Ahmed Khaskhoussi, a leading member of the Popular Front, is a veteran politician. Even his political opponents respect his courageous stances. He is nicknamed “the shadow man” who creates events and then disappears. On Monday, July 15, 2013 in a plenary session on the Constitution, he announced his resignation from the board citing his belief that the Constitution does not represent all Tunisians.

Ahmed Khaskhoussi, a leading member of the Popular Front, is a veteran politician. Even his political opponents respect his courageous stances. He is nicknamed “the shadow man” who creates events and then disappears. On Monday, July 15, 2013 in a plenary session on the Constitution, he announced his resignation from the board citing his belief that the Constitution does not represent all Tunisians.

In 1983, Khaskhoussi joined the Social Democrats Movement, founded by Ahmed al-Mestiri. From a member of the party, Khaskhoussi became a member of the national council and was then elected as a general coordinator of the movement. After the January 14 revolution, and specifically in February 27, 2011, the movement witnessed a split.

When the “Legitimate Structures” Movement won two seats in October 2011 elections, Khaskhoussi was its general coordinator. One of the seats went to him as a representative of the Sidi Bouzid Governorate. After that, the movement officially announced that it joined the Popular Front in the National Constituent Assembly (NCA).

Ahmed Khaskhoussi, what are the reasons for your resignation at this particular time?

The day of my resignation is the last day for the public debate on the draft constitution. We were surprised to find out that the draft is not identical to the one produced by the constituent committee. Among the evidence about this is the violation committed by the Coordination and Drafting Committee in 7 chapters of the judicial, administrative and constitutional system section. Moreover, the general reporter has written the transitional provisions all by himself to serve the interests of a certain group and this is considered degrading to the institution and a disregard to the NCA members as well as to the National Group’s members.

Don’t you think that your resignation decision came to support the calls launched by those who are demanding the dissolution of the Constituent Assembly, especially since you are one of the leaders and a representative of the Popular Front, which is one of the opposition parties?

The resignation decision was based on the prevalent opinion within the movement.  There was a general opinion that the national interest requires a resignation and that this resignation should be made soon. The society has the freedom to evaluate and judge the resignation decision and it is up to the Tunisian youth to express their opinion and interact with this decision. 

A statement in support of the Egyptian President Morsi, the leader of the Ennahda Movement and the head of the Ennahda bloc in the constituent assembly, announced that there would be bloodshed in defense of legitimacy.  Do you agree with him and what do you think about such statements?

There are many facts that need to be clarified. Any person who possesses a political culture should have a holistic vision that cannot be broken because this would lead to dogmatism and deviation. For this reason, we should admit that legitimacy has many dimensions and the first dimension is the revolutionary legitimacy. This legitimacy does not belong to anybody because the freedom and dignity revolution was not led by a specific party or movement and no party or movement has the right to speak on its behalf. 

Secondly, electoral legitimacy is limited by a timeframe and certain tasks. We have exceeded the time given to us and went beyond our tasks but we didn’t accomplish the goals. For this reason, I believe that talking about election legitimacy is an irrelevant topic and has no content or substance.

There were many civil society organizations that were calling for a rebellion against the Constituent Assembly on the pretext that its members only want to serve their own interests such as the demands for a retirement grant. What is your opinion regarding these calls?

We, in the Socialist Democratic Party, have already expressed our opinion with regard to being part of the NCA. We said that the work of NCA should be voluntary and shouldn’t be a paid job. It is enough for the employee to get his salary with the exception of those who are not retired. As with regard to the retirement grant, this suggestion was submitted by the President of NCA, Mustapha Ben Jaafar and his aides, especially the members of the Ennahda Movement. But fortunately, the administrative court ruled against this grant. It is enough for the NCA member to earn a salary similar to that which was paid to MPs during the previous era and this is the salary paid to them today. The only exception is the salary paid to Meherzia Laabidi, the Vice-President of the Constituent Assembly, who is paid in hard currency because she was residing in France.

After your decision to resign you said that you would reveal many facts. Are there any secrets that your are still hiding?   

I promised to write a letter to the President of the Constituent Assembly to explain all the reasons behind my resignation and I will do so within the coming days. I will not say now the reasons because they will be mentioned in the letter.  But I want to clarify that not all the reasons relate to legal and moral issues. I hold the head of the council responsible because he was not impartial in the way he treated the various parties. I consider him as being negative and responsive to the demands of the troika representatives while he was more than strict with the opposition. This has had its negative impact on the NCA’s image and reputation that have become tarnished, especially taking into consideration the prevalent shallow level of discussions and interaction between its members.

Do you expect new resignations of other NCA MPs, especially the MPs of the Democratic Bloc?

When I left the plenary hall, a number of brothers from the NCA tried to stop me. Some of them tried to convince me to withdraw my resignation while others encouraged me and said, “You were the first to resign and we are going to follow you.” In the forefront was Manji al-Rahawi, who announced his resignation in the media. This confirms that my decision to resign is not isolated nor is it a sudden personal fancy. It could be a turning point in the right direction which takes into account the interest of the country and put it above all other considerations.

Don’t you think that your resignation will allow the troika MPs to pass the constitutional draft?

Personally, I believe that the opposite will happen. My resignation decision would stop this deterioration towards the monopoly of power by one party who wants to control the state apparatuses and administration and it would close the paths leading to the creation of a totalitarian authority that serves non-national interests.

What are the perspectives of the draft Constitution in light of the failure to reach consensus on controversial issues contained in the latest version?

I expect the awakening of liberal MPs and the political and civil societies. I believe that the pressure of the Tunisian youth at this time will make Ennahda stances more flexible and more in line with other national parties and will convince it to abandon its logic in handling political issues.