Among the groups of Tunisian demonstrators Monday, one sign spoke the loudest: “Get Out,” it said in bold capitals. President Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali had already fled the country, along with his billionaire family. But the crowds that went to the streets to oust him during the past month of protests, bloody reprisals and rioting were already looking to the future.
After 23 years of broken promises and unrelenting repression they were demanding the departure not just of a leader, but a political system that had devastated their society even as it racked up impressive economic growth that failed to bring prosperity to an increasingly educated population.
As Prime Minister Mohamed Ghannouchi — a firm ally of Ben Ali — announced a national unity government that included an unprecedented handful of opposition members, many Tunisians were skeptical about the prospects for democracy. Key ministries are still in the hands of ruling party members, which include interim president Fouad Mebazaa.
“It looks like a band-aid on a gaping wound,” said Tunisia expert Kenneth Perkins, an emeritus professor of University of South Carolina. “If they want to move forward they have to be in touch with what the people on the street are saying.”
But Tunisia’s “jasmine revolution” has its own problems that make a transition to democracy perilous — and Tunisia an unlikely role model for other Mideast countries that want to escape despotic rule.
“It was a spontaneous eruption that spoke volumes about the level of desperation in the country,” said analyst Henry Wilkinson of London-based Janusian Security Risk Management. “But it doesn’t have any leaders ready to articulate their demands and legitimately speak for the people. The riots came first.”
Tunisia’s political opposition and civil society have been systematically smashed in 55 years of independent rule that failed to develop into a democracy, in spite of the efforts of courageous activists. In the recent uprising young people used the Internet as a powerful mobilizing tool for their surging anger, but lacked a political structure.
The gap is not surprising after decades of virtual dictatorship.
When Ben Ali’s predecessor, Habib Bourguiba, shook off French colonial rule, he promised to transform Tunisia. But in spite of early reforms to combat poverty and illiteracy, and expand women’s rights, he tightened his grip on dissent, and held elections that were widely denounced.
Ben Ali, appointed prime minister in 1987, forced the aging leader into retirement, promising a “program of national interest” that would give all parties a voice. But it was soon followed by a new crackdown, and opponents were exiled or jailed.
“With Ben Ali’s advisers and interior ministry officials exerting influence over politics, and the brutal repression of genuine opposition, Tunisians soon lost interest in public life,” wrote Tunisian journalist and human rights activist Kamel Labidi in Le Monde Diplomatique.
Now, Perkins said, “this is a country without much opportunity for political involvement. It’s important to move away from the old government technocrats and bureaucrats toward NGO leaders, labour union people and civil society.
“There is a cadre of people who are in a better position to lead than the discredited ruling party. But those who were involved with Tunisia’s brief experiment with multi-party institutions are now gone or out of sight.”
About 52 per cent of Tunisians are under 25, and few even remember the opposition politicians of the 1980s. With repression and control of the media a way of life, no new household names have emerged. So far only Moncef Marzouki, a Paris-based Tunisian professor of medicine, has said he would run for president.
“There’s been a leadership void in Tunisia, and it will be very difficult to fill,” says Annie Game, executive director of Canadian Journalists for Free Expression, a member of an international committee examining the country’s systemic problems of censorship, media repression and judicial failure.
“To build democracy there has to be a free media and a free judiciary. We are optimistic because a huge obstacle has been removed, but it’s a cautionary tale for others that nothing changes overnight.”
Source http://www.thestar.com/news/world/article/923393--tunisians-skeptical-about-prospects-for-democracy
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