Syria needs an Arab intervention

Moncef Marzouki Tunis - Azhar Al-Jarbouei    In an exclusive interview with Arabstoday, Tunisian president Moncef Marzouki stated that he is in favour of the emergence of a democratic pan-Arabism movement in his country, adding that he supported freedom "with all its flaws and drawbacks." Despite believing that Bashar Al-Assad’s regime is “corrupt”, Marzouki said he was against foreign military intervention in Syria or arming the opposition. He, however, supports a “pure Arab” intervention to end the Syrian crisis. The Tunisian President, who fought against the regime of ousted president Zine El-Abidine Ben Ali, stated that his intellectual orientation was a “panorama of several political pan-Arab liberal movements” which were both “close and far to every political expression in Tunisia.” He said he identified with pan-Arabism, by virtue of his “faith in the nation” and his belief in the importance of going back to Arab history. He stated however that he strongly disagreed with some aspects of current pan-Arabism, particularly those who “confuse Arabism as a goal and a civilised structure represented by Syrian president Bashar Assad today, after being represented by late Iraqi President Saddam Hussein in the past, and late Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi.” On a different note, President Marzouki said he agreed with the secular principle of separating religion from state, yet at the same time he clarified that he is not for “extreme secularism which starts from hating political Islam and ends with hating Islam.” “Therefore, I believe it is time to reconfigure a new pan-Arab ideology without chauvinism and socialism, without returning to socialist parties which betrayed its principles and democracy, but with a critical reading of democracy,” he added. Marzouki expressed his support for the emergence of democratic pan-Arabism in Tunisia, emphasising the need to put an end to the idea of the dictator, which according to him was part of the catastrophe in Arab regimes leading to the incursion of dictatorship. The Tunisian president believed that his country “made it halfway”, as it succeeded in establishing a democratic regime at the lowest cost, and “for the first time in the country’s history a regime is based on a consensus between moderate seculars and moderate Islamists." “What happened in Tunisia, and even in Egypt, is a triumph of democracy and not political Islam,” he indicated, choosing to refer to it as the “Islamisation of democracy and democratisation of political Islam.” He stressed that the Tunisian model was “the ideal solution to avoid an ideological war which secular extremists and radical Islamists want in the Arab world.” Marzouki also said he was against extremism, whether it be secular or Salafist. "The solution for Tunisia and all Arab countries is a moderate coalition between moderate seculars and Islamists, in the framework of respecting the Arab Islamic identity on the one hand, and respecting rights and individual freedoms, particularly women’s freedom and freedom of opinion, on the other,” he said. Marzouki affirmed that Salafists had the right to defend their position and vision peacefully; “but should they choose to resort to armed conflict with democracy, it would be a security issue and would have to be dealt with in this regard.” He insisted however that all matters should be dealt with while keeping into account human rights and the exclusion of torture. “Freedom of expression as a whole is one that involves many pitfalls and transgressions, but despite all that, I prefer freedom with all its shortcoming and drawbacks, even if I have to personally put up with grievances and attacks. I believe in the sacredness of freedom, and I will seek to defend it with all my strength, ” Marzouki said. On inflation, Marzouki said the issue was intertwined with a number of internal and external factors, saying there were some who had not yet accepted the election results and believed they could overthrow the government. He addressed the parties saying they should act “responsibly” as it was “not a question of the success of one party or the other,” but the question of the safety of Tunisia. On a different note, the Tunisian president stated that he was embarking on a “new foreign political crystallisation”. He added that during his recent Maghreb tour, it was agreed to revive the Maghreb Union through a number of steps, “first of which is to activate the five freedoms, and in this framework, Tunisia is to host a conference on the level of presidents to revive the Union before the end of 2012.” He also said he would attend an Arab Latin-American summit for the first time in June, in Peru. Speaking of the Arab Spring revolutions, the Tunisian president said his country “which revolted against the tyranny of Ben Ali, cannot accept the crimes committed against the Syrian people." "Dictatorship tried over years and experiences to masquerade as patriotism, as former Tunisian president Habib Bourguiba did, or Islam, as in Sudan. How can we tolerate a tyrannical regime on the grounds of its nationalism or opposition on paper?” he said. He however said Tunisia strictly rejected foreign intervention in Syria and providing the Syrian opposition with arms. “I will only approve of a pure Arab intervention to resolve the crisis in Syria,” he said, echoing the stance he expressed during the Friends of Syria summit in Tunis. As the issue over Ben Ali's fate remains, Marzouki stated that though Tunisia did not want to disrupt its relations with Saudi Arabia he would not give up his country’s right to extradite Ben Ali. On a different note, Marzouki said “the Palestinian cause is the Tunisian people’s cause,” pointing to his country’s support of all initiatives aiming to resolve the Palestinian crisis and achieve political reconciliation. The Tunisian president also said he believed in the need to separate personal and professional lives, saying he needed to keep his personal life private and away from the glare of politics. He stated that his wife was a French doctor, and that he had two grandchildren. “My wife lives her life normally, and occasionally goes shopping without people knowing that she is the wife of the president,” he stated. “It is time to change the idea of the so-called First Lady, who interferes in politics,” he added.