Tunis, 2 August 1998
In the Name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate
Honorable Guests,
Militants,
By this special session we close the meetings of the Congress of Excellence, with which our Party prepares to end a century during which it has registered eight decades of militancy, sacrifice, assiduous effort and solid construction and to welcome the twenty-first century with optimism and determination -- optimism regarding the gains, achievements and future programs of the Change, and optimism springing from the determination of its militants of all generations and social categories to achieve success and excellence.
I take this opportunity to reiterate my thanks to our brothers and friends who have come representing their countries and parties, showing us the same affection and consideration that we ourselves hold for them, for we are all proud of the relations of cooperation and solidarity that bind us.
I would also like to thank the Tunisian and foreign media representatives and journalists who have followed our congress with interest and attention so that national and foreign public opinion, which views this important event with particular regard given our Party's prestige and influence, might be informed of the results, orientations, choices and opinions that emerge from our meetings, which will mark out the path Tunisia will now follow.
It is with great pride that I have chaired this Congress and have followed attentively the serious discussions and responsible dialogue that have taken place both in the commissions and in the plenary session. They reveal sincere determination and loyalty to the national interest, and I wish to thank all those who have contributed to the success of this Congress.
I would also like to express my great respect for the deep awareness I perceived among the Rally's militants and its skilled members and intellectuals regarding the imperatives of this stage, and their firm determination to meet its challenges in the ever-renewed spirit of the Change and with a constant commitment for hard work and self-surpassing effort.
We intend to subject the viewpoints, ideas and judicious proposals that the congress participants have expressed throughout these meetings, joined with those advanced by our distinguished guests, the representatives of national parties and organizations, to careful study and thorough analysis. It is for this reason that we are today calling for these to be put in a specific report that will be submitted to the Central Committee during its first session following this congress, and will then be studied by the Political Bureau, which will identify the suggestions that will receive further attention.
Militants,
The Congress of Excellence is a major date in our Party's history, coming as it does at a crucial point in our country's march towards the future. We must, imperatively, meet the goals we have set for the events that lie before us.
We are striving to raise our country to the ranks of the developed countries. Achieving this end will depend on the extent to which we succeed in our process of development, realize fully the objectives of the upgrading program, and promote our country's potential in all sectors of production, creativity and innovation.
It will also depend on our success in meeting the challenge of competitiveness, our openness to the international environment, our ability to resist the currents of globalization, and our capacity to contribute actively, preserving our identity while avoiding isolationism, and interacting with others but refusing assimilation.
You are well aware that with every new step we take in this area, the effort required for the next step increases, as competition becomes stronger and the leading contenders advance at a distinctly more rapid pace.
As was so well said by our national poet, Aboul Kacem Chabbi, "He who is not embraced by the longing for life/Will evaporate in vacancy and be forgotten."
The Democratic Constitutional Rally, with its vast presence among the people and its present membership of over two million people, organized in 7,800 cells, is the prime force which, with both merit and excellence, drives our achievements and successes.
The presence of our Party's grass-roots structures throughout the country imparts fundamental importance to democratic constitutional activity in every field and imbues it with an essential role in expressing our people's concerns and aspirations and in proposing views, solutions and methods that reflect the fields of interest and the ambitions of every man and woman of Tunisia.
This is why we invariably strive to ensure that it is the grass-roots structures, in other words the cells and federations, that are responsible for taking initiative and for acting as the political motor on the regional level. This invests our Party with very great responsibilities during the present stage in our country's history.
At the same time that I congratulate Central Committee members on the confidence that the grass-roots structures and the Congress have placed in them, I wish also to stress the importance of the responsibility they now bear for revitalizing political life in their regions, attentively monitoring the process of economic and social development taking place there, explaining our choices and orientations, and deepening awareness of the requirements and aspects they entail.
They must be examples of commitment, discipline and assiduous action; they must be present and active, encouraging effort and hard work through field activity without waiting for periodic meetings or other scheduled events. The Rally must always be the avant-garde party, the party most able to assume the responsibility for governing, since it is the party of all strata and categories of the people, the party of the Change.
Militants,
The election of the Central Committee members, which has been held in a context of sincerity, total transparency and healthy emulation, has given the RCD the opportunity to demonstrate once again that it is a school for democracy.
Democracy within the Rally is an essential factor in confirming democracy in society.
To all those who have not had the good fortune to be elected, as well as to all Party members, I wish to say that the gates of action and contribution are always open to everyone, and that anyone who bears the colors of the RCD is responsible, since he or she is militating for Tunisia.
The Rally needs every one of its members. In that respect all are equal, regardless of the position they occupy and regardless of whether they are working inside or outside the structures of the Party.
Excellence cannot be achieved without the mobilization of all the Rally's militant energies. This is why I exhort you to redouble your efforts to offer every opportunity and open every Party area so that the democratic constitutional elite, including its scholars, its executives, and its intellectuals, scientists and artists who are a source of such pride to us, may make their active contribution to the Rally's life and to its intellectual wealth, in the service of Tunisia and its people.
The decline of ideologies in this time of market economy and globalization, and in the context of the deep changes occurring in the world, by no means implies the disappearance of the intellectual references of parties, and indeed a party which has no references has no future.
For this reason we have accorded intellectual activity special importance in the life of the Rally, building political action on specific tenets and references which we enrich through our experience and which found our reactions to all that occurs around us in different societies.
I exhort you to see that this aspect is constantly present in the Rally's programs of activity for structures at all levels--local, regional and national.
Militants,
Action to achieve the goals set by the Congress of Excellence in every field begins now.
The train will wait for no one, and only those who keep up with it will enjoy the opportunity it offers. We have outlined what we are seeking to attain, and it is this that gives value and meaning to every aspect and detail of our daily action, since each day is one segment of the path that leads to the future.
The activity you must now undertake in your regions is another portion of that same path, as you organize for the summer, prepare for the new academic year, publicize the orientations, ideas and recommendations that figure in the motions of our congress, increase awareness of their different dimensions, and deepen understanding of the challenges of this stage.
Important political events lie before us during the next two years, and I am inspired with great confidence when I see the determination of RCD militants to deal with them successfully and the commitment and spirit of discipline with which they are working to ensure that the Rally remains the avant-garde party, the party of national action, the party of the Change, the party of excellence.
As I express to you my pride at assuming the chairmanship of this glorious Party, I wish you to know how proud I am also of the proposal the Congress has made that I be the Rally's candidate for the next presidential election.
The conduct of the nation's valorous martyrs, freedom-fighters and militants is the best possible model we could have. Just as their deeds of valor fill the pages of our history, so the Rally, with its militant men and women, is today in the forefront of the country's active elements, worthy of filling the most glorious pages for Tunisia's coming generations.
Long live Tunisia, ever worthy and invulnerable!
Long live the Democratic Constitutional Rally!
God the Almighty said: "Act! God, His Prophet and the believers will be witnesses to your actions"
(The Koran).
Thank you for your attention.