Tunisia: Understanding Conflict 2012 - Johns Hopkins School of ...

disruptions during voting, the total operation employed 22,000 troops, well over half of
the Army’s total force (Gaaloul 2011).
More controversially, the Tunisian military has also taken upon itself the
responsibility for preventing potentially ruinous disruptions to the national economy due
to widespread strikes in key industries. On numerous occasions, the army has forced
workers to return to their factories and even stored crucial commodities in its facilities
when it felt that further disruptions to production or supply threatened the national
economy. Such actions, while clearly legal under the state of emergency that has
governed the country since the revolution, are inherently political at a time when
economic misery has prompted numerous displays of worker dissatisfaction against
current economic arrangements. Moreover, given the disorganization of the incipient
civilian government, it is likely that the military is deciding which strikes to break on its
own without significant political oversight. To this point, the military has avoided
intervening in strikes where sympathy for the workers carried wider political resonance,
but it is difficult to imagine it avoiding such complications indefinitely.
The case of Nabil Hajlaoui also represents a cautionary tale for how the increased
involvement of the military in domestic politics may not come without costs to its
reputation. Hajlaoui was an agronomist and a blogger from Sidi Bouzid who posted
writings critical of the conduct of the military in the aftermath of the October 2011
elections. Shortly afterwards, Hajlaoui was arrested and sentenced to two months in
prison for his writings. 34 While apparently an isolated occurrence, if repeated such
incidents have the potential to put at risk the military’s greatest asset in contemporary
Tunisia, the enormously high regard in which the population holds it.
Perceptions of the Tunisian Military
The Tunisian military is the most trusted institution in the country. In a public opinion
poll conducted in early January 2012, 73% of Tunisian expressed confidence in the
Tunisian National Army, against only 4% that expressed primarily distrust. (Applied
34 For more information on Nabil Hajlaoui’s case, see:
http://globalvoicesonline.org/2011/11/10/tunisia-army-critic-sentenced-to-two-months-in-prison/
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