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

Another delicate issue that the Constituent Assembly has approached cautiously
involves how to deal with those elements of the ancient regime that remain in Tunisia.
As Anna Wilson points out, most attention has focused on the very top of the regime,
especially on Ben Ali and his extended family, especially his wife’s family, now in exile
abroad. This has left two different issues in its wake. First, immediately after Ben Ali’s
departure, all political prisoners were granted general amnesty, including many radical
salifis, whose behavior has at times become problematic for the new regime. Second,
and more importantly, the new government banned the Rassemblement Constitutionnel
Démocratique (RCD), the political party of the former regime. However, at least some of
its leaders continue to play a role in Tunisian political life, though their future remains
uncertain. On the one hand, the new regime requires experienced political elites and
government officials with the training and practical skills required to administer a modern
state, experience that could generally be obtained only by having served in the previous
regime; on the other hand, they wish to make a sharp break with the past and therefore
minimize the role of individuals tainted by their previous association with Ben Ali. As
Wilson suggests, this will require a process of reconciliation between the new political
elite and many who were associated with the ancient regime, if for no other reason than
to assure that the latter do not become spoilers.
As Tunisia prepares for its next election in late 2012, however, two apparent
limitations of the October 2011 election loom prominently on the horizon. Given that the
“Jasmine Revolution” largely began with the youth and spread rapidly through social
media and civil society, it seems curious that the youth turnout in the Constituent
Assembly election was disappointingly low, and likewise civil society has not assumed
the highly visible role in the political life of Tunisia that many expected since the
revolution. As David Jackson notes, many of Tunisia’s youth were disaffected during the
election process by the neglect of the issues that had been prominent for them in their
effort to unseat the Ben Ali regime, especially unemployment among the youth and lack
of respect by the police and other government agencies for ordinary citizens. Indeed, the
debate among political elites, especially in Tunis, over the relationship between religion
and the state has largely failed to address the high priority issues for Tunisia’s relatively
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