In an exclusive interview with Correspondents, Ennahda’s enigmatic and controversial leader, Rachid Ghannouchi, sheds light on his party’s legacy in Tunisia and likens it to the political movement led by the late South African icon Nelson Mandela.
In an exclusive interview with Correspondents, Ennahda’s enigmatic and controversial leader, Rachid Ghannouchi, sheds light on his party’s legacy in Tunisia and likens it to the political movement led by the late South African icon Nelson Mandela.
Although Ghannouchi gave his vote of confidence to former President Ben Ali when the latter led a coup against President Habib Bourguiba in 1987, Ben Ali turned against Ghannoichi and his party, sending Ghannouchi into exile for 21 years after being sentenced to life in prison. During Ben Ali’s era, Islamists experienced regular torture and abuse— thousands were imprisoned.
With the popular Arab Spring uprising in 2011, Rachid Ghannouchi’s exile not only came to an end, the Ennahda party won a majority of seats in the Constituent Assembly.
Nevertheless, the Ennahda Movement witnessed many administrative failures and disunity within the troika government leading to the most major crisis in the history of modern Tunisia—most notable was the growing tide of terrorism and political assassinations (i.e. Chokri Belaid and Mohamed Brahmi).
The crisis forced Ennahda to step down from power in late 2013 with the hopes of returning after the next election.
Ghannouchi however says not only will Ennahda prevail in the upcoming elections, it is unafraid of re-inventing itself and hinted that his party may have a candidate from outside of the Ennahda Movement.
Ghannouchi also gives his take on the Egyptian political scene and recalls a history of Tunisian (and Ennahda’s) support of Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood.
Mr. Rachid Ghannouchi, there was an alleged letter sent by you by Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan, in which you heavily criticized Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood. Although you denied this letter and repudiated it, there is a question that needs to be answered. Did the Muslim Brotherhood commit fatal mistakes?
The Muslim Brotherhood may have made mistakes, but in the practice of democracy mistakes are not corrected by coups. There are other means such as early elections. Thus, the Muslim Brotherhood is in the right position, it is an oppressed movement, and morality requires defending the oppressed people and not condemning them. The Muslim Brotherhood movement needs the support of all the democrats all over the world because it is an oppressed movement. It came to power in democratic elections and it was removed by a coup.
Therefore, the only moral political and democratic stance is to support the movement and condemn the coup.
So you believe that despite the political mistakes made by the Muslim Brotherhood, this should not lead to the fate it is facing today.
No, the mistakes made do not require this end. Today, we should support democracy in Egypt. It is not the time for digging into the mistakes of the Muslim Brotherhood, although the movement has had its mistakes.
The hundreds of death sentences passed against the leaders, followers and supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt were condemned by most countries around the world and most of political streams—both secular and modernist. How do you perceive these sentences?
This is additional proof that we are dealing with neither a balanced system nor a system of trust, but rather with a system which is facing a state of disorder and loss of balance. Even mafias would not issue 1200 death sentences in one hour or in one hour and a half. There is a state of nervousness, absence of balance and brutality.
As the Egyptian election nears, do you think Egypt has said its last goodbye to democracy?
No. I believe that anything which is built on falsehood is false. Today, Egypt is not experiencing an election. What we see is a silly and a badly directed play. It is like someone who laughs when there is a massacre and he is walking on the skulls of the people.
Will the Ennahda Movement grant political asylum in Tunisia to any of the Brotherhood leaders, especially since you previously announced that Tunisia is committed to U.N. refugee articles and ought to provide asylum to those who deserve it?
I am talking about my own established principles. I said that democratic countries and members of the UN should enable politically persecuted persons in their countries to seek asylum and should grant them the right to shelter. This is a principled position and we stick to it. Actually, none of the Muslim Brotherhood members applied for asylum in Tunisia. As a reminder, in the 1960s, when the Muslim Brotherhood members were persecuted, the Tunisian government supported them and condemned the death sentence issued against Sayyid Qutb (famed author and Muslim Brotherhood member).
This was during the era of Bourguiba. Does this mean that he was against the persecution of Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood?
Yes, this was during the Bourguiba era. This means that it is not strange that the Tunisian people felt bad about injustice in Egypt—all Tunisian parties condemned the death sentences.
The Ennahda Movement was against the political exclusion law, which prevented the passage of a law that excludes the supporters of the former regime (the Democratic Constitutional Rally). Some say the Ennahda movement betrayed the revolution and its martyrs by forgiving the constitutional rally members and its supporters?
