Out of Shame, into the Light

We knew the transition would be hard. Members of the regime are still trying to salvage it, or simply to save their lives. Victory is not yet at hand. The Tunisian people, along with the intellectuals, politicians and the commanders of the armed forces must attempt to display determination, moderation and patience. Nothing will be easy. Expelling a dictator is a first step; dismantling and suppressing an authoritarian system based on cronyism and corruption is the next. The process will be a long one; we must remain vigilant. The revolution in Tunisia may be co-opted, confiscated or manipulated by individuals or groups with obscure and anti-democratic aims.

The transitional government that has just assumed control is no more than a fig leaf, to be rejected out of hand. The appointment of a member of the ‘old’ regime as Interior Minister tells us all we need to know about how the ‘new’ regime intends to operate. The alternative must be pluralist and non-partisan—but it must also be radically new, to make ready for elections in six months.

Unsurprisingly, we have heard the voices of new converts to “democracy” in Tunisia. Today they praise “the people’s courage” and its “extraordinary movement” for freedom. They are popping up right and left, in political and intellectual circles: the same people who declared as recently as two years ago on French television that “in the name of secularism” the Tunisian regime was right to be undemocratic. But today they rush to sign appeals to democracy and moderation.

The French media, which find it so difficult to hear the voices of France’s former colonies, continue to turn to these self-same accomplices of the collapsing regime, to explain Tunisia to the French. With or without Ben Ali, the only legitimate voices of the Maghreb, whether for the best families of Paris or the majority of media outlets, continue to be those of the colonized and the sell-outs. To their lasting shame.

Why does the media not listen to the voices of other intellectuals or journalists, people like Moncef Marzouki, a man of great integrity, in their struggle for true democracy in Tunisia? Hundreds of men and women, of all political persuasions, have refused to bow their heads. It is they who must take the lead in building for Tunisia a future of dignity, transparency and freedom.

Determined women and men are now working to accelerate developments in Jordan and in Egypt, not to mention Algeria and Syria. The regimes in those countries are on a war footing, firmly opposed to even a hint of change from below. In all probability nothing will happen in the short term; but how deeply we hope that their peoples awaken and shake the very regimes that political leaders, opposition parties and intellectuals have not been able to reform or to overthrow. How deeply we desire to see similar broad-based, determined, non-violent popular movements arise in all the Arab countries—wherever dictators rule, in fact—and that their example opens the path to a brighter future.

Something has happened in Tunisia: we have witnessed a historical moment. A psychological and political barrier has been breached. Each one of us must now work to keep alive the movement toward the dignity and freedom of peoples. There will be a price to pay: inclusive, non-violent movements will mourn their dead. But in the long run the future, and with it the lives of women, men and the younger generation will be safeguarded. That future is our business. No matter where we are.