Mustapha Ben Jafar

Mustapha Ben Jafar (مصطفى بن جعفر) (born 1940) is a Tunisian politician and doctor. He has led the Democratic Forum for Labour and Liberties (FDTL), a political party in Tunisia, since 1994. He briefly held the post of Minister of Health in January 2011 as part of an interim government.

Biography

Ben Jafar was born in 1940 in Tunis. He attended Sadiki College from 1950–1956, then studied medicine in France to become a radiologist. In 1970 he returned to Tunisia, joined the University of Tunis's medical faculty and worked also at the university hospital. In 1976 he was one of the founders of a weekly opinion magazine and an organization that evolved into the Tunisian League of Human Rights (LTDH).

In 1978 he joined others to start a political party, the Movement of Socialist Democrats (MDS). The MDS was the largest opposition party as of 1991 and the ruling party made an apparent attempt to work with the MDS as a "participatory opposition." Ben Jafar was the secretary-general of the MDS in 1992, and ran for the top MDS office, but lost to Mohamed Moadda, and resigned from the party because it seemed to have cooperated with the ruling party so much (receiving a government subsidy and accommodations) and achieved so little.^[1]

In 1994 Ben Jafar founded the Democratic Forum for Labour and Liberties (FDTL) party. It was not legally recognized until 2002. He attempted to run for the presidency in 2009 as the FDTL candidate but was disqualified and was in any case widely understood to have no chance to win against the established authoritarian incumbent president Ben Ali.^[2]

Post-revolutionary life

Turbulent protests in January 2011 drove Ben Ali from the country, and prime minister Mohamed Ghannouchi included Ben Jafar as public health minister in an interim parliamentary government beginning 17 January 2011.^[3][4] Along with other minority party members, Ben Jafar resigned within days as public protests continued against the continued dominance of the RCD party in government. Ben Jafar was succeeded as health minister by Habiba Zehi Ben Romdhane.^[5]

Ben Jafar is considered a possible candidate for president, winning support from centre-left party Ettakatol and open consideration from al-Nahda, which won the October 2011 elections to the Constituent Assembly.^[6]

References

1. ^ Murphy, Emma. Economic and political change in Tunisia: from Bourguiba to Ben Ali. pp. 209-211.
2. ^ Beaugé, Florence. "En Tunisie, l'opposant Mustapha Ben Jaafar candidat à la présidentielle" Le Monde 25 September 2009.(fr)
3. ^ Belaid, Fethi; AFP staff (17 January 2011). "Photo of Mustapha Ben Jaafar plus caption". Agence France-Presse, Getty Images. http://www.gettyimages.com/detail/108098406/AFP. Retrieved 28 January 2011. 
4. ^ Maktabi, Rima. "Troops battle ex-ruler's bodyguards in Tunisia." CNN.com, Jan 16 2011.
5. ^ Belaid, Fethi; AFP staff (28 January 2011). "Photo of Habiba Zehi Ben Romdhane plus caption". Agence France-Presse, Getty Images. http://www.gettyimages.com/detail/108474690/AFP. Retrieved 28 January 2011. 
6. ^ http://www.tunisia-live.net/2011/10/27/who-will-be-tunisias-next-president/

Persondata
Name	Ben Jafar, Mustapha
Alternative names	Ben Jaafar, Mustapha
Short description	Tunisian doctor and politician
Date of birth	1940
Place of birth	Tunis, Tunisia
Date of death
Place of death