Young Tunisians are frustrated with good cause. Since their celebrated revolution, unemployment has risen and university graduates can’t find suitable employment. Once the euphoria of the graduation ceremony is over, their dreams are crushed. So many years of hard studying only to find themselves whiling away their time in cafes or hanging out with friends on street corners!
Their anger and disappointment is understandable but, unfortunately, it is being misdirected to their country’s detriment. Rather than blame the government, they should be putting blame where it rests, on the death cults who ensure every time the state takes one step-forward, it’s dragged back two.
Until fairly recently, Tunisia was internationally hailed as the only “Arab Spring” winner. The Tunisian democracy group the National Dialogue Quartet deservedly won last year’s Nobel Peace Prize. Tunisia got it right said the pundits; its political parties set aside different world views for the sake of the common good.
Democracy, hypocrisy! Youngsters starting out on life may imagine they crave so-called democratic freedoms whereas what they really need are well-paying jobs and a business-friendly climate so they can achieve their personal goals. Unfortunately, democracy cannot be eaten or used to purchase a home or a car or help a young couple start out in life.
Democracy is only a successful module in countries where it has been grown from seed and watered over decades or even centuries; places that have established a democratic culture and institutions and where there exists a homogenous population, who understand the rules and where the vast majority play by them.
Western powers have slapped democracy’s sticker on the flags of Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya; such excitement over purple fingers! “Look, look! They’re like us now. They can vote.” But that’s where it ends. It’s just a banner that has virtually no meaning in those places suffering from sectarianism, terrorism, secessionism and whose citizens are oppressed, tortured and killed by armed militias or warlords.
Those stricken countries will battle to find their equilibrium for many years to come, but with a little help from its friends, Tunisia could still make it. Its prime minister says he knows the situation and will focus on job creation while admitting the country is suffering from a lack of investment and tourism following a series of terrorist attacks targeting western tourists and security forces.
He says he understands his people’s impatience and realizes that 60 percent of young Tunisians who join up with Daesh are in it for the money while 40 percent are hardcore ideologues. The Tunisian economy has also been battered by the collapse of its former main trading partner Libya. However, he admits the government cannot secure the country and build its economy without assistance from its international partners and friends. France came forward with aid to the tune of a million euros spread over a five-year period. Hopefully, other countries will follow suit. The fact is that no government whatever their political stripe or level of efficiency can give what it doesn’t have.
Many things in life are not fair but it is what it is. Tunisia’s government has no magic bullet to solve this crisis. Without security there will be no investment and, therefore, few new jobs plus would be visitors bringing-in coveted foreign currency will think twice before booking their holidays.
Now is the time for the Tunisian people to stick together and stand with their government against extremist violence. Everyone is in the same boat but a segment of the public is out to rock it and, if the protests continue, they will end up sinking it. If that happens, Tunisia will be written off as an unreliable no-hoper. International financial institutions won’t touch it with a barge pole, major companies will relocate and businessmen will liquidate and run.
If an Islamist government couldn’t cut it and a government of national unity can’t either, what is next? What do these protesters want? Do they even know themselves? Leaping up and down in squares chanting slogans, attacking the police and violating state property may constitute a fun night out in the minds of some, but those are the tactics used by kids throwing tantrums in the kindergarten, not by responsible individuals who should understand the soil is their soil and unless it’s watered with care, nothing will grow.
