By Maati BargachPosted on 19-09-2019Modified on 19-09-2019 at 17:23
Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali died on Thursday, September 19th at the age of 83. He had been President of the Republic of Tunisia from 1987 to 2011, a presidency of more than 23 years, marked by significant violations of human rights. He came to power in favor of a "medical coup" dismissing Habib Bourguiba. Many non-governmental organizations and foreign media later qualified his dictatorial regime. Following the revolution that broke out in December 2010, he was forced to leave Tunisia on January 14, 2011. He had taken refuge with his family in Saudi Arabia. He was the subject of a request for extradition from Tunisia, which never succeeded.
On December 17, 2010, Mohamed Bouazizi, a young street vendor from Sidi Bouzid, immolated himself by fire, to protest against the seizure of his goods by the authorities. In a country plagued for years by corruption and nepotism, this suicide provokes a series of insurrectional demonstrations throughout the country.
Little by little, Tunisians are no longer afraid and more and more people are saying it loud and clear. These protests have even created a shock wave, to varying degrees, in other Arab countries, culminating in what is known as the "Arab Spring".
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The mobilization is then up to the fear of Tunisians to speak up on the street and the repression of the protest, which will cause 300 deaths. Popular pressure such as Ben Ali must leave the country on January 14, 2011. His plan is to protect his family in Saudi Arabia and return the next day in Tunisia. But the political situation is such that Ben Ali is forced to stay in Jeddah. He died this Thursday, September 19th .
Since 2011, Ben Ali had been a refugee in Saudi Arabia, with his wife Leila Trabelsi, his son Mohamed and his daughter Halima. Little information has filtered about his exile. In February 2011, it was rumored that Ben Ali had been suffering from prostate cancer for several years and had fallen into a coma after a heart attack. Far exaggerated claims, Ben Ali had rather suffered a crisis of hypoglycemia , as RFI reported at the time.
In the port city of Jeddah, Ben Ali was able to enjoy a " bourgeois home ", living with Saudi bodyguards, in a discreet way, as requested by the authorities of the country. Authorities who twice refused requests for extradition issued by Tunisia. The former president has been tried in absentia, in his country, in many lawsuits. He is notably accused in cases of corruption, embezzlement and related to the suppression of demonstrations.
A president who has formed a "quasi-mafia" at the helm of the country
Ben Ali leaves indeed the trace of an authoritarian president who, with his entourage and in particular the family of his second wife, the ex-hairdresser Leïla Trabelsi, generalized the corruption in the country. It is still difficult to date to accurately assess the fortune of the "clan".
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With his second wife Leïla Trabelsi, who gradually extended his influence over the country, Ben Ali settled at the head of a " quasi-mafia ", in the words of former US ambassador Robert F. Godec (in a confidential memo revealed by WikiLeaks ). Their influence has been illustrated by the gradual involvement of some members of the Trabelsi family in many parts of the country's economy, not to mention the members of Ben Ali's family. The best-known character may be Sakhr El Materi, his son-in-law, who was at the head of a powerful holding company in the auto trade, real estate, cruise tourism, finance, media, telecommunications and agriculture. At the time of the revolution, El Materi fled to France, Qatar and Seychelles, and was also convicted in absentia of several cases of corruption and embezzlement.
November 7, 1987: the "Change"
Ben Ali's presidency had begun in 1987 with promises of democratization. At the time, Tunisia was in a crisis of succession, the president Habib Bourguiba, aging and sick, facing an economic and financial crisis and a major social and Islamist protest. Appointed Prime Minister on October 2, 1987, Ben Ali is confirmed as the possible successor of Bourguiba. On November 7, he deposed the president for senility in a " medical coup ".
Ben Ali rejected the term " coup d'état ". In an interview with French television channel Antenne 2 (formerly France 2) on 9 September 1988, he described his takeover as "an act of recovery, national salvation. [...] Before November 7 [1987], the law was flouted, the institutions paralyzed. And of course I had to restore the rule of law. [...] And it was done in strict compliance with the Constitution and the law without a drop of blood and without the slightest scratch. "
adding that Bourguiba " was sick, he was not [able to govern] ". This " medical coup " has been fairly well received by the political world, the new President Ben Ali seeking to appease the political climate, giving signs of openness to the opposition parties and associations.
But rapidly, major violations of human rights are noted in Tunisia. And Ben Ali's policy has become synonymous with repression, imprisonment and torture of his opponents as well as attacks on freedom of expression and freedom of the press.
The number 7 (from the date of November 7, 1987) has become the symbol of his presidency, being worshiped. November 7 is a holiday, and the number 7 is visible in almost all public places: administrations, cafes, shops, avenues, schools, transport, stadiums, etc. The image of Ben Ali was ubiquitous in the country.
A "shadow man" passed by the army before politics
But as journalist Jean-Pierre Tuquoi wrote in 2002, Ben Ali remained an " unknown " for Tunisians: he is " a smooth character. He is both omnipresent and absent. It's a face, but not a voice. [...] Ben Ali remains in the eyes of Tunisians a distant figure, inaccessible and difficult to define. Before politics, Ben Ali spent most of his career in the military and security services, remaining a " shadow man, " as one of his former fellow travelers described him.
Born on September 3, 1936, in a modest family of Hammam Sousse, Ben Ali joined very young local structures of Neo-Destour, the party of Habib Bourguiba. He entered the army after the independence of the country in 1956. Fourth child of a family that had eleven, he was assigned to the service of General Kéfi, one of the highest ranking officers of the army, whose daughter he married Naïma first married in 1964.
In January 1978, he was appointed head of the general security, before becoming ambassador of Tunisia in Poland in 1980. On April 26, 1986, he obtained the post of Minister of the Interior. It was then that he began dating Leila Trabelsi, with whom he married in 1992, four years after divorcing his first wife.
Modernization of the Tunisian economy and promotion of women's rights
It was around this period that the political process of democratization, which had been promised and had begun since 1987, has slowed down considerably. But from the economic and social point of view, Ben Ali pursued Bourguiba's policy. Economic liberalism, privatization in the tourism sector and openness to foreign investors were the watchwords in economics.
From a social point of view, Ben Ali is a continuation of Bourguiba for the promotion of secularism and the place of women. It extended the Personal Status Code , the law that gave Tunisian women an unheard-of place in the Arab world, giving more rights to women, especially mothers. The Tunisian woman was thus able to transmit to her child her nationality, a novelty then in the Arab world.
In his time, the support of Ben Ali often defended it by highlighting the good economic health of the country and the privileged status of women, which they attributed to him. But Franco-Tunisian historian and journalist Sophie Bessis wondered if Ben Ali's regime was feminist "out of political necessity and to hide the democratic deficit it seems to like to dig, or by modernist conviction ".
In any case, after the revolution of January 2011, the country went through so many economic instabilities and security that some Tunisians have a time, wished the return of Ben Ali in Tunisia . Nostalgia may have been more about a time when the economy was better and the country was much more secure than it was about the character. But the nostalgic have never been the majority. When, on March 14, 2016, government spokesman Khaled Chouket demanded Ben Ali's return to Tunisia in the name of " reconciliation " and " tolerance ". Immediately, this statement provoked an uproar in a country where the very name of Ben Ali remains a foil.
On the same subject
Tunisia: death of former president Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali
Tunisia: from independence to the fall of Ben Ali
Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali, the end of a reign
1987-2007: Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali, chronology of a seizure of power
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