TUNIS - On the tenth floor of a huge white building, which is nestled in the far periphery of the city, "Don Quixote of Tunis," says his revolution and makes no secret of concern about the possible resurgence authoritarian already seems to threaten the "jasmine revolution".
Taoufik Ben Brik, a poet and novelist of international renown, has never concealed his activities as opposed to the regime of Ben Ali. "In April 2000, to protest against human rights violations in the country, I stayed for forty days on hunger strike until the Interior Ministry, under pressure from the French authorities would not consent to my admission to a Paris hospital to return the passport, "recalls the same Ben Brik, years suffering from Cushing's disease (a disease that deprives him of immunity). His books have been banned from the country. In his articles, published mostly in the French press (Le Nouvel Observateur , Le Courrier International), has for years denounced the brutal dictatorship established by the former president. "I never had the freedom but I always found the means to express myself - the opponent is confident with pride - I never stopped writing, even after warnings from intimidation and bullies Ben Ali, even after prison." During the last presidential elections (October 2009) Ben Brik has paid his insubordination with six months in jail, guilty of the international media have criticized the "electoral masquerade that accompanied the coronation of the fifth ruler of Carthage."
interview with Taoufik Ben Brik (Tunis, 26 January 2011)
Granci James: It is said that writers and intellectuals in particular always have the thermometer in the situation. Taoufik Ben Brik was expecting such a rude awakening of the Tunisian people?
Taoufik Ben Brik: The answer, without false modesty, a gift that the rest do not belong to me. In my books, I predicted the revolution, which I consider to be a bit 'the prophet. Not because the Prophet sent by someone, but because I described the events we have witnessed in recent weeks. "Sublime January grant one day of glory," I wrote a poem. Everything was there, ready to explode and had to be blind not to see it. I expected to see the people marching down the street and burn photos of Ben Ali in 2004. I was just ahead of its time.
JG: What was your reaction on January 14 last year?
TBB: If I think of what happened in Tunisia tra la fine di dicembre e il 14 gennaio, la prima immagine mi riporta subito a Cervantes: migliaia di Don Chisciotte armati di una misera lancia di legno che attaccano il più grande dei mulini a vento del nostro paese, il tetro Ministero dell’Interno. Ma allo stesso tempo, senza nulla togliere allo straordinario coraggio del popolo tunisino, senza il quale nulla sarebbe stato possibile, non credo che sia stata detta la verità su quanto accaduto all’interno del Palazzo.
J. G.: Che cosa intende dire?
T. B. B.: Penso che ci siano state delle trattative, dopo la carneficina di Thala e Kasserine. In quel preciso momento Ben Ali has become inconvenient, heavy, even for its Western allies, who were ordered to leave the field. Ben Ali has earned his golden retirement, negotiated the release of good Trabelsi clan, and has secured an airlift. Asked 3 tons of gold and have given him one and a half. His departure was well prepared. The family started in early January. The last to leave the country was at Sakhr Materi, son of Ben Ali, January 12. The great chief then he went to Saudi Arabia, the fifty-first American state. I do not think a case. In addition there was with him when he left a Saudi Emir. The destination was already decided.
JG: What do you think of the current situation?
TBB: The government of transition, including the former opposition parties recognized and engulfed by Ben Ali, have no legitimacy. Entities are empty, light-years away from the needs and hopes of the population. These poor figures who are representatives of national unity are shamelessly trying to recover the revolution, to suppress it, and some are already successful. Day after day, all those who have come to align with the course of events. RCD men now claim the revolution, even the police have made mea culpa. Newspapers and le televisioni di regime, che mai avevano osato sollevare il minimo dubbio o la minima critica in ventitre anni di potere di Ben Ali, adesso si riempiono la bocca e non parlano altro che di rivoluzione, libertà e transizione democratica. La verità è che hanno rubato il sogno del popolo tunisino e stanno già preparando le basi per il nuovo regime, identico a quello precedente. Per questo le manifestazioni continuano. Le proteste sono legittime e andranno avanti fino a quando non verrà portato a termine il lavoro.
J. G.: Che cosa manca alla rivoluzione tunisina per dirsi compiuta?
T. B. B.: Una rivoluzione, per dirsi tale, deve portare a radical change in political, economic and social development. Herein lies the great question which the country is facing. A considerable part of Tunisian society took advantage of the system deployed by Ben Ali, by his party-state militias, the 130 000 police officers recruited from practices of patronage on which govern the administration, even from smuggling at the borders. This monolith has not yet been affected, and until it is dismantled piece by piece it is difficult to imagine such a change, in which many now fear.
JG: What, in his view, the priority to get the change?
T. B. B.: Assieme ad altri personaggi di spicco del panorama culturale, sindacale e associativo abbiamo rivolto un appello, rimasto inascoltato, per la costituzione di una Convenzione nazionale. Una convenzione che raccolga le istanze politiche (eccetto le mummie ereditate dal vecchio regime), sindacali e della società civile. Ripeto, non sono i due o tre partiti ora al governo i legittimi rappresentanti del popolo tunisino. Dalla Convenzione nazionale dovrà uscire poi un’assemblea costituente, con l’obiettivo di redigere le linee guida e i riferimenti assoluti del nuovo stato, democratico e garante delle libertà e del rispetto dei diritti dei cittadini, in una parola la nuova costituzione.
