A Shabby Spring in Tunisia

By Béchir Talbi

In 2011, Tunisians rose against the government and forced the President of the Republic to leave the country. Despite the fervor of the movement, it seems that the situation did not change much since then. Certainly, there has been a remarkable advance in freedom of expression, but the values and behaviors of the old regime continue to govern the scene at all levels. The Constitution, promulgated in 2014, does not bring any truly new element of response to the question of identity and was content to reiterate the vision already expressed in 1959. Ten years later, the democratic attempt continues with distress. Most of the officials consider cultural challenges a lower priority. However, should the country finally dare meet those facing the new Republic and succeed in the transition from ethnoculture to pluralism? In a series of articles published between 2012 and 2018, collected in this book, the author tries to shed another light on this "Tunisian Spring" which struggles to reach maturity.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Béchir Talbi
• Release date: Oct 27, 2021
• ISBN: 9798201376055

Book preview

Mohamed Béchir TALBI

A Shabby

Spring

in Tunisia

Can Tunisian Democracy

overcome

its Cultural Challenges?

Table of Contents

First page

Tunisia

Copyright

Preamble

Identity Issues

A Vibrant Opening

The End of Dhimmitude

The Ethno-Cultural Consensus

The Cobweb

The Naturalization Policy

The Subjective Approach

The Radicalization of the Concept

A New Discrimination

An Affiliation to a New Order

A Shrunken Social Tissue

Communities and the New Ethnic Background

A civic nation or an ethnic nation?

The New Categorization

The Political Spectrum

The Recasting

The Ethnocultural Cluster

The Islamist Movement

The Jihadists

The Universalist Stream

The Reformists

The Monarchist Project

To sum up

A Multi-Faceted Prism

The Deconstruction

The Language Issue

The French Example

The Code of Personal Status

The Bureaucratization of the Spiritual Power

The President-Monarch

A few tips to restore social cohesion

The Freedom of Conscience in the New Regime

Shadows Dance in a Ring

The Anteroom of Chaos

Youth Adrift

Manipulation at Bare Face

The Electromagnetic Mind Control

A Foray Into Conspiracy

The Inheritance Act at Issue

The Project

Acting with consistency

Accepting a Plural Society

Dissociating Confession From Nationality

The Approaches

The Skirmish Keeps Going

The Modernist-Islamist Sword Fight

Main points scored by the Islamists (the blue team)

Main points scored by the modernists (the red team)

Language Issues

The Amazigh Ksars

Tataouine and Its Surroundings

The Ksars (Qalǎa)

The Salt Lakes Region

The Ksars Today

The Privatization of Collective Land

How to get to Tataouine?

Amazigh Women [1]

The Amazigh Time

Calendars

The organization of Amazigh time

An African Alphabet: The Tifinagh

Tamazirt: An Endangered Language

The Teaching of the Tamazirt

In Morocco

In Algeria

In France

In the European Countries

Under Other Skies

Revitalize the Tamazirt

Languages of Tunisia

Linguistic Watercolor (1)

Linguistic Watercolor (2)

Supporting an Amazigh Manifesto

Afterword

About the Author

Tunisia

D:\Ongoing\EnCours\Epub\English version\Tunisia.png

Copyright

In this book, the text is licensed under the Creative Commons/4.0 International: Attribution, No Commercial, No Modifications license. To access a copy of this license, please go to the following URL: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/or send a mail to: Creative Commons, 444 Castro Street, Suite 900, Mountain View, California, 94041, USA.

Preamble

Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.

Universal Declaration of Human Rights (adopted 10 December 1948 UNGA Res 217 A (III) (UDHR) art 19.

T

he events that took place in Tunisia in 2010-2011 gave rise to abundant literature. We talked about revolution, democratic transition, uprising, and spring! But even today, after a decade of painful learning, protests, and strikes, very harsh and frequent, are still commonplace. Security has indeed improved markedly and acts of terrorism have decreased compared to previous years, but the expectations of the masses are far from being met, and the 2011 shabby Spring keeps moving on an uncertain track. It is December 2020, a year-end marked by the COVID-19 pandemic, and the democratic transition is about to collapse.

Extremely revolutionary situations, writes Charles Tilly [1], do not necessarily produce revolutionary outcomes (1978, p. 199). This is a bit like what we currently have in Tunisia. The 2011 situation was taken over by politicians, including Islamists, Arab-Islamic modernists, and even jihadists, who have virtually nothing to do with the outbreak of events. For the most part, they have climbed on the bandwagon, and their agenda is, for some, very different if not completely the opposite of the demands and expectations expressed by Tunisians in 2011, especially in terms of dignity, freedom, of social justice.

