‘WHAT’S THE POINT IN POLITICAL FREEDOM IF WE CANNOT AFFORD TO BUY BREAD?’
Tunisians’ disillusion is festering in the very parts of the population who were instrumental in toppling Ben Ali
The seventh anniversary of the revolution that ousted Zine El Abidine Ben Ali as Tunisian president arrived this week – but the rallying cry rising from the country’s protest movements went largely unanswered by the people.
Demonstrators who turned out on the capital’s Avenue Bourguiba on Sunday barely outnumbered the security forces packed into buses on the streets of the capital.
Unrest broke out on Monday last week following a controversial new budget introduced at the start of this month, imposed as a requisite for Tunisia receiving hundreds of millions of dollars in emergency loans from the IMF.
While many would agree that Tunisia’s swollen beauracy needs reforms, the drastic manner in which the budget’s austerity measures were introduced led the cost of living to shoot up significantly in a society already crippled by unemployment. Protests erupted in several towns and cities across Tunisia and continued for several days. But by Sunday, things had already begun to die down.
Politically, Tunisians are freer now than they were seven years ago under Mr Ben Ali. People are more than willing publicly to air their criticisms of the government, the Islamists and even other protest movements – all of which was impossible under the former regime.
In fact, they are often proud to put their name to criticisms of the government.
Despite all this, the country’s economic revolution is yet to arrive. In fact, many say things are worse now than they were under Mr Ben Ali.
As Hamad Haboubi, a 25-yearold who marched in Tunis, told The National: “What’s the point in the political freedom if we can’t afford bread.”
But for all the discontent, the protests never morphed into a cohesive movement that might have achieved tangible change. Diverse grievances emerged over a patchwork of small movements, some calling for the repeal of the budget or protesting against amnesty for former regime figures, while others demanded the toppling of the government.
Some activists pinned their hopes on the country’s largest union, the Tunisian General Labour Union (UGTT), joining protests.
“The UGTT could end this government now, if they wanted to,” said Tareq Tookebry, 28, who runs a civil society organisation.
But the union, with as many as 800,000 members, never endorsed the widespread opposition to the new austerity measures, despite pleas from activists.
In fact, it did the opposite, backing the government and adopting its narrative that protesters were rioters and vandals.
The journalist Aymenn Abdurrahman suggested that it was the tarnishing of the protests by rioters and looters that prevented them from achieving anything tangible.
“The recent movement was quickly hijacked with the rise of violence that used the social tension to justify the looting,” he said.
With more than 800 arrests – including of activists from multiple groups – and the high-profile looting of a Carrefour supermarket in the capital, “the government used this as a pretext to overlook the demands and deal with it from a securitarian approach”, Abdurrahman said.
But it was evident from a visit by The National to the impoverished Tunis district of Ettadhamen on Monday that the grievances that forced people on to the streets last week have not been quelled – and the superficial reforms announced by the government will do nothing to address them.
Unemployment and the high cost of living are making life impossible for many of those who helped turn the 2011 protests into a revolution.
It will unlikely be long before Tunisians take to the streets again.
Even if future protests again die out, economic disenfranchisement is likely to continue to fester in the very parts of the population that were instrumental in bringing democracy to Tunisia – something president Beji Caid Essebsi seems uninterested in addressing.
The recent movement was quickly hijacked with the rise of violence that used the social tension to justify the looting AYMENN ABDURRAHMAN Tunisian journalist