Tunis—The success of any revolution lies in the ability of the citizens, who first ignited it, to protect it from the camp of those who want to ruin it. Over the last three years, Tunisia has become a battleground of two camps: those who want to leap forward and those who want to take us back to the pre-revolution era. I believe that this conflict is a fundamental process in the history of any nation. This duality has been expressed throughout the centuries in diverse forms and labels, such as “the Platonic division of body and soul, the Hegelian conflict of thesis and antithesis.’’
I believe that what initiate life is the end result and not the fight to initiate that life. Take as an analogy the example of sperm competition. Life starts after the “fight” and the “fight” per-se does not matter when life unfolds. The analogy is true when making history. What makes history is not the conflict per-se but its outcome. A close look at the political process in Tunisia over the last three years would certainly help us disentangle these two conflicting forces. However, this should not by any means worry us unduly since politics, as Max Weber put it, “means conflict.” For sure the final results of the coming elections will unveil these two camps. How? At the end of the day, each political party pretending the representation of the true demands and voices of the angry people who thronged to the streets to express their eagerness for freedom and change will realize its weight. Only then it will be easy to figure out who has really won the hearts and minds of free Tunisians and deserves the ruling of the country for the coming five years.
My message to my fellow Tunisians inside and outside Tunisia, hours before the elections kicks off, is to be careful not to succumb to the calls and fake promises of the anti revolution camp. It is on purpose that I have not mentioned political parties by name and labeled each one, whether it represents this or that camp, for the simple reason that I rely on the awareness of Tunisians on the day of the elections.
May God’s grace shines upon us.
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Imed Lassoued is a native of Tunisia. He earned his Bachelor’s degree in literature from the Faculty of Arts, Letters and Humanities La Manouba of Tunis,Tunisia.
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