Tunis recognised

THE award of this year’s Nobel Peace Prize is as much a eulogy as an accolade. Certainly the Tunisian coalition of labour unions, business, lawyers and human rights activists deserves the award for managing to turn their country’s “Jasmine Revolution” away from the brink of civil war and preserving a glimmer of hope for democracy.

But in singling out Tunisia, whose 2011 street rebellion overthrew an entrenched dictatorship and launched the “Arab Spring”, the Norwegian Nobel committee also underscored the dismal failure of the uprisings that followed in other Arab states.

That, presumably, was the committee’s intent, to demonstrate that a national dialogue led by civic groups can lead a country to an outcome far more promising than the coup that put an end to Egypt’s democratic aspirations or the civil strife that sank Libya, Syria and Yemen into anarchic violence. For a while, Tunisia had seemed headed for the same fate.

In 2013, four organisations – the Tunisian General Labour Union, the Tunisian Confederation of Industry, Trade and Handicrafts, the Tunisian Human Rights League and the Tunisian Order of Lawyers – came together as the National Dialogue Quartet and mediated the formation of an interim government that would lead to new elections.

That achievement is praiseworthy.

The Nobel committee has a long tradition of awarding the prize to institutions, individuals or groups for the nobility of what they represent rather than for the efficacy of what they did.

The committee broke new ground this year by selecting what is an ad hoc coalition, using this courageous effort to underscore the possibility of having Islamist and secular institutions work together.