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

circulating that the informal strikes and sit-ins taking place in the south of the country are
driven by individuals who failed to win seats in the constitutional assembly elections and
ex-RCD members out for revenge. However, it is also clear that the key figures in the
party departed with the President, leaving a near complete leadership void. The answer
instead, therefore, it might be argued, is to strengthen the other political organizations,
rather than weakening further the RCD per se.
There is also a powerful argument to be made that for national reconciliation to
happen, and for Tunisia to move forward in its political development, a cohesive decision
must be taken on the status of former RCD members. Certainly the most grievous
offenders of the central government (and at local levels, if the evidence exists) must be
tried and punished, but this clearly cannot be done for the whole organization. If the
party itself remains illegal, then it is to be expected that its former members might seek to
replicate it under another (or several other) names. Interestingly, the Ennahdha
leadership has reportedly been seeking dialogue with senior former RCD figures, with
mentions of a proffered amnesty. How this would affect the public perception of the
party and justice remains to be seen, especially considering the fact that the newly
liberated media in Tunisia has denounced former regime members very harshly, and there
is a huge stigma associated with belonging to the party, with little discernment made
between members.
The Police
“This was not a revolution against Ben Ali. It was a revolution against the police,”
declared the young leader of one of Tunisia’s most successful new NGOs dealing with
election monitoring and encouraging youth participation in the political system. And it is
true that it was the continuous pressure of a police state, with its petty corruption as much
as its limitations of freedoms, that finally exploded into the revolution. Of all the organs
of the state, as Colin Machado points out in his chapter, it is the police which were most
associated with Ben Ali and the power of the regime, and they who stayed most closely
allied with him during the revolution. The contrast in the attitude of the population to the
police and the army, which famously refused to fire on the protestors and eventually
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