One would almost wish that this situation ends whatever the way and the quality of men who will govern this country, which has been waiting for nearly two years, for the calm, serenity and economic development it used to experience in the past despite dictatorships.
Tunisian economy and people, indeed, are in urgent need for stability, and it can suffer no disunity. What has been happening in Tunisia for a few days provides no tangible evidence that the stability and national unity are in perspective.
Four events and four Tunisian figures directly linked with each others recently made the news in Tunisia. These news were not the happiest. They show to the most recalcitrant observers of the Tunisian political scene that the troika is breaking down, if it had not been already destroyed, despite firefighters and “gap closers” from all sides.
Marzouki-Jbali-Mahmoudi
The case is known and has attracted the attention of Tunisians only because it t was revealing about the state of relations between the President of the Republic of Tunisia from the CPR and the Prime Minister from Ennahdha in the ruling troika.
The President had announced, weeks before the incident, that he will never sign anything that will hand over the former prime minister of Libya to the Libyan government before the next election. Then came the Prime Minister who said he will hand over the same Baghdadi without his signature and implemented this decision without even informing him. This meant that the President and the Prime Minister were not on the same wavelength and that there is dissent from one side or the other. This is visible notwithstanding all legal explanations of the ones or the others and it does not bode well for democracy.
Worse, the Tunisian Minister of Finance, during the TV program “Assaraha Raha” and a senior Libyan official during a program at Attounissya TV demonstrate and provide evidence of a deal between the two Tunisian and Libyan governments. Though Baghdadi may be a great criminal, does the “reasons of State” justify exchanging a man’s life with money?
Would the boats of the Presidency, from the CPR and the Prime Ministry have, rightly, taken up water with this affair?
What is certain is that this by no means serves the “Revolution” of Tunisia. Those who are currently governing Tunisia on behalf of the revolution which had nevertheless been staged while they were abroad could answer saying: the wine does not matter, as much as there is drunkenness.
Marzouki-Jbali-Nabli
A few weeks ago, President of Tunisia Moncef Marzouki, announced without warning that he had already decided to dismiss the Governor of the BCT (Central Bank of Tunisia). The latter was already the subject of media attacks particularly from a powerful businessman, though known for his links with Imed Trabelsi, now in prison. The Government and the BCT have kept good relation, as evidenced by statements of both of them.
Jbali and MK Nabli meet frequently to talk about economics and finance, Nabli or the deputy governor attend inter-ministerial meetings. So things were running smoothly. Taking advantage of the absence of Jbali who was in France, Marzouki announced, again informally, but on Facebook and without never giving reasons, that he has already sacked MK Nabli. In the government, there was a general chaos. “Firefighter Dilou” said, first, that the government was unaware and then said it was informed. He spoke highly of Nabli, but without going as far as to tell that he we will keep his office. Yet, the economic adviser of Jbali stepped in to confirm it in an interview with a renewed news agency, before changing his mind and said that this issue is still under discussion within the Government.
As for Jbali he said one thing in France and its opposite in Tunisia, in speaking about the dismissal of the Governor of BCT about which no official letter had yet arrived at the central registry of the Constituent Assembly.
Who is telling the truth? And who is making hoax and lies openly? Why all this and what is the point behind it? And if all this would not mean anything, except for simple power games between the two heads of the Tunisian executive? And what if there was really no pilot in the plane of the Tunisian government in which the pilot and copilot are competing for command?
In this case, what would be the attitude of foreign investors, donors and those in front of whom Tunisian officials are trying to look good to make believe in better economic prospects and a strong ability to repay the billions of dinars under next debts? It is anything and nothing.
Triki-Bouchlaka-Jbali-Al-Maghrib
A few weeks ago, a Secretary of State whom Tunisians had discovered during the coup in Mali where he was on an official visit, solemnly, announced that citizens of the five Maghreb countries can now enter Tunisia without a passport, work there and become property owners and even vote in the upcoming municipal elections. On June 26, 2012, Abdullah Triki, Secretary of State for African and Maghreb Affairs at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs had actually announced that Tunisia has decided to implement, “unilaterally,” as he said, the five freedoms for Maghreb citizens without any obligation to grant prior authorization by the Tunisian Government.
And while the entire political class raged against this decision, the silence of the Tunisian Foreign Minister was so complicit. He woke up only after the first Maghreb slap that came from Algeria which rejected this measure. A week later, on July 2, Rafik Abdessalem stated that “the passport is still required for Maghreb nationals to enter the Tunisian territory.”
In an interview with the National Radio last Wednesday, Agriculture Minister Mohamed Ben Salem told us in an aside that his colleague was angry. No sanction however will be taken against the secretary of state who angered his minister and made an entire people receive an Algerian masterly slap, transgressed all laws on the subject, overlooked his minister, his head of government and the entire Constituent Assembly. It is a situation of a great mess which Tunisia by no means needs. This situation confirms, once again, if necessary, that the government of Jbali is made up of apprentice politicians and they turn out to be playing, every time, the sorcerer’s apprentice!
Marzouki and his statements!
To all these events, is added of course Moncef Marzouki, the Interim President who is experiencing the pleasures of the presidency and comfort made up of luxury cars, motorcades with great fanfare and yacht trips. He is an eccentric politician who blows air into empty executive prerogatives and member of a coalition that is leaking everywhere.
He is also a former president of a rebel CPR rebel who makes excessive use of the resignation. Marzouki has become a president who imposes the rule that anything goes. He communicates via Facebook with the official bodies of a state under construction.
He announced a first speech then cancelled it because of a match that has nothing to do with Tunisia. He suggested delivering another and then refuted this second speech, a few hours before it is aired. He refuses to resign as he was advised by everyone and as expected by a large segment of Tunisians, to go and tell to representatives of political parties, he almost did it.
It is a situation of anything and nothing for a state that has always lived with a President whose speech is not only wind and whose words are facts; a President whose statements are political events that mark the future; a President whose image is that of an entire people.
