PAGE 4
PARLIAMENTARY FORUM FOR DEMOCRACY NEWS
with the guillotines , up and down , chopping down hundreds if not thousands of heads . I mention this because Joseph Fuché was somewhat left from Robespierre , he was the butcher of Lyon , and survived the whole disaster that makes me think that revolution can never be completed , but it can certainly cause tremendous injustice as we so often saw in history . - My last point is Ben Ali himself , who , when he ousted President Bourguiba and made a coup d ‟ état in October 1987 , and I would like to remind you that Ben Ali did this in a conviction that it helps Tunisia and he introduced democratic reforms . Later , he slowly slipped toward dictatorship , which makes me say very clearly that it does not matter whether politicians , especially country leaders act in good faith or not . Most of them act in good faith , exceptions exist but they are in a minority . I worry even Lenin , Stalin and Hitler believed that they are doing the right things . If you want to prevent leaders become dictators , rule of law is and institutions are the most important . My conclusion is , that transitional justice legally does not exist . Or should not exist : rule of law should prevail . Political aspects Transitional justice has a political aspect , not only legal one . People – it is rather understandable – do not want to see old regime loyalists in influential positions . How can it be achieved ? In many countries laws the electoral codes ( or any other laws ) may exclude former regime loyalists from participating in the new democratic leadership . There are attempts or endeavours even to ban their parties . Again , I understand these feelings , I do understand these attempts , but an advocatus diaboli , I would rather argue against . - Banning their political parties will do not mean that they will give up with political activities , but rather it will mean that they will go underground . If they are permitted to do politics legally , you can see and hear what they want to achieve , what tools they are planning to use . If they are underground , they will disappear from public control . You will need intelligence to follow them and their activities , and should they become stronger , you will have to increase the pressure . Will you put their political leaders in jail for being active in a political party ? What will be the difference between you and the oppressive regime you just left behind ? - I think that many former regime loyalists participated in the previous regime because of personal weakness , individual benefits . Apart from those who committed crimes , so deserve to go to jail , many of them would like to become loyal to the new regime as well ( they want to be loyal to any regime , in fact ), and they can be won as ally . Not an ally to your party , but an ally to the system , to democracy . In order to achieve this , they must be accepted as part of the political community even you rightly disagree with them . - In my country , the successors of the former communist party remained a legal party and they were terribly defeated in the first free