Tunisians Need to Beware of Enemy Within
People in Tunisia abstained from taking part in the referendum about a new constitution. By doing so, the Tunisians have proved their highest level of political awareness. The referendum could have given the regime absolute control over all the wheels of power, its mechanisms as well as their actions and counteractions. The current Tunisian president (Kais Saied) came to power under the provisions of the Tunisian people’s constitution of 2014. Then, he stood and told the people of his country that he would respect the constitution. But he suddenly turned his back on it.
The Tunisian people’s abstaining from the referendum is an explicit and sincere expression of their rejection of the regime. This is because more than three-quarters of voters did not agree to the new constitution. The truth which emerged from the referendum, particularly that it dealt with voting on the Basic Law of the Tunisian State and its essential document, which is the structural legislation and legal framework which governs Tunisia and controls its destiny. The Tunisian people’s decision to abstain from it is a harsh and effective answer in the life of the Arabs and the world. This is one of the ways to say “no” as the most effective way to liberate the state from pandemics, diseases and corrupt practices to a political, judicial, legislative, administrative and economic era awaited by the society, the people and the nation all together.
The Tunisians have done this and waiting for a solution without any violence, use of force and revolution, with international cooperation.
[by Noureddine Thanyo in Al-Quds Al-Arabi]
What is happening in the countries of the Arab Spring raises many exclamation marks about the presence of certain political forces among the supporters of the coup against the constitution, political pluralism and the defence of the logic of the current Arab dictatorships in Tunisia, Egypt and Syria. This question also applies to the position of the nationalist group on the coup against the democratic transition and the overthrow of a balanced parliamentary system. This is what has clearly happened in Tunisia with the coup of President Kais Saied against the constitution on which he was elected. The amendments made in the Egyptian constitution in 2019 gave President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi the possibility of continuing in his position until 2030, in contradiction with the provisions of the constitution itself.
In Tunisia, the People’s Movement not only supported Said’s position on suspending parliament and dismissing the prime minister, but also fully stayed with the coup. It also stood even with a referendum on a new authoritarian version of the constitution, which Said brought on his own, and called for voting on it on the eve of the anniversary of his coup against the democratic approach. This also reminds us about how there was a complete silence of the Nasserist movement and the Salvation Front in Egypt on what happened in the aftermath of the June 30, 2013 demonstrations and the July 3, 2013 declaration and its welcoming of the army’s intervention in the political process and the overthrowing of the Muslim Brotherhood’s government.
[by Shareef Hilali in Al-Araby Al-Jadeed]
Compiled and translated by Faizul Haque