People have once again started talking about Bourguiba, Tunisia’s first president, and his influence on the country. Some say he was too westernized and a threat to Tunisian identity. Others believe he is the founder of modern Tunisia, an advocate for women’s liberation and a source of inspiration.

People have once again started talking about Bourguiba, Tunisia’s first president, and his influence on the country. Some say he was too westernized and a threat to Tunisian identity. Others believe he is the founder of modern Tunisia, an advocate for women’s liberation and a source of inspiration.

“We have come here to remove any insult leveled against the late president Habib Bourguiba, founder of the modern state,” said Adnen Mnasser, spokesman for the presidency, while declaring the opening of Bourguiba’s Museum in Monastir—153 kilometers south east of Tunis— on April 6, marking the 13^th anniversary of his death. The celebration however had many deficits, not the least was that many parts of the museum were still under construction.

Dictator or leader?

In his speech delivered for the occasion, Mnasser was keen not to praise or criticize Bourguiba and his speech was marked by a diplomacy that has been absent from the speeches of Moncef Marzouki, the fourth President of the Tunisian Republic after independence, who has repeatedly criticized Bourguiba’s policies, especially those relating to the state identity and the conflict between him and Salah Ben Youssef during the 1960s.

Marzouki views his first predecessor as a “dictator”, asserting that he – Marzouki – is the first “democratically elected president throughout Tunisia’s history”, and that he is “the first to listen to his oppositionists and does not imprison them.”

Last year, Marzouki visited Bourguiba’s tomb in his birthplace in Monastir Governorate, recited the first sura (chapter) of the Koran in his honor, and said “I do not deny the favors of the eternal leader over Tunisia, though I disagree with many of his positions.” This year, however, Marzouki refrained from doing the same.

Acknowledging Bourguiba as a “Tunisian leader” by Marzouki, who descends from the Youssefs, an outspoken opponent of Bourguiba’s policies, has resonated among a large number of Tunisians who have once again started talking about Bourguiba’s heritage and personality as the first president of Tunisia after the declaration of the republic in 1957.

Tunisians are divided into two sides about their position on Bourguiba; the first demonizes him and considers him “an enemy of Islam” and a dictator who “westernized Tunisia”, an opinion adopted by Islamic and national parties. The second position considers him a modern leader who paved the path for the equality of women.

Mustapha Kalii, a unionist and a national politician, has adopted the first position. He said the renewed talk about Bourguiba’s thought in post-revolution Tunisia was  “historical orphan hood” and that “the people are self-deluded if they consider him their symbol.”

Westernized thought

Kalii described the restoration of Bourguiba’s thought as “evidence of the emptiness of the present” and criticized the return of the “Bourguiba’s hegemony” over the Tunisian political scene after the January 14^th revolution while it was absent from 1987 when Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali, Bourguiba’s then prime minister, staged a bloodless coup against him and put him under house arrest in Monastir.

Political analyst and writer Tarek Amraoui holds the same view of Kalii. “Talking about Bourguiba is a waste of time,” said Amraoui, adding that Bourguiba’s regime “did not have a well-established program of modernity; rather, it simply had generalized notions imitating the West and accepting its dictations.”

Such a preconceived view about Bourguiba whose many opponents say he tried to “westernize Tunisia and separate it from its Arab, Islamic origin” is also adopted by the ruling Ennahda Movement Head Rashid Ghannouchi who said in many of his speeches that Bourguiba was the “first ousted president” who fought Islam, but failed to separate Tunisia from its roots.

Ghannouchi went further in his antagonism towards Bourguiba when he described him on Independence Day as “narcissist and tyrant”, which angered Bourguiba’s followers, especially in Monastir where fire was set to the Ennahda headquarters last February.

Founder of modern Tunisia

Ennahda allies in the Troika however have different views. Amor Chetoui, a member of the National Constituent Assembly (NCA) for the Congress for the Republic Party expressed his respect for Bourguiba by saying, “No one could deny Bourguiba’s role in building modern Tunisia.” However, he as well as Muhammad Harkam, an NCA member for Ettakatol Party, divide Bourguiba’s experience into three different stages: “struggling, building the state and aging.”

On the other hand, many consider the restoration of Bourguiba’s heritage possible since he succeeded in building a modern and advanced state during hard economic times. It was possible, said Khalifa Shater, Professor of Modern History, “to revive Bourguiba’s thought, provided that the gains acquired are maintained, and that this political thought itself is completed with its missing link— democracy.”

“Bourguiba gave priority to building a modern state at the expense of democracy,” Shater added. This opinion is shared by Samir Taieb, an NCA member for the Social Democratic Path Party, who was an opponent of Bourguiba in the 1980s. Taieb now describes Bourguiba as “a political leader who did rights and wrongs.” Bourguiba’s errors, according to Taieb, were his autocracy and failure to establish democracy mechanisms.

Mariam Bourguiba, Habib Bourguiba’s granddaughter, disagreed with Taieb and considered her grandfather a “symbol of national unity and the people’s and the republic’s sovereignty.” Bourguiba, said Mariam, “is a symbol of class, regions and gender equality.” She also asked that her grandfather’s historical image not be insulted or exploited.

Many political parties strongly believe that they have the right to invest in Bourguiba’s thought and revive his policies, especially those of education, health care, and women’s liberation.

Despite politicians’ different points of views vis-à-vis Bourguiba’s experience, he is still popular among Tunisians and some even visit his tomb in Monastir in occasions related to the former leader.