Many Tunisians do indeed respect Mr. Bourguiba as the father of the independent nation, yet he was also a dictator who imprisoned his opponents and clung to power for over 30 years. Far from cementing his reputation, moving the statue opened a new debate around Mr. Bourguiba’s legacy. “People talk of a ‘new Bourguibism,’ but it does not exist,” Med Dhia Hammami, a journalist and activist, said. Yet Mr. Bourguiba then ordered them to surrender to the French, who bombed the fighters in the mountains. The beys were subsequently blamed for clearing the way for seven decades of French rule and were condemned to obscurity by Mr. Bourguiba after Tunisia’s independence.

Source: New York Times February 06, 2017 14:31 UTC