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Tunisia: Before and After 2011.: Med Ali Belaiba

The 2011 Tunisian revolution opened up political and social discourse after decades of repression under Ben Ali. While Tunisia has achieved democratic milestones like new constitutions and elections, it still faces challenges like political instability, security issues, and economic problems. Observers debate whether the country's situation indicates failure of the post-revolution governments or the difficulties of institutionalizing change. The revolution irreversibly established freedoms of speech and assembly, though lingering wounds from the old regime continue to influence politics and public opinion. On the revolution's fifth anniversary, Tunisians grapple with institutional progress as well as unhealed social divisions.

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27 views3 pages

Tunisia: Before and After 2011.: Med Ali Belaiba

The 2011 Tunisian revolution opened up political and social discourse after decades of repression under Ben Ali. While Tunisia has achieved democratic milestones like new constitutions and elections, it still faces challenges like political instability, security issues, and economic problems. Observers debate whether the country's situation indicates failure of the post-revolution governments or the difficulties of institutionalizing change. The revolution irreversibly established freedoms of speech and assembly, though lingering wounds from the old regime continue to influence politics and public opinion. On the revolution's fifth anniversary, Tunisians grapple with institutional progress as well as unhealed social divisions.

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rubens
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Med Ali Belaiba

Tunisia : Before and after 2011.

2011 revolutionary movement was a volcanic reaction to decades of heavy political and social
repression against dissenters, human-rights activists and workers, who developed a collective
yearning for a just and inclusive political and economic order.

However, progress toward often viewed through different lenses.

Many highlight Tunisia as a success story.

Its first election cycle opened the political system to an Ennahda-led coalition of parties, which
drafted a celebrated democratic constitution.

The second election marked the first defeat of an incumbent Islamist government but also saw its
first successful Peace Prize and its place among the Forbes top-10 list of start-up friendly
countries.

Other observers have focused on negative developments, including the assassination of two
leftist politicians, ongoing attacks against security forces, the horrific acts committed against
tourists at the Bardo Museum in Tunis and a beach resort in Sousse, the subsequent government
crackdown, including arbitrary arrests, and increasing fears of the criminalization of public
expression and protest.

Moreover, Nidaa Tounes, the ruling party that won the 2014 legislative elections, is collapsing
under the weight of infighting, with massive defection among its deputies and members of its
political bureau.

political achievements indicative of liberal democratic consolidation, or the linking of devastating


Tunisia stands today but have also influenced public opinion.

Juxtaposing moments of success with trends of failure, has resulted in an emphasis of an


epistemology of absence the idea that something fundamental is missing in Tunisia, which needs
rapid reform, particularly along economic and security lines, to continue on its democratic track.

Med Ali Belaiba


Most devastatingly, the reform-focused emphasis based on absence and inadequacy, has
contributed to popular sentiments of frustration with the post-revolutionary governments and
potentially dangerous calls to bring the old order back.

Warnings of an unstable political transition have reinforced these sentiments and have called into
question the revolutionary movement, its aspirations, dreams, courage, and most importantly, the
fundamental achievements of Tunisians in the last five years.

More profoundly, such doubts might explain the tacit acceptance by some of the return of former
Ben Ali regime elements into politics, the economy and public life.

The fifth anniversary of the Tunisian revolution provides a moment to reflect and rethink the
political trajectory of how a revolution is institutionalized and to separate the very real euphoria of
a revolutionary movement from various forms of discontent with post-revolutionary governance.

one that astonishingly seems to have been forgotten is the space for political critique, assembly
and speech that the revolution carved and has protected.

In only five years, public debate in Tunisia has been marked by contentious and open
discussions about previously taboo topics, including religion and political orders, rule of law,
stability vs. reform, gay rights, national consensus and political compromise, artistic expression,
and the meaning of revolution and a democratic polity.

It is the revolution that has made such discourse possible.

Today, Tunisia is celebrating first and foremost a rupture from dictatorship and the dreams and
aspiration that have flourished with that political opening.

While the last five years have been marked by exemplary political achievements, Tunisians
continue to grapple with the legacy of the old regime and the still-open wounds that it created.

In the fall, a proposed economic reconciliation bill to grant amnesty to former regime figures
stirred public debate and gave rise to a movement called Manich Msameh (I will not forgive).

Such public reactions indicate that, despite important institutional advances toward transitional
justice via law and the establishment of a Truth orial past continue to loom in the near memory.

Med Ali Belaiba


Not all Tunisians are willing to sacrifice consensual stability for social peace and public
forgiveness.

Such sentiments have been perhaps most successfully addressed through artistic production that
confron ral-rich Gafsa region.

museum, former political prisoners lead guided tours, recounting their stories of persecution,
imprisonment and torture.

Screened across Tunisia the evening before the anniversary, Leyla musicians pushing the
boundaries of the permissible through lyrics and poetry just months before the revolution.

Endeavors like these continuously remind Tunisians of the open wounds still to be healed that
transcend the high politics of parties, commissions and elections.

The 2011 revolution fundamentally changed the rules of the political game in Tunisia, and while it
remains a source of contention and conflict, this achievement is irreversible.

As painful testimonies and artistic representations remind us, today, unlike in 2010, Tunisians can
publicly debate and disagree on their new political order.

Tunisia is celebrating the anniversary of the end of silence: the irreversible effects of a revolution
that has opened space for the outpouring of ideas, political ideologies, criticisms of policy and
politicians, commentary and free speech.

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