The following content consists of articles previously published on a blog (tadnut) between 2012 and 2017. They relate to the Berber question in Tunisia and also to the events of that period. We believe that besides economic and social issues, cultural and identity matters should be at the heart of the political project of the second Republic to build an inclusive society, a system of values and behaviors matching the aspirations of those who put an end to more than half a century of dictatorship.

A constitutional text perhaps unites, if not the populations, at least those who produced it. A well-made constitution lasts a long time and adroitly regulates the political game. According to the media, the 2014 Constitution is far from combining these qualities and should be revised to remedy its shortcomings: government instability, a voting system that favors the fragmentation of the Parliament, lack of a clear majority necessary for government stability or a regime whose nature remains imprecise: neither presidential nor parliamentary. Whatever its value, the constitutional text remains the only reference that gives certain benchmarks on the political project of a country. That is why we have brought it to the fore in our presentation.

The second part concerns languages. The current situation would be akin to a real denial concerning Tamazirt in particular. The authorities ignore their duties in terms of linguistic planning, which results in a misshapen cultural project, dominated by a staging of Arabism, bordering on farce!

We have decided to speak up because it is our right. Secondly, we believe that specialists have, to some extent, either betrayed our aspirations or worse, seen themselves as the sole holders of knowledge and have taken our problems hostage to monopolize their resolution. We have also sought to bring to a large extent a societal vision that reconnects with the cultural pluralism of the country. Indeed, this soil has seen many civilizations succeed one another over the past centuries, and their imprints make it a land of asylum and good fortune. Trying to reduce its vocation is a danger that must be stemmed at all costs!

[1] Tilly C, 1978. - From Mobilization to Revolution, Reading (Mass.), Addison-Wesley.

Identity Issues

A Vibrant Opening

T

he very new Tunisian constitution was adopted on January 26, 2014, and its publication took place on February 10 of the same year. We can only rejoice after this achievement which consolidates the country in its tradition based on the rule of law.

Let us keep in mind that our first constitution was established in 1861, and at that time, countries like Germany and Italy were still at the stage of building their unity. Indeed, Bismarck wished to unify Germany under the domination of Prussia by blood and iron. It took him three wars to achieve his task. First, that of 1864 against Denmark, then the war against Austria in 1866. The Prussians achieve a lightning victory at Sadowa, following which William I, King of Prussia, takes the head of the Confederation of North Germany. Finally, in 1870-1871, the war against France completed unity and the German Empire was created on January 18, 1871, in the Hall of Mirrors of the Palace of Versailles. France passes on Alsace and northern Lorraine (Germanic language) to this new victorious Empire.

The adoption of Tunisia's third constitution was announced during a vibrant ceremony attended by representatives of various States and organizations from around the world, including the Secretary-General of the United Nations. Of course, everyone, in their way, expressed either their joy or their satisfaction at seeing Tunisia endow itself with a new constitution, and some stressed that it is the most modern in the Arab world, etc. Congratulations from everywhere to such an extent that the national elite fell in turmoil under the weight of so many compliments and praises. Some MPs cried, others had passed out and several hugged. Okay, we're not going to comment on this outpouring of emotion. Praises, etc., which are part of the protocol, showed that the international community has other fish to fry than to deal with another violent conflict in a country like Tunisia, which asks only to offer to the world its sun, the kindness of its people and its proverbial smile. And then, our country has nothing that can stir up foreign desires. In any case, these international witnesses have no lessons to give us, especially since some of them did not have a constitution until the 2nd half of the 20th century, just after the end of the Second World War. Global. Note also that the country was not facing an armed conflict as in Sri Lanka for example, to justify such a strong foreign presence in Le Bardo. And then, the major world powers and the United Nations did not have to intervene in the adoption of the Tunisian fundamental law.

This is a short and incomplete picture of the circumstances surrounding the adoption of the Tunisian constitution of 2014. There is much more to be said both regarding debates and the behavior of several MPs. For example, some had demanded the payment of an alleged housing allowance before the vote, in short, nonsense and delusional tales.

So, and to summarize, this constitution was well produced by the Tunisian elite who adopted it without any constraint or violence. It is the result of a compromise between the opposition and the Islamist party supported by its allies, at the head of the government on the date of entry into force of the aforesaid constitution. With this clarification, we want to do away with the specious argument that has been put forward that this is a constitution dictated by foreign powers. The argument was also used about the first constitution, but regarding the current situation, it is inappropriate!

