Tunisia: Ghannouchi, The Occult Islamist and the Guardian.
Guardian’s ‘Progressives’: Sudan’s Islamic leader, Moslem cleric, parliamentary speaker and President of Sudanese Islamic National Front, Dr Hassan al-Turabi (r), Pakistani Khurshid Ahmad, leader of the Jammat-e-Islami party (c), Rashid Ghanoshi (Rached Ghannouchi) of Tunisian Tehrik-e-Islami party and Ustaz Yaser of the Afghan AIG address the media 18 February 1991
The Guardian is now touting the Islamists of Enahada.
Comment is Free Editor, Seumas Milne writes this morning of ,
“The once savagely repressed progressive Islamist party An-Nahda (which) won the Tunisian elections this week on a platform of pluralist democracy, social justice and national independence.” Here.
Libé publishes today today a description of Tunisia’s new rulers you won’t read in the Guardian.
Their leader Ghannouchi is described in these terms,
On tenant de ce double discours caractéristique du mouvement, accusent aussi ses détracteurs. Sa doctrine est «ambiguë», juge ainsi Hamadi Rédissi, politologue et président de l’Observatoire tunisien de la transition démocratique : «Il navigue entre le califat et l’état civil, entre le modernisme et la rigueur idéologique, entre l’électoralisme et l’agitation permanente. Il est capable de dire tout et son contraire. Je pense qu’il est sincèrement et profondément divisé intérieurement.» Ghannouchi se réclame de l’islamisme modéré des Turcs de l’AKP. Mais, dans les ouvrages qu’il a écrits, «les sources intellectuelles sont toujours les mêmes : Hassan el-Banna, le fondateur des Frères musulmans, ainsi que d’autres islamistes radicaux», dit Rédissi.”
This double language is characteristic of the movement, asserts one of their detractors. Their doctrine is “ambiguous” says political scientist Hamadi Rédissi, president of the Observatory of Tunisian democratic transition. He moves constantly between the Caliphate and a Civil State, between modernity and ideological rigour, between electoralism and permanent agitation. He is capable of saying anything and its opposite. I’m convinced he is deeply divided inside himself. Ghannouchi claims he follows the Turkish AKP Party, but in his writings he always cites the same people, Hassan el-Banna, the founder of the Muslim Brotherhood, and other radical Islamists.” More Here.
The full election results should be declared today.
In the meantime Le Monde notes the Islamists’ strong showing amongst middle-class electors, professionals, and its wealthy backers, as well a s support from the ‘popular’ classes – here.
As Serge Halimi says in Le Monde Diplomatique (Here),
Le programme d’Ennahda, qui ne remet en cause ni le libéralisme ni l’ouverture commerciale (lire « Après les révolutions, les privatisations… »), propose donc un rééquilibrage entre les investisseurs et tour-opérateurs occidentaux, et ceux, « islamiques », venus de la région ou du Golfe.
The programme of Ennahada does not question either economic liberalism or Tunisia’s international commercial links..though it does propose to rebalance the proportion of Western investors andoc, and ‘Islamic’ ones from their own region, and from the Gulf.
Or as Riad Ben Fadhel of the left Demcoratic and Social Pole says in l’Humanité today,
Les islamistes ont en effet réussi cette percée sur un terreau d’injustice sociale et d’inégalités régionales. Sans pour autant offrir la moindre perspective de sortie de crise. Ils se sont contentés de dénigrer la gauche et les valeurs de progrès, de brandir l’étendard de « l’identité arabo-musulmane » soi-disant menacée, d’imposer de faux débats sur les relations avec Israël. Ils ont refusé toute confrontation sur les problématiques socio-économiques.
The Islamists have acheived their victory by exploiting issues of social injustice and regional inequalities. Without that is offering the slightest indication of a way out of the crisis. They continue to denigrate the Left and progressive values, and wave the banner of Islamic and Arab identity, apparently threatened, and to impose false debates about our relations with Israel. They refuse all challenges on social-economic issues.
Some progressives!
Thinking about it, Andrew, I don’t think Islam has real social politics, it just appropriates what it finds. In a relatively modern society like Tunisia or Egypt, it will go with the ‘modernity’, maybe just nibble at teh edges and defitely not develop in any way, but not actually fundamentally change anything. Just stagnation. That’s what I think anyway. Where has a Muslim majority society anywhere in tehworld ever innovated anything?
From International Viewpoint, Fourth International (Hat-Tip Enty):
“This election especially benefitted the Islamist movement Ennahdha, which has come out largely in the lead. Even though this party did not take part in the mobilizations that brought down Ben Ali, it drew respect because of its militants who had given their lives and the thousands of others who had been imprisoned and tortured under the dictatorship. Furthermore, it benefitted from colossal financial resources, coming in particular from wealthy former leaders of the RCD (Ben Ali’s party) enabling it to undertake charitable work, ensuring support from the poorest layers in society.
Ennahdha also benefitted from official propaganda which oriented the campaign towards its favourite theme: Arab-Muslim identity. And if Ennahdha allies with the CPR of Moncef Marzouki, these two formations could have an absolute majority in the Constituent Assembly. It should be noted that Ennahdha furthermore benefits today from the support of the imperialist powers. There is nothing surprising about that, for a party whose economic programme is closely aligned with the solutions recommended by the IMF and the World Bank, with their succession of privatizations, lay-offs and dismantling of public services. So there is nothing surprising about the fact that Barak Obama was the first to congratulate the Tunisians on the result of these elections. In addition to the retreat into identity-based attitudes and the serious threats which now endanger women’s rights in particular, and which are in the programme of Ennahdha, will the workers who revolted with cries of “a job is a right, gang of thieves!” have confidence for long in such a party, which will represent and guarantee imperialist interests in Tunisia ?
Setback for the radical Left
What also emerges is that the organizations of the radical Left are the big losers in this election. They stood divided, each organization thinking that only it incarnated the essence of radicality. Some, like the League for a Workers’ Left (LGO), finally decided to boycott it. As a result, the radical Left has only four people elected (three from the Workers’ Communist Party of Tunisia, one from the Movement of Democratic Patriots).