‘YOU CAN’T JUST STARVE PEOPLE FOR THE SAKE OF ECONOMICS’
▶ Gareth Browne meets the Tunisian protesters determined to persuade their government to change course
Activists and the opposition in Tunisia have called for more protests to be held today, the seventh anniversary of the toppling of veteran dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali.
The country has been rocked by demonstrations since Monday with one dead, dozens of people injured and more than 800 arrested.
Nawres Douzi is in her early 20s and on the frontline of the fight against Tunisia’s controversial finance law imposing tax rises. She is the spokeswoman for Fech Nestannew – or What are we Waiting for? – a new youth movement.
Protesting runs in Ms Douzi’s blood. Her father was a member of the Ennahda Movement, a democratic Islamist party, while her mother was an active leftist who marched against Mr Ben Ali’s regime in the 1980s and 1990s.
Ms Douzi recalls protesting against an unpopular politician visiting her school when she was just 13 year old.
“We aren’t protesting for the downfall of the existing system – at least not yet,” she said. “We just want better living conditions and to stop the privatisation of the government.
“A lot of people are already very needy, even in the middle class. This bill will make things much worse.”
The Tunisian government is under mounting pressure from the International Monitory Fund to reduce its deficit. Last year the IMF agreed to a four-year loan programme worth about US$2.8 billion (Dh10.28bn) with Tunisia, tied to economic reforms. An unpopular austerity law was introduced this year.
The law reduces subsidies for basic foodstuff such as bread and pasta, among other staples. Prices have increased for fuel, while taxes on cars, phone calls, the internet, hotel accommodation and other items have also risen.
The law also imposes a fiveyear freeze on public-sector recruitment, a 1 per cent cut to public sector pay and preparations to sell off public assets.
“The Tunisian people won’t protest en masse until they receive the first bill that they cannot afford to pay. We are trying to avoid that,” Ms Douzi said.
While most Tunisians understand the need for reform, it is the drastic nature in which the measures have been introduced that has sparked anger and pushed Tunisians back on to the streets.
“You can’t just starve people for the sake of economics. It doesn’t work like that” said Zaid, a computer science graduate working at a coffee shop.
Lina Ben Mheeni, 34, a blogger who was heavily involved in organising the 2011 demonstrations, told The National: “I consider myself middle class and it’s becoming hard for me to survive, so what about the poorest? Living standards are deteriorating, taxes are rising,
the government says the price of staple goods is not rising – this is just not true.”
But under the guise of night, some peaceful gatherings have turned violent. Looting and burning of state buildings has prompted the government to send the army into several cities and towns.
On Tuesday, a Carrefour in an impoverished Tunis district was stormed and looted. On Friday a spokesman for the ministry of interior put the number of arrests at 773.
“At night, it’s chaotic, the movement is ambiguous,” said Aymenn Abderrahmen, 29. “You don’t know who is leading what. Is the looting happening out of frustration, or despair?”
UN human rights spokesman Rupert Colville said in Geneva: “We’re concerned about the high number of arrests. About a third of those arrested were between the ages of 15 and 20 – so very young.”
The government insists that those demonstrating are thugs and vandals, with prime minister Youssef Chahed criticising acts of vandalism that “serve the interests of corrupt networks to weaken the state”.
The Ennahda party agrees with this line, while activists insist that this is nothing more than a pretext for a clampdown.
They point to Prof Ahmed Sassi, 27, a leading member of the Front Populaire, Tunisia’s leftist opposition party.
Prof Sassi was arrested at home and charged with five offences including “promoting civil discord” and vandalism.
The night before his arrest he had filmed himself confronting raucous night-time rioters.
“Go home, go to bed, tomorrow we will all protest together – peacefully,” he told the rioters.
“He is no vandal,” said Ms Douzi.
So far, the opposition party has borne the brunt of the government’s response to the protests. Dozens of their leaders have been arrested, and late on Thursday one of the group’s regional offices was set on fire. The office was in the town of Larroussa, a party heartland and hometown of its leader Hama Hamammi.
“We will have to see if they roll over and take this,” Mr Abderrahman said in Tunis late on Friday night.
Despite the widespread protests, marches and clashes in more than 20 towns and cities across the country, the movement has yet to reach the critical mass seen in 2011.
Activists believe that the key to achieving mass protests is getting the full backing of the Tunisian General Labour Union, the country’s largest union and the winner of a Nobel Peace Prize for its role in the 2011 revolution.
With a membership of more than 500,000 across all social classes, the union can mobilise large numbers of people. It also has the power to call for a general strike, bringing the country to a near standstill.
A one-day general strike called by the union in July 2012 is estimated to have cost the economy hundreds of millions of dollars, and led Tunisia’s currency to plummet in value.
So far, the union has been ambiguous in its stance on the new law. Critics say its new leader Noureddine Taboubi’s closeness to the Ennahda party is the reason for this.
Ms Ben Mheeni is unimpressed with the union’s seeming indifference. “If they are on the side of the people, they have to come out against the bill.”
Yesterday morning appeared no different to any other day off in Tunis, with bustling trams running on time, open coffee shops and tourist buses parked along Avenue Bourguiba.
On the surface, it was business as usual. But instead of tourists packing into the coaches, it was riot police. Uniformed and on call, ready to be send in at the hint of any gathering.
But grievances in Tunisia run deeper than a faltering economy. Members of Manich m’samih – or We do not Forgive – came together under the shadow of a statue dedicated to thinker and historian Ibn Khaldun.
They are the friends and family of those killed in the 2011 revolution, and they have campaigned strongly against a controversial amnesty law that would see members of Mr Ben Ali’s regime released from jail. The law was passed last September but the group continues to demonstrate against it.
Under Mr Ben Ali’s police state even a peaceful gathering would have been prohibited. Today the small square is watched by as many secret police as there are protesters. Seven years after the fall of the regime, Tunisia’s seemingly democratic government seems weary of the power of protest.
Zeina Haboub, 18, lost her cousin when he was killed in the 2011 protests by a regime sniper.
“My generation got rid of Ben Ali but they did not cut away the whole cancer,” Ms Haboub said. “His regime and thugs are still present. I am here to finish the job. I will always fight the regime.”
For all the parallels being drawn with 2011, Ms Douzi warned: “This is not a repeat of the Arab Spring. In the early days of 2011, people were just calling for freedom, work and dignity. It was only when the government responded with fire that people decided Ben Ali had to go.
“The government should pay attention to that.”