Self-invoked coup

Tunisia is in the grip of political instability. The Arab country seems to be slipping into anarchy.

President Kais Saied has overshot his authority by exercising emergency powers in his domain, which has led to turmoil. Saied dismissed Prime Minister Hichem Mechichi and has literally held the parliament in abeyance.

The resilient African state once again faces an uncertain situation as various poles of power brokers are in a fix. Efforts on the part of Parliamentary Speaker Rached Ghannouchi to ensure semblance are not making inroads.

This comes at a time when the country is mired in a serious economic downturn, as it faces a contraction of 8.8% along with a soaring budget deficit amid a toiling coronavirus pandemic. The point is: what exigency forced President Saied to opt for these extraordinary measures? It is a ‘self-invoked coup’ and the president himself is not sure where it would lead to.

Saied’s manifesto was to cleanse Tunisia of corruption and rebuild it as a welfare state. But it seems he has not been able to keep pace with it. The president blames the quasi-power structure for all ills. Thus, as is the case with all Third World countries, men at the helm of affairs go over the brink in desperation. That is exactly what Saied did, as he cracked down on his own.

It was an ill-advised attempt to grab more power. This development of July 25, undoubtedly, is the biggest crisis since the 2011 revolution, as Mohamed Bouazizi, a street vendor, set himself on fire in December 2010, triggering the irresistible Arab Spring that changed the socio-political mosaic of the region.

And now the million-dollar question: what’s next? Ennahda, the most popular political party, and other parliamentary forces will obviously rally for democracy. This will put them at odds with the new order in vogue. It could lead to revulsion and violence.

Even though the Ennahda leader, Speaker Ghannouchi, has softened his tone of late, his faces calls for stepping down from within the party. The need of the hour is to save the small country of 12 million people from exploding.

Tunisia basically has a home-grown governance crisis, and that needs to be tackled with pluralism and prudence. President Saied would be better advised to retreat and initiate a grand dialogue on governance.