The delusion of Tunisia’s exceptionalism

Tunisia nicely-known the seventh anniversary of the downfall of its ancient dictatorship with protests. For two weeks now, folks have been demonstrating in impoverished towns fancy Tebourba and Ettadhamon, shut to the capital, Tunis, and towns fancy Kasserine within the mid-west, Sakiet Sidi Youssef within the north-west, and Sidi Bouzid within the south, where the revolution started in 2010.

Since the Tunisian insurrection brought down Zine El Abidine Ben Ali in 2011, a chain of demonstrations have marked the anniversary of the revolution. And it is doubtless that they are able to grow into extra tremendous and violent unrest.

Despite persevering with in style protests and obvious indicators of the rebirth of the Tunisian police sigh, global media continues to quilt Tunisia as a relative success memoir. 

The aloof transition from the despotic regime of Ben Ali in opposition to a participatory democracy with organised and filled with life political parties, the drafting of a brand new constitution, and the competitive 2014 elections have been hailed because the final proof of the « exceptionalism » of Tunisia and its transitional model.

What is central to those narratives is a pretty superficial comparison between the relative peacefulness of Tunisia’s transition and the sigh disintegration in Libya, Syria and Yemen. Despite everything, having an example of a « gracious revolution » can always provide a scrutinize of hope and optimism particularly in these dystopian times. However this framing of the democratic transition in Tunisia since 2011 dismisses a foul truth.    

The enchancment and consolidation of the premise of « Tunisian exceptionalism » give a enhance to the fetishisation of Tunisia’s democracy as a political commodity. In flip, this strategy of fetishisation permits neoliberal political campaigns and interventions to be implemented whereas it denies the different of creating radical democratic frameworks and policies. 

Right by Ben Ali’s era, distinctive enhancements in females’s rights and the implementation of dogmatic secularism were outmoded to promote the « impressive accomplishments » of the regime and disguise its popular and systematic human rights violations such the persecution of political opponents and abuse of government critics. France and the EU were complicit in promoting the « successes » of Ben Ali’s regime and organising Tunisia as « a pillar of stability and peace » despite a deteriorating social and political truth.

Below the unusual government, the Tunisian political and social elite has exploited this same thought and pushed coercive policies designed to preserve the socioeconomic sigh quo under the excuse of guaranteeing financial survival and political stability. Extra radical changes and demands have been portrayed as unhealthy to the soundness and progress of the country.

The continuing protests, as an illustration, erupted after the Tunisian government implemented austerity measures that triggered commodity prices to head up dramatically. These policies, pushed onto the federal government by neoliberal institutions fancy the World Monetary Fund, fall basically basically based on the ones Ben Ali’s regime implemented. It used to be these very policies that ended in the mass impoverishment of the Tunisian inhabitants and within the kill a pervasive in style malaise.  

And it used to be under the quilt of facilitating the democratic transition to « a brand new Tunisia » that the ruling majority passed a corruption amnesty invoice in September 2017. The law grants amnesty to officers accused of corruption in some unspecified time in the future of the autocratic rule of Ben Ali. It signalled a failure of political reformism and a antagonistic democratic backslide.  

The postulate of maintaining the internationally nicely-known sigh of the « Arab Spring exception » has also given the Tunisian authorities an excuse to no longer most effective quit the worthy-wished reform of the within ministry and the safety equipment however also articulate help securitisation policies of the Ben Ali era.

A invoice that can also allow security forces to use worthy extra violent manner on the public is smooth under consideration within the Tunisian parliament. The « Repression of assaults in opposition to navy » invoice, if voted in, will grant individuals of the safety equipment immunity from prosecution within the occasion that they use lethal power and can prohibit criticism of the police power.  

But again, global institutions and media, particularly in Europe, proceed to promote the excellent sigh of Tunisia as a stable country in an unstable sigh and to miss out on the social and political malaise within the help of the episodic unrest.

This time, the launching of an LGBT radio blueprint and radical proposals that will grant females equal inheritance rights and allow them to marry outdoor the Muslim faith are outmoded to preserve the premise of « Tunisian exceptionalism ». While these political selections can also furthermore be seen as modern, they salvage an man made prime-down manner to the discipline of females’s rights and suffer from the absence of a great and healthy public debate. What remains then is the specified circulation of colorful headlines in Western media on Tunisia’s « particular sigh ».

« Tunisian exceptionalism », this logic goes, must be maintained by peace and stability; any demands for radical switch are seen as unhealthy and disruptive. Therefore, when potentially the most up-to-date wave of protests erupted, the Tunisian political elite called for unity and aloof demonstrations and reminded Tunisians how we’re being perceived in a international country. The furious protestors were portrayed as a threat to the « success memoir ». 

The extra serious discipline right here is that the rhetorical use of the « Tunisian exceptionalism » has been a pretty gracious strategy. For heaps of Tunisians who’ve prolonged been conditioned to have faith in in a Western (neo)liberal behold of the field and of themselves, the exceptionalism sage is superior. This double consciousness of always viewing oneself by the eyes of Western media has made many Tunisians have faith in within the perceived urgency of maintaining the Tunisian « success memoir ». In consequence, they have chosen to ignore the truth of a stolen revolution that they stay in.  

Right by the demonstrations, the criminalisation of the protesters chanced on a receptive target audience in Tunisia because legit-government pundits in global and native media have polarised in style thought, setting Tunisia’s success memoir in opposition to criticism from the civil society.

Deepening socioeconomic complications and increased repression have fuelled a toxic relationship between Tunisia’s formative years and its ruling elite that is constructed on cynicism, warfare of words, and crude violence. The rhetorical question within the Fech Nestanaw (What Are We looking ahead to?) movement’s name speaks to the favored principle that a corrective 2d revolution is urgently wished. 

Tunisia’s exceptionalism is a delusion. Its logic is unsustainable. Lengthy-standing structural disorders and the leisurely return to a hegemonic ruling elite challenges the forced legitimisation of a failing political management. 

The views expressed in this text are the creator’s possess and enact no longer basically salvage Al Jazeera’s editorial stance.