Following are excerpt from an interview with Moncef Marzouki, leader of the "Congress for the Republic" Tunisian opposition party, who recently returned to Tunisia from his place of exile in France. The interview aired on Al-Arabiya TV on January 24, 2011.

Moncef Marzouki: There is a famous saying by the philosopher Hannah Arendt, who said that in a dictatorship, everything is fine until the last 15 minutes. Until this dictator [Ben Ali] carried out his coup on November 6, [1987], the press sang the praises of Bourguiba and his achievements, the streets were calm, and everything seemed calm. Then Bourguiba's regime suddenly collapsed. The same happened to [Ben Ali].

Why? Because the ingenuity of dictatorships is in lying. It conceals the truth and conceals reality. It lies about the economy, saying that it is in an excellent state. It lies about liberties, saying that the people are happy. It lies about the boiling anger.

This lying is what dictatorships do best. Dictatorships are built upon oppression, plunder, autocracy, and lying. But beyond that beautiful image, one can see that the people oppose the regime, the economy is on the brink of collapse, because this dictatorship is corrupt and corruption eats away at economies.

These people tried to hide what was happening within the house, painting the walls in bright colors, while its foundations were disintegrating day by day, until suddenly, the roof collapsed, taking the dictatorship with it.

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The Tunisians are still protesting because they do not understand or accept that the prime minister who was appointed by the dictator will be leading the democratic process. For the people, this is illogical.

Interviewer: But they promised that this would be a provisional government, and they have presented guarantees. Are these guarantees insufficient for you?

Moncef Marzouki: On the night the dictator fled, he said: I am ready to give you whatever you want – all the liberties and complete democracy. However, there is a lack of trust. We do not trust people who have lied to us all along.

Interviewer: What guarantees are you demanding?

Moncef Marzouki: We will only accept guarantees from people with a proven democratic record, who have not collaborated with the dictatorship. With all due respect to Muhammad Al-Ghannouchi, he was appointed president by the dictator. He himself admitted that he passed information to the dictator, while his snipers were killing Tunisians.

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