Liberals, Islamists cooperate in North Africa

Beirut: Even if the Arab Spring started in Lebanon after the February 14, 2005 Hariri assassination, which forced Damascus to withdrew the bulk of its military forces after an occupation that lasted three decades, the spark that revolutionised young men and women to reject dictatorships was lit in Tunisia.

The Bin Ali regime fell fast and furiously and, within a short period of time, elections ushered in a promising new coalition government. What emerged in Tunis preoccupied those who feared “Islamisation” in one of the Arab world’s more secularised societies.

Still, and heightening governance fears notwithstanding, parliamentary elections led to a new partnership, with a total of 138 out of 217 seats in the Constituent Assembly under the control of a nascent “Islamist” coalition. Although led by the Ennahda Party, which has by far the largest number of seats with 89 posts, Prime Minister Hamadi Jebali, needed support from both the Congress for the Republic (29 seats), led by Munsif Al Marzouqi, as well as Ettakatol (20 seats), led by Mustafa Bin Jaafar.

In as much as Tunisians needed to maintain a semblance of cohesion in the running of their government, the troika proved an adequate formula, and survived early tensions. What the experiment showed was that liberal and conservative tendencies coexisted in the Tunisia body politic. Consequently, the mere fact of ruling within a coalition government helped strengthen democratisation, which was remarkable so quickly after the transition from dictatorship. That was not to say that the three parties, individually as well as collectively, did not experience a variety of strain. Rather that the experiment was far more successful than many recognised.

New jobs

Preliminary results from elections in Libya hinted to a similar outcome. Although partial results were not entirely reliable, unofficial exit polls suggested a liberal alliance to have gathered a majority that, if confirmed, further illustrated differences between North Africans and Levantines. The 200-member Libyan assembly was called upon to appoint a new prime minister in the post-Gaddafi era who, it was worth recalling, had forgotten the practice of parliamentary elections after 1965 since the very idea of political parties was not even allowed.

In Tripoli, the most prominent party today is the Justice and Construction Party, made up mostly of Muslim Brotherhood members. Like their counterparts in Tunisia, Egypt, and elsewhere, candidates emphasised security and justice but neither was sufficient. In fact, the average voter wished to see politicians make adequate preparations to plan for a better future, which meant the creation of wealth and new jobs that would allow individuals to succeed.

If the more liberal parties, including the National Forces Alliance led by former Prime Minister Mahmoud Jibril, managed to score a victory, this would certainly underscore where ordinary people placed their priories.

Importantly, and unlike recent developments in Egypt and, perhaps in time in Syria, the North African option may spillover throughout the Arab world, as Tunisians and Libyans reconsider what it well may mean to be Arabs who espouse democratisation.

Ennahda campaigned hard on its planks even if most Tunisians seldom wore their Arab Muslim identities on their sleeves. Likewise, the Muslim Brotherhood in Libya advanced similar arguments. Yet, what attracted voters in Tunisia and apparently in Libya too were promises to provide free healthcare for the poor, more jobs, adequate social justice, less religiosity and even less conservatism.

More importantly, although Tunisians and Libyans argued that their countries were neither France nor Italy, people in both countries insisted that their Arab Muslim credentials did not prevent democratisation. While the tone of political rhetoric sounded as if Tunisians and Libyans rejected secularism, this was a false labelling of what citizens who lived under Bin Ali and Muammar Gaddafi experienced. Since few Tunisians and even fewer Libyans practiced fundamentalism, though most were proud Arab Muslims, it was increasingly evident — and the numbers of voters who elected representatives highlighted — that majorities did not see the necessity to display such an identity in the conduct of their politics.

Tunisia and Libya were “Arab Muslim” states as described in their constitutions but they were also culturally and ethnically distinctive societies. By insisting that Tunisian politicians who came to power after the fall of the Bin Ali dictatorship, and now apparently, by ushering in a parliament that respected the diversity of the Libyan nation after the demise of the Gaddafi regime, these two North African countries ushered added tolerance. More important, electors focused on what mattered most to the average citizen, the establishment of effective economic mechanisms that encouraged entrepreneurship and the creation of wealth.