Tarak Mekki (طارق المكي 27 June 1958 – 31 December 2012) was a Tunisian businessman and
political figure
A politician is a person active in party politics, or a person holding or seeking an elected office in government. Politicians propose, support, reject and create laws that govern the land and by an extension of its people. Broadly speaking, a ...
.
He declared himself as an opponent to the president
Zine El Abidine Ben Ali
Zine El Abidine Ben Ali ( ar, زين العابدين بن علي, translit=Zayn al-'Ābidīn bin 'Alī; 3 September 1936 – 19 September 2019), commonly known as Ben Ali ( ar, بن علي) or Ezzine ( ar, الزين), was a Tunisian politician ...
and a candidate to his succession. Mekki was one of the few political opponents calling for an immediate end to the Ben Ali regime, and his prosecution for corruption and torture.
Mekki was born in
Tunis
''Tounsi'' french: Tunisois
, population_note =
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. he embraced many of Tunisia's first president
Habib Bourguiba
Habib Bourguiba (; ar, الحبيب بورقيبة, al-Ḥabīb Būrqībah; 3 August 19036 April 2000) was a Tunisian lawyer, nationalist leader and statesman who led the country from 1956 to 1957 as the prime minister of the Kingdom of T ...
's foreign policies which called for a pragmatic solution to the
Israeli-Palestinian conflict
Israelis ( he, יִשְׂרָאֵלִים, translit=Yīśrāʾēlīm; ar, الإسرائيليين, translit=al-ʾIsrāʾīliyyin) are the citizens and nationals of the State of Israel. The country's populace is composed primarily of Jew ...
and closer ties with Western countries. He presented himself as moderate and quickly distanced himself from other political opponents including
Islamists.
After 12 June 2007, Mekki posted his speeches online revealing the foundation of his presidential programme. He called for the birth of a "Second Tunisian republic" where rights would be guaranteed to all Tunisians. According to him, this was the only alternative to the then existing regime.
Mekki claimed that women had been wearing veils as a mean of silent political protests rather than true religious conviction. Mekki proposed to fight the "real" roots of
Islamic Terrorism
Islamic terrorism (also known as Islamist terrorism or radical Islamic terrorism) refers to terrorist acts with religious motivations carried out by fundamentalist militant Islamists and Islamic extremists.
Incidents and fatalities f ...
and blamed President Ben Ali's policies for the rise of extremists. This could also just have been a ploy to gain support in the West, as Ben Ali had similarly proclaimed to be fighting terrorism.
Mekki's team produced a series of political comic sketches called "Mille et une nuits" (engl. "One Thousand and One Nights or Elf Leila w Leila") in which he ridiculed President Zine El-Abidine Ben Ali, his wife
Leila Trabelsi-Ben Ali, and the
Trabelsi family – the name of the sketches themselves a jab at the president's wife.
From 8 June 2008, his speeches were broadcast online on various websites including YouTube and
Dailymotion
Dailymotion is a French video-sharing technology platform owned by Vivendi. North American launch partners included Vice Media, Bloomberg and Hearst Digital Media. It is among the earliest known platforms to support HD (720p) resolution video. ...
as well as via satellite on
Nilesat
Nilesat (; , ''or'' ) is an Egyptian company and the name of a series of Egyptian communications satellites. It was established in 1996 with the purpose of operating Egyptian satellites and their associated mission control center and ground st ...
every Monday evening in Tunisia. Mekki died, aged 54, in
Hammamet.
References
External links
dailymotion video Blog d'information sur l'initiative pour la proclamation de la deuxième république en Tunisie
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mekki, Tarak
1958 births
2012 deaths
People from Tunis
Tunisian politicians