J. G.: La costituzione attuale non garantisce tali libertà?
T. B. B.: La costituzione attuale è un mostro orribile! In Ben Avi la momie ho dedicato pagine e pagine alla denuncia di questo testo, modificato più e più volte in corso d’opera, che ha fatto di Ben Ali un Dio in terra. “Si è fatto murare vivo, neanche fosse un faraone, e la costituzione è il suo sarcofago, cesellato e rifinito per celebrarne la gloria eterna. (…) gli dà il potere supremo, l’immunità atemporale e gli assicura l’immortalità”. Anche il tempo è preso in ostaggio in questa costituzione.
JG: In any case, correct me if I'm wrong, she has already proposed his candidacy in the upcoming presidential election.
TBB: Yes, I have proposed as an independent candidate, although in principle I am opposed to the institution of the Presidency of the republic, which in these conditions is an invitation to authoritarian and dictatorial management of the country. I wrote it very clear in Les Plageurs are against every president "who live in palaces and gulliveriani squander in an hour what the people of Karachi are spending in a decade." I am against an institution which I believe turns the human being to be divine, that allows buildings by five meters high gilded ceilings, suitable perhaps to Gargantua, but certainly not the likes of Vaclav Havel or Ben Ali.
JG: So because he wants to apply?
TBB: To tell people that that chair is not a sacred throne. That place it is for mere mortals, so that even a scoundrel like Ben Brik can nourish the hope of getting there. In fact in the past (the 2004 presidential election, note) I did it to angry Ben Ali, to try to spoil the party. Now I do it to annoy the new pretenders to all those gang leaders who pretend to be legitimate heroes and martyrs of the revolutionary regime.
JG: You know what they say around you?
TBB: Some call me "the crowds of Tunis." They say I'm too iconoclastic and radical, but to them I say, are as radical as people who take to the streets in recent days to defend positions and non-negotiable principles.
JG: In the unlikely event of immediate general election, as he sees the possibility of a government that includes within it the men of Ennadha?
TBB: Many friends from days I say "before you were in front of Ben Ali, now that your old enemy is gone it will come a new, Rachid Ghannouchi and his followers of Islam." For myself I have always been clear. I fought to reassert the freedom and I certainly do not entrust it to someone who will limit again. Now is their moment, but I think in the coming months, the Islamists will come out and make the void behind them. Are present throughout the country, from big cities to small villages in the interior, thanks to the mosques and imams. These locations, under police surveillance of Ben Ali in the late eighties, will return to be true outbreaks of Ennadha.
JG: Tell me about a bit 'of his life under the regime of Ben Ali opponent. Take it as an exercise to ward off ghosts hopefully long gone.
TBB: Ben Ali has done everything to make my life impossible. For years I had his men in the home, telephone and mail interception, I was constantly shadowed. Every now tightening their grip to send strong warnings. Once you have tampered with the brakes of my car. In 2004, to oppose my candidacy for president, Ben Ali has sued all the members of my family except my mother. In 2009, then imprisoned me. I thought avesse deciso di liquidarmi. Con la mia malattia un medico di prigione non è certo in grado di curarmi. Di solito sono seguito da specialisti e devo sottopormi a controlli rigidi una volta al mese. Le condizioni di detenzione poi, tra il freddo, l’umidità e la sporcizia, non aiutano una persona priva delle difese immunitarie come me. Invece ho resistito per tutti i sei mesi della condanna. Il 14 dicembre scorso, limite dell’assurdo, se la sono presa anche con mio figlio Ali. E’ stato sequestrato da due agenti che volevano condurlo in caserma per fargli fare servizio militare a quattordici anni! Ne ha parlato tutta la stampa internazionale. “Il paese dove si arruolano bambini di quattordici anni”, così aveva titolato Le Canard Enchainé . After the hunger strike of 2000, with the visibility that I had taken at the international level, I had become uncomfortable for the regime. Ben Ali has tried in every way to force me to leave the country. I told him writing Je ne pas will leave.
JG: Speaking of books, do you think will write something to celebrate this revolution?
TBB: During the last few weeks I have written more than forty articles, which will soon be collected and published in book form. I'm just undecided on the title, including brule Tunis and Sidi Bouzid mon amour.
Bibliografia
- And now, you'll hear me , ed. Aloe / Exiles Publisher, Tunis / Paris, 2000
- Laughter whale , ed. Le Seuil, Paris, 2000
- A sweet dictatorship. Chronic Tunisian 1991-2000, ed. La Découverte, Paris, 2001
- cookie Chronicle, ed. La Découverte, Paris, 2001
- Ben Brik Fi El Kasr , ed. Dar El Kaws, Tunis, 2001
- Chairman Ben Brik followed Avi Ben mummy , ed. Exiles Publisher, Paris, 2003
- The Plagieur , ed. Exiles Publisher, Paris, 2004
- I will not go , ed. Shihab, Algiers, 2007
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