Academic: Tunisians vote for conciliatory discourse

Tehran, Dec 29, IRNA - A learned academic said Tunisians voted for the conciliatory and moderate approach adopted by Beji Caid Essebsi in the presidential runoff. Hichem Garissa, president of the Tunisian University of Ez-Zitouna, made the statement in an exclusive interview with Persian daily ˈIranˈ on the sidelines of a summit in the premises of the University of Religions and Denominations in Tehran. He said Essebsi was the parliament speaker under the ousted autocrat Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali, but he won the presidential rally because of his electoral plans. “Although Essebsi established Nidaa Tounes (Call for Tunisia) in 2012, Tunisians voted for the 88-year-old candidate of the newly-formed political party because of his electoral plans and management,” the Persian daily quoted Garissa as saying. The senior university figure noted that the performance of the incumbent president, Moncef Marzouki, has drawn criticism nationwide because he purged a large number of elites from the country’s political system for their affiliation to the former regime. However, Nidaa Tounes took approaches to further attract Tunisian elites. Besides, certain figures of the Ben Ali regime joined Essebsi’s party. Garissa said voters rejected Marzouki, Essebsi’s rival in the runoff vote, because they believed a court of competent jurisdiction should determine whether individuals affiliated to the former regime had committed irregularities. Hence, well-known figures should not have been removed or condemned for their links to Ben Ali’s regime. Tunisians elected Essebsi’s discourse because of his détente and rapprochement policy and hopes for a better future. The official said the Ennahda Movement (Renaissance Party) led by Rashid al-Ghannushi threw its weigh behind Marzouki but later changed its policy. “Since The Ennahda Movement realized that Marzouki did not enjoy wide popularity, it told its supporters to vote for their own desirable candidate,” he said. Garissa noted that Marzouki had 30 seats in the first parliamentary elections but in the polls prior to presidential vote they did not win more than four seats in the legislature, which was an indicative of their declining clout. The university academic said Ennahda Movement and Ghannushi were seeking to uphold the credit of the Islamic movement, so they did not propose a candidate for presidential election, which demonstrates their political savvy. “Had the leaders of the Ennahda Movement proposed a nominee for the presidential race, they might have been beset with the same perplexities that faced the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood,” he said. Garissa added that Tunisians have realized that they should tolerate different thoughts, including Islamic, laic and secular ideologies and have peaceful coexistence. He said laic figures were present in Marzouki’s government, although his administration had close bonds with Ennahda Movement and Islamists. Garissa said the movement pursues a moderate approach and shuns monopoly. The official stressed that Essebsi and Nidaa Tounes have pledged to follow a moderate approach like that of Ghannushi and his Islamic party and avoid schemes to exclude their rivals from the country’s political arena. He further expounded on the roots of violence and extremism in the Islamic world. Garissa said the emergence of Salafist Takfiri groups such as the so-called Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) stems from different reasons. “One of the reasons is the pervasiveness of despotic systems in some Islamic states. Likewise, misinterpretation of religious principles adds salt to the injury,” he said. The Tunisian academic pointed out that some regimes like Israel and its intelligence agency fuel tensions in the Islamic world and create terrorist groups like ISIL../end