Carthage between past and future

Unlucky notes of the Secretary of the Union of Journalists of Russia Professor M.A. Fedotov

The events of recent days in Tunisia, when the head of state renounced power and fled, and Russian diplomats and tour operators are puzzling over how to evacuate fellow citizens, make me turn to the travel notes that were made two...

The events of recent days in Tunisia, when the head of state renounced power and fled, and Russian diplomats and tour operators are puzzling over how to evacuate fellow citizens, make me turn to travel notes that were made two and a half years ago. In the summer of 2008, the Tunisian authorities invited Leonid Nikitinsky and me to take part in the congress of their ruling party.

So, a convention advertised as a "Congress Challenge." Familiar: we taught at school and university about “congresses of winners”, “third decisive”, “fourth determining”. Here the whole intrigue of the “challenge” is whether President Ben Ali will agree to run for another term.

The bus with journalists and honored guests of the second category drives for a long time through the empty streets from one police cordon to another until we arrive at a huge hangar. Everywhere national flags and portraits - from huge to modest in size - do not at all claim to be diverse. At all - a cordially smiling President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali. Always in the same position: one palm is close to the heart, the other to the stomach, but in general - the personification of goodwill. He looks, perhaps, fifty, about like Iosif Kobzon.

Before letting us inside, security officers take away phones, cameras and camcorders.

Under the announcer's announcement, the first row of stalls is occupied by members of the government. They walk modestly, in single file, realizing that they are not the soloists here. Yes, on the dance floor.

And here comes the climax: to the thunderous delight of a crowd of thousands, President Ben Ali enters the stage. Even with the naked eye it is clear that every step is given to him with difficulty, and the age difference between the portrait and the original is at least twenty years. We remember Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev like this.

He stands for a long time with his arms crossed, as in a portrait, listening to the expressions of delight, turning into a hymn, then slowly and alone he takes a place at a long and completely empty table on the stage.

From the very first words of his speech, Ben Ali took the bull by the horns: “Fighters and fighters!” (so literally translated from French). What did the president of Tunisia say to the fighters and fighters? About tolerance, about the priority of human rights and the need for dialogue with young people. He called for strengthening democracy and pluralism, the rule of law... But this is in general, and more specifically, the Politburo should continue to direct the work of the central committee of the party, which, in turn, should lead the parliament. “I clearly feel the consolidation around the Central Committee of the party of all men and women, youth and other generations. The people support our program and unite around it!” And most importantly: "I thought about it and decided not to reject the request of the party that nominated me for the presidency."

A wave of delight, a hymn and ditties. Since the translators consider their texts unofficial and are silent, we are left to think out the words ourselves, trying to get into rhythm and tone.

After the break, it is the turn of the leaders of other political parties to speak. It turns out that there are several of them in Tunisia, but everyone recognizes the leading and guiding role of one and only. Naturally, the leaders of this kind of opposition come out from behind the desk, assuring President Ben Ali that they will continue to follow, support and implement.

And in the middle of the huge stage, at the long table of the presidium, an old man sits alone, who has long climbed this mountain of power and does not know how to get off it. And do you need to get down? And is it possible? After all, now it is not so much he sits on the mountain as the mountain sits on him. A mountain of obligations, a mountain of responsibility, a mountain of big and small sins. And he will sit here until the end of the century, so as not to share the fate of his predecessor Bourguiba, who spent the last years of his life under virtual house arrest. To sit, driving away even the closest associates from the presidium table to the first row of the stalls. His lot is loneliness. And the fear of death, after which the regime will almost certainly collapse, and with it the prosperity of the family, and a good name in history, and everything, everything, everything ...