‘Hope and Challenge’: A little known part of Tunisia's historic election

Tunisia's first free elections will be held this Sunday 23 October. With more than 100 parties, there are feelings of great uncertainty as well as excitement. Different regions are setting up further independent electoral lists, trying to express the values that drove the revolution – dignity, liberty – and to campaign on the needs that still face everyone in Tunisia: Employment, social justice, an end to impunity.

There is a useful though not radical guide to the largest 15 Tunisian political parties, by Daphne McCurdy of the Project on Middle East Democracy (POMED), and a valuable overview of the way that all the Arab revolts are being framed and limited in western media worldviews, by Professor Anastup Basu in Mute magazine.

Till now, the only party I've encountered personally through my solidarity tour to Tunisia in April is the smallest of the top 15, the Tunisian Party of Labour. Supported by some of the trade unionists and human rights activists who hosted the tour for guests from the World Social Forum, the PTT's initial manifesto stood for:
'1- Democracy, 2- Socialism, 3- Enlightenment, contemporaneity and modernity'.

But yesterday I received the manifesto of one of the small independent electoral lists.
‘Espoir et Defi’ – ‘Hope and Challenge’ – is linked to the Karama association for unemployed graduates based in Kasserine, a town in the Tunisian interior which lost the largest number of lives in the revolution. I have been reporting on Kasserine and its struggles through my correspondent Nasri Charfeddine:
www.opendemocracy.net/.../part-2-tunisie-profonde-spring-summer-
www.tribunemagazine.co.uk/.../the-sights-sounds-and-smells-of-the-a
www.redpepper.org.uk/voices-from-the-tunisian-revolution/

Nasri has now sent a beautifully made handbook for ‘Espoir et Defi’ . I'm sorry not to send the pictures, but here is the manifesto. I received two subtly different versions, by post and by email, so have tried to include as much as possible of each.

DEDICATION

To our beloved dead
To our beloved bereaved
To our beloved activists
To our beloved companions -

Here is our independent electoral list:
HOPE AND CHALLENGE
for the district of Kasserine, city of martyrs.

1) OUR VISION FOR TUNISIA.

Liberty, democracy, justice. Breaking the web of corruption.
Combating poverty - unemployment is our enemy, work is our concern, we are always seeking engagement.
The principles of citizenship, fellowship, solidarity and social justice.
Independence and transparency at every level of every institution.
Investment, a spirit of enterprise.
Freedom of thought.

'Youth is our partner in the present and our stake in the future'.
The issue of Palestine is OUR issue too.

2) OUR VISION FOR KASSERINE.
Complete and lasting economic development for the region.
Infrastructure must equal the sacrifices that young people have made:
creation of a local radio network, a court of appeal, a sports complex.
Employment is always at the heart of our vision.
The unemployed - whether graduates or not - have the right and need to work.

ORDER OF CANDIDATES ON THE ELECTORAL LIST.

Leader: Nasri Bassem
Members: Jabbari Raouf
Mohammed Taher Chaabani
Aebdelli Aamna
Manael Bouazzi
Dhkillalli Samia
Rhimi Fadia
Souilmi Aamna

All candidates are unemployed graduates, except for Jabbari Raouf who was one of Kasserine's wounded during the Tunisian revolution.

GOALS

TUNISIA IN OUR VISION:
Freedom and democracy.
Defence of the Constitution and its supreme importance in law.
Breaking away from anything second-rate in our past.
Rejecting violence.
Defending liberties.
Complete economic development in every region of the country.
Equality between women and men.
Sentencing the killers from the time of the Tunisian revolution.
Compensating bereaved families and widows for their loss.
Maintaining our Arab identity, and Tunisia as an Arab muslim country.
A drive for citizenship and modernity, fellowship, solidarity and social justice.
Health, housing and the right to happiness and relaxation.
Security for everyone in Tunisia on land or sea.
Safeguards for freedom of thought and belief.
Protection for free investment and personal enterprise.
Sustaining our share in the present and our stake in the future world.
Supporting and protecting international human rights and liberties, especially in the case of Palestine.

KASSERINE IN OUR VISION:
Full and ongoing regional development.
Infrastructure is our major concern.
Motorways, water supplies, electricity.
Drainage canals in the rural districts.
Industrial zones and green belts.
Reviving and maintaining the railways in our area.
Expanding public transport.

For the people of our region:
building a local radio network;
setting up a court of appeal;
getting a teaching hospital in Kasserine, and co-ordinated health resources in the countryside;
opening an airport in the area of Talabet;
opening a sports centre on Mount Chaanbi;
encouraging tourist investment in Chaanbi and Ain Elsla, and another tourist centre in Boulaaba;
employment and job creation to combat and minimise poverty and the marginalisation of our region.

DEDICATION

To pay homage to the martyrs of Tunisia, who died from Bizerte in the north to Ben Gardene in the south, here is the free voice of a young graduate who has been unemployed since 17 July 2001, and wants the world to hear.

Imagine a baby without milk, imagine France without the Eiffel tower, Egypt without its pyramids, that's me. The only space to breathe - to take a great gasp - is the space for writing and resisting. Creating a clear picture of a young unknown, obscure Tunisian, 35 years old and blocked by one full stop of unemployment, heavy as a nightmare and more unbearable than toothache on a winter night.

This is for my aged parents, Audai Zorgui and Iade Dabbar, my sisters and my brothers; for my comrades here, elsewhere and across the world, and for Amanda Sebestyen the journalist.

REPORTER: Nasri Charfeddine, unemployed graduate, Kasserine, Tunisia.
EVENT: Elections for the Constituent Assembly in Tunisia, 23 October 2011.

A WORD

I do not want to get in a fight over one party or another, I do not want to blame or insult them or even to search out their mistakes and faults.
I am not against atheists, muslims, christians or any other religion -
as long as they do not harm anyone.
Likewise I am not against the socialists, the communists, liberals or other parties as long as they don't attack others, and act for their values and not in the pursuit of power. Whatever their party, religion or race, people are not all the same, there are good and bad everywhere.
I am for respecting others: for their beliefs, for their race, for their customs, for their manners, just as I want people to respect me for what I am.
I want peace in the world to start with my own country.
I condemn all those manipulations, injustices, deceptions; all these violations of the rights of men, women and children. I condemn everything which reason, love and justice must condemn.
I would like us to stop fighting each other and fight together for something better for ourselves, our children, our country.
Nasri Charfeddine.

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