Every historical fact contains a rebound mechanism. The recent events in Tunisia
illustrate the law of History in the Hegelian meaning as recalled by Karl Marx
in his Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte . July 25th, 2021 seems to be, so
to speak, a repetition and a continuation of January 14th, 2011. However, one
could object that different perspectives view the context differently.
Nevertheless, if we analyse the situation more broadly, we would establish that
the mechanism underlying the course of the events is quite similar: the society
reaches an impasse that strangulates itself. In this paper, I would like to
illustrate how the two events repeat the same historical trajectory; Moreover, I
will explain how viewing the circumstances in Tunisia from a historical context
can re-install the revolutionary process and proceed to its reorientation.
Let’s
go back to the dictionary’s definition of the word “rebound” which is the key
word of my reflection. For the first definition I choose the description from
the perspective of the people. Rebound than means “to bounce back after hitting
a hard surface”. January 14th, 2011 offered hope for a new democratic and
prosperous Tunisia. However, the year progressively changed into a nightmare
after the rise of a new parliamentary dictatorship. A branch of the Muslim
brotherhood, whom were called the Ennahdha party, ruled the country for ten
years and were accused of being responsible for political assassinations (Chokri
Belaïd, February 2013 and Mohamed Brahmi, July 2013) and terrorist attacks
during their reign (Bardo museum in march 2015, hotels in Sousse in June 2015).
Furthermore, the country’s prosperity parameters all exemplified a rapid
decline. As a matter of fact, in this decade, external dept and unemployment
reached their highest level ever.
The country reached the bottom of its deepest
crises. It could not be worse, and the feeling that it had to end was growing.
Under the weight of the suppressed atmosphere, a glimmer of hope appeared in the
2019 presidential election. To everyone’s surprise Kaïs Saïd, the actual
president of Tunisia and a former constitutional law teacher at the university
of Tunis, was elected even though he had been an outsider, had no political
party and no budget for his campaign, contrary to all other candidates. His plan
and aspirations were to get rid of the political system installed since 2011 in
Tunisia. In fact one of his main mottos was: “they should leave, all of them!”.
To put it simply: After hitting the bottom of the crisis, voices started to rise
demanding the parliament’s dissolution.
Let’s now consider the word “rebound”
from the opposite perspective; the one of the ruling party in the last decade.
In this context, I will refer to another definition of the word according to the
same Cambridge Dictionary: “if an action rebounds on you, it does not have the
effect you hoped for but has an unpleasant effect on you instead”. Since the
2011 elections, it was clear that the Islamist party Ennahdha, although they
were biggest winner back then, was not welcomed anymore. The party was elected
for a one year term. However, it took three years and many demonstrations to
force the party to abdicate their power and to organize new elections in 2014.
Its popularity was declining and the party had to join forces with another
faction in order to maintain control over the most important institutions: the
departments of administration and justice. It was becoming obvious that the
alliance did not hold. ...
Full text : https://eutopiainstitute.org/2021/09/tunisia-july-the-25th-or-the-18th-brumaire-of-kais-said/?fbclid=IwAR3F42O7k6TfvipY4wsX8rJd3P94A5OW09H1tdzsmhcwfpO0eJnRrT9ORks