The revolution is not massacres and executions. It is national unity, social justice and political freedoms. The mission of all revolutions is to topple idols and not to carry out massacres. The idol in Tunisia was toppled when Ben Ali was toppled and with him the one-party system, the rigid media, politically manipulated trials and the police state. Now the people are free and this does not mean that the Ennahda Movement, which has reached power, should prosecute the constitutional rally members because in the past, this party had prosecuted the Ennahda Movement’s members.
Was the Ennahda Movement compelled to forgive those who prosecuted it in the past, driven by the political game, especially under the pressure of the upcoming elections, or has it chosen to do so out of its strong convictions?
When we talk about forgiveness, we find ourselves faced with two models: one from our Arab-Muslim history and one from Africa. In our history, when Prophet Muhammad emerged victorious, he stood in Mecca and told the infidels who did not believe in him: “Go you are free.”
He did not practice exclusion against them and he did not prosecute them. He allowed them to join his army and they became leaders. If he didn’t do so, we wouldn’t have been able to spread Islam in North Africa and the Arabian Peninsula would have fought an unending civil war instead of spreading the Islamic religion all over the world.
The second model is that of Nelson Mandela in South Africa. Despite what the racists and the state of the white people did to him, when he won, he didn’t take revenge and practice massacres. Instead, he called for forgiveness, amnesty, and tolerance and thus South Africa became the most important country in the African continent. Ennahda took the same path.
Who is the Ennahda Movement’s candidate for the upcoming presidential elections?
This topic has certain calculations and the Ennahda Movement announces today its final decision that it will have its candidate in the next presidential election.
Is Ennahda going to nominate one of its leaders for the upcoming elections or is it going to support a candidate from outside the Ennahda movement?
It is possible that the candidate is not a member of the movement. (He kept silent for a while, as if he wants to choose the right words, and looked at one of his companions). He could also be one of its leaders. What is important is that we have taken a final decision to participate in the forthcoming presidential elections.
From your words and hints, I understand that the Ennahda Movement might support a candidate from outside the party?
We are a creative and an inspired party and we have always surprised everyone with our unusual stances. We left power in an unusual way, because all democratic parties in the world do not hand over power except by elections or coups.
There was no coup against us, no revolution and we did not lose the elections. However, we abandoned power with our own choice because Tunisia and democracy are more important to us. In the next elections, we will be present in an unusual way.
This means that you have already taken the decision and that the Ennahda candidate for the coming presidential elections might be from outside the movement?
Yes, it is most likely that the Ennahda Movement will support a presidential candidate from outside the movement.
You have announced a position which surprised some people when you said that you have nothing against Mahdi Jumaa resuming his function as a head of the government after the next elections if he succeeds in the current phase. Nida Tounis (the Call for Tunisia Party) shares with you the same stance. Do you still hold the same position?
Of course, if he wants so. He insists that he will not stay one day after the next elections. We, as a movement, are bound by the interests of Tunisia and the interest of Tunisia is the success of the democratic option. If the choice of keeping Mahdi Jumaa as the head of the national unity government is in the interest of the country, we will not deviate from that.
Why does the Ennahda Movement insist on holding the next presidential and legislative elections on the same day?
We insist on holding the two elections on the same day because we want to abide by the Constitution and ensure that the agreed upon constitutional deadlines are respected. Moreover, the Election Commission believes that holding the two elections on the same day makes it easier to abide by the agreed upon deadlines.
Thus, we insist on holding the two elections in a single day because it respects the Constitution, and secondly it saves the time and money the country needs. If we do so, we will save the state treasury an amount of 20 billion dinars (US $12 billion).
Instead of inviting people to go three times to the ballot boxes, they only have to go twice. This is also the most secure option, as indicated by the Election Commission—lowering potential for security failures. In addition, participation and turn over in the political process will be two to three times greater.
Holding the two elections in the same day achieves equality and the principle of equal opportunities among the candidates. If we start with the presidential elections, then the party which has been able to win will compete in the legislative elections with higher morale than the rest of the parties. It will tell people: ‘give us a parliament and a government consistent with the president’.
Do you believe that the Ennahda Movement still has ample opportunities to win in the forthcoming elections?
Our first goal in the next elections is not the success of the Ennahda movement. The first goal of our plan is to reach the elections and to implement them this year in a democratic, fair, all-inclusive way approved by everybody. Our second goal is of course to succeed in the elections, but the success of the democratic option is more important for us than our own success.
In any case, regardless of the results we achieve, we support a broad based government of national unity because we have learned the lesson of the past. The country has become burdened by the pressure of political conflict between the government parties and the opposition parties. If we didn’t abandon power, the roof would have fallen on our heads and hurt us all.
