Tunisia is definitely turning the page on the Muslim Brotherhood

30th October 2021

2 minutes read

Tunisian President Kais Saied is taking confident and deliberate steps on the path of reform and returning the revolution to its origins and natural courses in order to meet the aspirations of the masses that blew it up on December 17, 2010, by ridding it of the legacy of the Muslim Brotherhood represented in the Renaissance Movement, which wreaked havoc and destruction on the country’s and people’s capabilities. He is relying on unprecedented popular support that gave him popular and revolutionary legitimacy to launch a real revolution, which started on July 25, by freezing the work of parliament and dissolving the government, ending the formation of a new government headed by Najla Bouden, which pledged to eradicate corruption, start a process of economic and financial reform, and work to provide life for the Tunisian citizen, and fight against monopoly.

The reform process began immediately with an open battle against corruption that affected senior officials and a number of deputies, to whom Ennahdha provided the political cover to practice the most heinous forms of corruption and plunder of public funds. The purge also included the remnants of the Muslim Brotherhood and the groups loyal to them in the security services, which they managed to infiltrate within ten years of their grip on power, in the leadership of border management, foreigners and training, in addition to heads of regions, teams and security centers. The prominent feature of the new formations was the appointment of prominent women leaders for the most of them, and thus these important security sites were recovered and rid of corruption and nepotism. Work is also underway to clean up the Ministry of Education after the discovery of corruption files related to forging certificates of Brotherhood teachers to join the ministry and other ministries, without testing. In this context, the local director of education in Sidi Bouzid governorate was arrested, along with four other employees, for committing crimes of forging administrative documents. It is expected that hundreds of employees in the public sector who entered the job illegally will be laid off.

In another step, former Minister of Agriculture Samir Taieb and seven other officials were arrested a few days ago on charges of corruption and systematic destruction of the agricultural sector. Deputy Mehdi Ben Gharbia was also detained on suspicion of tax fraud and money laundering.

President Saied also dealt a severe blow to Ennahdha leader Rached Ghannouchi by exempting all members of his cabinet as head of the frozen parliament, including five advisors, as part of efforts to strip Ghannouchi of all means of legitimacy.

All of these steps are welcomed by the Tunisian; this is because it fulfills its desire to get rid of all of the Brotherhood’s legacy, and puts Tunisia on the path of real reform, until the completion of the rescue battle and the correction of the December 17 revolution, the revision of the constitution and the holding of a popular referendum in which the people choose their system of government, away from the domination of the Brotherhood, and the political conflicts that plunged the country into endless crises.