The future will tell us whether the 2014 Constitution will be truly unifying, or, on the contrary, an instrument that fuels the current divides and gives birth to new ones.

The End of Dhimmitude

M

arch 20, 2012. As Tunisia celebrates its independence, thousands of Tunisians marched through the capital to reject repeated calls from conservative Islamists to include in the new constitution that Islamic law will henceforth be the only source of law in the country. During the first plenary session of the National Constituent Assembly on February 28, 2012, many statements were made to outline the content of this text. Almost all the speakers expressed their views on the issue of identity and placed it in an exclusive Arab-Islamic setting. The street participated in the process and many demonstrations took place across the country in favor of either an Islamic or a modern state, depending on the political coloring of the organizers.

Recently (March 26), the National Constituent Assembly, through its Commission, voted in favor of a first article of the new constitution the same as that of the 1959 Constitution, and thus rejected the proposals put forward by the Islamists aiming to make Sharia (Islamic law) as the sole source of law in the country. This first article states that: Tunisia is a free, independent and sovereign state; its religion is Islam, its language Arabic, and its regime is republican.

One can think that the deal reached by the Assembly is a masterstroke carried out by the modernist camp, which succeeded in convincing the ruling party to give up Sharia law and put a damper on its attempt to deepen the Islamization of the institutions in the country. However, pending confirmation on publication of the new constitution, the issue is not yet definitively settled and the debate continues.

We imagined that the debate would be part of the dynamic created by the popular masses for freedom, social justice, dignity, and equal opportunity, regardless of gender and social extraction. But in reality, various statements are calling for the reinstatement of Islamic law and the hegemony of the Arabic language. In short, this debate is indeed anachronistic, as it had been already resolved through the reformist choices of the 19th century. The Husseinite dynasty had decided to modernize the Administration and the Army, drawing inspiration from the reforms launched at the time by the Sublime Porte, the court of the Ottoman Empire. Kheireddine Pasha said that «the future of Muslim civilization is linked to modernization» (Le plus sûr moyen pour connaitre l'état des nations/The Surest Way to Know the State of Nations). At the beginning of the 20th century, leading Tunisian thinkers had been already in favor of girls' education and the suppression of the hijab.

The article at stake was a new provision incorporated in the 1959 Constitution and was steadily implemented throughout the period from 1959 to 2011. The issue affects all Tunisians, and to illustrate its social consequences, it is appropriate to look into its impact on the populations of the time, in particular the Jewish community.

Before the adoption of the 1959 Constitution, representatives of Jewish organizations met the former president regarding the new clause, when it was still only a draft. They reassured them of their intention and claimed that the article does not mean that Islam will be the only religion in the country, as each individual is entitled to choose its form of worship. For them, the provision was no more than a sociological statement.

This argument is completely incompatible with the preamble of the 1959 Constitution, which goes further by affirming only «the will of the Tunisian people to remain faithful to the teachings of Islam, to the unity of the great Maghreb and its belonging to the Arab family», without clarifying the fate of the non-Arab or Muslim components of Tunisian society at the time. A year later, the suppression of the Rabbinical Courts announced the abolition of what remained of the statute of dhimmitude after the promulgation of the Fundamental Pact in 1857. Therefore, the set of rules that governed the presence of the Jewish community in Tunisia for centuries, was swept away. As a direct consequence, this community began to leave the country.

Compared to the first Constitution (1861) and the Fundamental Pact of 1857 (Ahd al-Aman), Article 1 of the 1959 texts represents an unfortunate step backward. Indeed, the Fundamental Pact guaranteed, in particular, the equality of the inhabitants of the Regency (Muslims or not) before the law and the taxation system as well as the security of persons and property (aman meaning security). This legislative statute of equal rights represented a remarkable alleviation of the obligations hanging over the People of the Book (Jews and Christians) due to their status of dhimmi, and was equated with a de facto removal of this status for better integration in the host society.

This situation continued during the French protectorate of 1881 until independence in 1956. During this period, Tunisia was (and will always remain despite everything) a state for all Tunisians, regardless of «religion, language or color."

According to the general demographic census carried out in February 1956, the number of Jews was probably between 55,000 and 60,000 out of a population of 3,815,000. Three-quarters of them lived in Tunis and its suburbs. In the decade following independence and the creation of the Republic of Tunisia, the population of the Jewish community declined by approximately 88.7%, due to emigration to France, Israel, and other countries.

It is recognized