Tunisia marks decade since revolution, but lockdown mutes celebrations
Demonstrations and gatherings banned for four days as the country is in lockdown
After the political lockdown, it’s the turn of the health lockdown ... [It looks] the revenge of Bin Ali.”
Ahmad Hassen | A shopkeeper in Tunis
Tunisia yesterday commemorated the 10th anniversary since the flight into exile of President Zine Al Abidine Bin Ali, pushed from power in a popular revolt that led to the Arab Spring.
But there were no festive celebrations in the North African nation, which is in lockdown to contain the coronavirus.
The tree-lined Avenue Bourguiba, the main artery in the capital city of Tunis, which became a centre of the uprising, was deserted. Demonstrations and gatherings are banned for four days starting yesterday.
“After the political lockdown, it’s the turn of the health lockdown,” said one shopkeeper, Ahmad Hassen, who said smilingly that the situation looks like “the revenge of Bin Ali”.
Bin Ali ruled for 23 years before fleeing to Saudi Arabia on January 14, 2011, amid a snowballing rebellion marked by violence. He died in 2019 in exile. The revolution was unwittingly sparked by a desperate act of a 26-year-old fruit seller, Mohammad Bu Azizi, who set himself ablaze on December 17, 2010, to protest police humiliation in a town in the neglected interior of the nation, Sidi Bouzid.
His death unleashed simmering discontent and mass demonstrations against poverty, joblessness and repression. That in turn ricocheted beyond Tunisia, triggering what is known as the Arab Spring uprisings with crackdowns and civil wars in the region.
A budding democracy grew out of the aftermath of the Bin Ali era, but a pall of disenchantment hangs over the country, marked by extremist attacks, political infighting and a troubled economy.
Tunisians have held numerous democratic elections, notably putting a constitutional law professor, Kais Saied, into the presidential palace in 2019.
Analyst Slaheddine Jourchi said that what has been accomplished since the revolution “is far from answering the population’s demands, especially expectations of youth — the backbone of the revolution.”