en compte plusieurs indicateurs, Le « Good Country Index » (l’indice des bons pays) et le « Fragile States index » (l’indice des pays fragiles) situent différemment la place occupée par la démocratie tunisienne au sein du monde.
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.
Several comparative studies featuring Tunisia have recently caught our attention at Nawaat, and here we reflect on them conjunctively in the context of a sort of comparative examination of our own. The Good Country Index passes as the most engaging for its pragmatic persective and reassuring assertion that the index is one alternative perspective that is to be considered in conjunction other indices and analyses; the Fragile States Index is mildly interesting without presenting any strikingly revelatory insight, while two articles from The Economist that examine the so-called Arab World are flagrantly devoid of research- and critical thinking-based material for relevant, constructive discussion.
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.
يشتكي التونسيون في هذه الفترة وبصفة واضحة وعلنية من الظهور المفرط لممثلي النقابات الأمنية بوسائل الإعلام بمختلف أصنافها. فممثلوا هذه النقابات أصحبوا وجوها تلفزية معروفة تطرح المشاكل وتقدم الحلول وتوجه الإتهامات لأطراف بعينها وتنزّه أطرافا أخرى في مسائل تخص أمن البلاد وذلك بالتزامن مع حدوث عمليات إرهابية في مناطق متفرقة من البلاد.
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.
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.
What does foreign media make of the Ministry of Tourism’s recent decision to regulate the entry of Jews carrying Israel passports into the country? How will a national debate that encompasses questions of ethnicity, religion, secularism, history, and international relations influence potential tourists to Tunisia? For better or worse, the Djerba controversy and Karboulmania that have overcome Tunisia have yet to titillate the international community; if they have penetrated foreign media, the effects on potential tourists appear yet negligible, and reports are charged with neither the spit nor flame of online articles and commentaries from Tunisian journalists and readers alike.
من الطبيعيّ أن تشهد الساحة السياسيّة بعض المواقف الطريفة أو أن تتناقل وسائل الإعلام “الشطحات” أو بعض التصريحات الشاذّة، ولكن الغريب هو أن تحظى بنفس أهميّة مآسي عدّة عرفتها البلاد خلال السنوات الثلاث الأخيرة، بل وتتمكّن بعض الأحداث العابرة أو الآراء الشّاذة من تغطية مسائل وقضايا مصيريّة كواقع الحياة السياسيّة وقضيّة الشهداء ومسألة الإصلاحات الهيكليّة في القطاع العموميّ.
Force est de constater que nous assistons depuis quelque temps à un discours général sur l’état de notre économie de plus en plus alarmiste. Membres du gouvernement, hommes politiques, économistes et médias reprennent en chœur un même discours parfois contraire aux prévisions, allant même à contresens des précédentes déclarations plutôt optimistes.
