Wednesday, February 16, 2011

Good Morning, Tunisia

Sidi Bouzid is a small nondescript town in Tunisia where it all started on the 17th of December last year when a young fruit and vegetable vendor had his cart and his wares confiscated. When he protested, he was first slapped and then beaten by a woman municipal inspector. He went to the municipal office nearby and then to the district governors office but there was none willing to register his complaint or to listen to his grievance.
Mohamed Bouazizi, the young street vendor, had problems with the municipal employees in the past too as he did not have any license to trade, but this time he could not accept the humiliation any more and set himself on fire in front of the governor's office in the crowded street.Bouazizi suffered 90% burns and later died, but as the news spread the people of Tunisia  perceived his act as an ultimate act of protest  against a regime that denied him justice and the right to live with the minimum of dignity. The fire he lighted spread across the whole of Tunisia and caused a mass upsurge that led to the fall of the authoritarian regime of Ben Ali which ruled the country for 23 years.
Bouazizi's self immolation was a very sad but individual act which under normal circumstances could have agitated not only the onlookers but also many of the people of the town. The emotional response could have led to protests against the highhandedness as well as as the callous indifference of those in authority and perhaps hit the newspaper headlines but who would have thought that it would lead to such mass protests across the whole of Tunisia? Who would have thought that it would launch a revolution and be a definitive moment in the history not only of Tunisia but the whole of the Arab world, particularly Egypt, as it enters the second decade of the 21st century.
In retrospect it appears that the incident occurred at the right moment in history. The anger and frustration in the minds of the people against a corrupt and authoritarian regime which did not allow the right of dissent and the simmering discontent from  rising unemployment and inflation were waiting for a trigger to explode and Bouazizi's act was that trigger.
It was not a revolution led by a charismatic leader nor by any armed group of revolutionaries. Though reportedly helped by the labour unions, it was a people's revolution, a revolution mostly by young people who faced police batons and bullets but stuck to their demand for the end of Ben Ali's government and wanted nothing more than good governance and a corruption free democratic framework which provides basic rights and free speech.And it was powered and sustained by the communication networks that the internet has provided in today's world.
Future will tell what what happens in Tunisia which is in a state of transition today with an interim government that has promised a free and fair election in a short time. It won't be an easy task to bring democracy in a society which has never known it before. Those who had power and vested interests in the old regime will surely be jockeying for power in any structure that emerges. The police and bureaucracy and their attitudes will not change overnight and corruption does not vanish in a democracy as we all know to our cost, but if adequate checks and balances are introduced to protect the rights of the people and the country comes up with a proper democratic and secular constitution in conformity with the demands of the revolution and the people remain vigilant as they have been so far, the process will be on its way to realise the goals the revolution set for itself.

(Source- newspaper reports and articles )  


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