2025-06-11
Al-Raya Newspaper: When Political Initiatives are Begged for on the Doorsteps of Democracy!
The Independent Arabia newspaper published an article by Tunisian journalist Hammadi Al-Maamari on May 15, 2025, entitled "Freezing 12 Political Initiatives of the Tunisian Opposition." All of them agreed on returning to the square of democracy and participation, but the authority refuses to cut off the path of July 25, 2021.
The most important thing in the article revolves around: what Tunisia has witnessed since 2020 of more than 12 political initiatives to address the political stalemate and the economic and social crises, including the national dialogue initiative of the Tunisian General Labor Union, the Popular National Salvation Conference of the Dignity Coalition, the tripartite rescue initiatives of civil organizations, and "Progress" by the historian Adel Al-Latifi. Despite their diversity between supporters of the post-July 25, 2021 path or opponents of it, they all failed to gain the confidence of the people or gather political forces around a joint project, because they repeated previous dialogue models that aimed to divide power instead of radical reform.
Analysts and activists attributed this failure to several factors: the ruling authority's refusal to interact with the initiatives, and the parties' failure to review the mistakes of the previous decade (2011–2021), which was characterized by corruption, foreign funding, and narrow partisan conflicts. Also, the demonization of parties and the persecution of their leaders, their loss of credibility before the people, and their transformation into shrinking bodies unable to self-criticize, made their initiatives mere ideas that were not applicable in light of the dominance of social media as a force of influence that surpasses traditional parties.
When the nation was militarily defeated before the West, it was swept away under the influence of the "imitation of the vanquished by the victor" complex, so it adopted the product of Western political thought through a systematic domestication process of manufactured elites, and a political class was formed that was disconnected from the nation and its culture by adopting Western philosophies that contradict the nation's culture, most notably:
- The separation of religion from the state (as a result of the Western conflict with the Church)
- The philosophy of the middle ground (between direct rule by the people and rule by the king)
The assimilation of the political elites with the Western model
These elites followed the Western approach in:
1- Adopting Western political theories to address the issues of conferences and initiatives.
2- Cramming their practices into democratic molds, especially the idea of collective rule through:
- Parliaments (legislative authority)
- Councils of Ministers (executive authority)
3- Establishing parties on a democratic basis
4- Adopting the idea of civil society organizations or the third sector as a bridge between the state and society, and as a tool for political penetration through funding.
Roots of the historical crisis:
The nation's revolutions erupted throughout history in rejection of injustice, and the uprisings of the twentieth/twenty-first centuries, such as the Arab Spring, were a popular response to:
1- The fall of the Ottoman Caliphate and the fragmentation of the lands of Muslims.
2- Imposing secular capitalist regimes as an alternative to Islamic Sharia.
3- The colonizer and his agents manipulated false slogans (nationalism, pan-Arabism, socialism, democracy).
The Arab Spring revolutions were especially hijacked in the Tunisian model by proposing the idea of political pluralism as the ideal solution to fill the power vacuum while preserving the existing capitalist system; where it was easy to adopt it as a natural reaction to the dictatorship with which the liberated peoples were ruled, and then focus it as an alternative to the totalitarian unitary rule. It was also easy to feed this bait to parties and political forces that lacked a fundamental civilizational alternative and were working to overthrow the ruling dictatorships and take their place at the head of power.
Targeting political parties in particular as the main nerve of political action and a tool for linking the government and rulers with the masses of people, as well as the natural heir and historical competitor of dictatorial leaders, and from this point of view, political pluralism constituted one of the main pillars for circumventing and diluting these revolutions, to abort them at a later stage and disperse their blood among the parties.
Critique of the phenomenon of political initiatives:
Political initiatives are in reality malicious painkillers that distract from the radical treatment of the governance crisis, and complicate the problem because they:
- Stem from the failed democratic system.
- Implemented by rulers who have mortgaged the country to external forces.
- Transform the conflict into battles between political mercenaries seeking to monopolize power.
In the end, any initiative that does not touch the system of government or foreign interference is like treating cancer with aspirin.
Judging something is a branch of its conception:
When an issue is viewed as a political issue, the movement for it is political and is represented in political and diplomatic initiatives and relations with the existing regimes, but when it is viewed as a military issue, such as the Palestinian issue, the focus, perception, and planning for it is primarily from the military side, regardless of the political dimensions.
Likewise, when dealing with political regimes that have lost their legitimacy, which have been overthrown by revolutions that swept the countries of the nation and called for radical change, it is necessary to look at the foundations of the existing regimes and what the process of severing ties with them and holding their symbols and those in charge accountable requires, and the radical change that guarantees their removal with all their intellectual, political and legal settlements.
It is summarized in:
- Rejecting piecemeal political initiatives.
- Severing ties with the colonial regime and its imported regimes.
- Presenting a fundamental alternative that stems from the identity and creed of the nation.
Suffering under positive systems:
The nation lived in Tunisia and in other Muslim countries, after the demolition of the Ottoman Caliphate, a deep geostrategic division from which a coercive rule emerged under the weight of positive systems created by colonialism, where they subjected Muslims to various experiments and different principles of governance, sometimes in a style of persuasion and sometimes with iron and fire, and the experiences of governance in its various forms, whether socialist, capitalist or otherwise, produced nothing but misery, failure, ruin of the country and corruption of consciences, most of which led to deep divisions between members of the one nation and conflicts and enmities, most of which ended with campaigns of killing, torture and abuse of opponents.
This terrible scene was always formed under the supervision of the colonizer, where he manages the political battles from behind the scenes and puts rulers in place according to the needs of the stage, and does not neglect to monitor the nation's movement towards the existing situation, for fear that it will regain its compass and its view of life based on the Islamic faith.
Islam calls for adhering to the rope of Allah and forbids all causes of division and fragmentation among Muslims, and urges noble morals and competition in righteousness and good deeds, and in calling to good in a way that makes it a solid framework for the establishment of political parties that compete in the best and most honorable things, away from trivialities, betrayal and defamation of opponents, which leads to hatred and the domination of enemies.
It is a revelation from the Creator, the Almighty, which includes the radical solution to all human problems through real solutions to various aspects of economic, political and social life, and Muslims and others lived under its shade in happiness and honor for centuries, so do we realize today that the solutions to our problems are in its rulings? Do we realize that they are rulings that regulate how money is distributed, regulate types of ownership, and regulate how the ruler is held accountable if he is unjust or makes a mistake?
The Truth, Glory be to Him, says: ﴿And We have sent down to you the Book as clarification for all things and as guidance and mercy and good tidings for the Muslims﴾, Islam has not left anything small or large without making a Sharia ruling for it, and there is no human problem without making a correct treatment for it, but unfortunately these rulings have been absent from the reality of Muslims so that they languish under the oppression of the systems of disbelief and injustice and lose this world and the Hereafter.
But today, praise be to Allah, the argument has become clear and the truth of Islam and the superiority of its legislation over other systems has become apparent, in light of the development of research methods and knowledge media, and the availability of detailed alternatives provided by Hizb ut-Tahrir, so real change has become an urgent political necessity, awaiting the will of the nation and the determination of its people of strength and immunity, to turn the page on coercive rule forever, and to achieve the good news of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ by establishing the Rightly Guided Caliphate on the method of Prophethood, which applies the rulings of Islam in all aspects of life, to ensure sovereignty and justice in this world and salvation and success in the Hereafter.
By: Professor Yassin bin Yahya
Source: Al-Raya Newspaper
