By Tejas Vir Singh

Abstract

Rampant corruption in the state and a declining standard of living sparked off a protest in Sidi Bouzid in central Tunisia that later spread across the Arab world, with demands for greater autonomy and democracy that came to be known as the Arab Spring. This article explores the various socio-economic issues which plagued Tunisia that led to the revolution now known as the Jasmine Revolution and the current state of affairs in Tunisia. 

Millennia ago, Carthage rivalled the Romans in the Mediterranean, ruling much of the western half of the sea. Tunis, the capital of modern-day Tunisia sits in the same location. This rivalry saw the Romans coming victorious, while the Carthaginians were largely forgotten in history. That is, until 17 December 2010, when a street vendor named Mohamed Bouazizi set himself on fire. His self-immolation was in response to the broken and corrupt government’s actions. His act inspired many youths in Tunisia to take to the streets and protest his death, and in a larger view, against the government. They protested against corruption, inflation, high unemployment, poor living conditions and lack of political freedoms. The riots started from Sidi Bouzid, where Bouazizi lived, and spread throughout the country. The protest was called the Jasmine Revolution by the West, a tribute to Tunisia’s National flower. Soon, the autocratic President, Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, previously supported by the US and France, fled the country he had ruled since 1987. His privatisation schemes led to a lot of anger, particularly in the central and southern regions. Within just a few months, the scent of the Jasmine from Carthage spread throughout the Arab World, its smell invigorating the suppressed youth of those nations. What were the situations that led to the revolution to start in Tunisia, of all Arab countries? After all, Tunisia was much better off than its counterparts in social and economic spheres. 

The economic problems were the main cause of the Jasmine Revolution. The opening up of the Tunisian economy by President Ben Ali received a lot of support and approval from international institutions, and economic powers with the GDP growth averaging a solid 4.5 per cent per year. However, this economic development was not at all regionally balanced, as much of the profit and attention went to the coastal areas, while the interior remained underdeveloped; the Sidi Bouzid region received the most investment between the years of 1990 and 2011, given that it was the premier agricultural region of the country. The unemployment rate also was very high in Tunisia. The youth were barely able to get employed, with an estimated 40-45% of university-educated youth not being able to find work. Corruption was rampant, and members of the family of the president had access to all major companies by playing the role of mediators in the privatisation schemes and large acquisitions. 

Various other factors played a role too, such as social issues. A third of the population lived in neighbourhoods not serviced by a local authority, meaning low standards of services like electricity, water and roads. A figure of the political opposition, Hamma al-Hamami, of the Communist Party of the Tunisian Labour, argued that “the era of Ben Ali saw a state of double exclusion, politically and economically, which reflected negatively on the conditions of political life as a whole”. Throughout the 2000s, the president tightened his reins on the country; in 2002, he amended the Constitution and abolished term limits for presidential candidacies, and in 2003, an anti-terrorism legislation was passed, leading to increased repression of autonomous organizations. These issues were crucial for setting off the spark for the Jasmine Revolution.

The revolution saw a strong unity between two rather disparate groups, the secularists and the Islamists, both of whom had a common objective of democratizing Tunisia. Both sides denounced the 2004 elections in which Ben Ali ‘won’ with a 94.5% vote share. The opposition argued that the socioeconomic growth had not been accompanied by basic minimal political reform. While both increased dialogue between each other, it was not enough to mobilize the people. Here, the Tunisia General Labour Union (UGTT) comes into play. It held an important position in the society, as it played a role in the pre-independence movements. It was the members of the UGTT who spread the word of Bouazizi’s self-immolation in Sidi Bouzid and labelled it as a political assassination by casting Bouazizi as a victim of a regime that had neglected its own people. Thus, the UGTT helped the revolution spread from Sidi Bouzid to the entire country. The revolution spread quickly due to social media, with a nationwide geographical extension of dissent that was strategically crucial to the revolution, as it ensured that the regime’s coercive forces did not contain the protests to a small area. The  Revolution maintained a peaceful character from the moment it started; protesters, mostly the youth, attacked the symbols of the regime’s repression in police stations and the ruling party’s headquarters. The youth also ensured responsibility towards public goods and public institutions. 

In just a month’s time, Ben Ali fled the country to seek refuge in Saudi Arabia. It was a victory for the people of Tunisia, and hopes of a golden and free era ran high. The Jasmine’s scent was successful in inspiring the youth of Tunisia to overthrow their government, and now it was time for the rest of the Arab world. The scent reached Egypt on the 25^th of February and soon spread to Libya. It aided in renewing hopes of an Arab democracy, and also proving that Arabs are capable of change without  Western intervention, like the US invasion of Iraq in 2003.

Tunisia today is a ‘Hybrid Regime’ according to the Economist Intelligence Unit rankings for the Democracy Index 2022, with a rank of 85, though way ahead of its Arab counterparts. Tunisia also faces security problems; terrorist threats from the Libyan border increased, and the border became a hotspot for the illegal trade of weapons and drugs. To counter this, Tunisia passed a controversial anti-terror law in 2015 which approved the use of the death penalty for terror-related crimes. Although the economy declined in 2011, it made a modest recovery in 2012. Other than that however, it has hardly made any progress on economic reforms which could have achieved sustained high rates of growth for employment. 

In recent years, the dismissal of the Prime Minister and suspension of the parliament by President Kais Saied, received mixed reactions amongst Tunisians; while some see it as a constitutional coup and an act of sliding back into authoritarianism, others support the move to improve living standards and hold the corrupt elites accountable. However, the decree reduces the Prime Minister’s role to simply carry out orders of the President. The scope of a stable democracy in Tunisia is in danger.

A decade after the revolution, the situation in Tunisia has been quite unsatisfactory to most Tunisians; even though they experienced democratic rule, the reforms that were needed to fix the broken economy were never implemented. Although Tunisia rose in the ranks in the Democracy Index, it remains at the bottom half of others. The Jasmine Revolution can only be said to be a partial victory. Despite the fact that Tunisia being better off than its neighbours was the first to spawn a revolution, the socioeconomic causes make sense of this paradox. In a way, the fact that Tunisia had a relatively more prosperous economy and a higher percentage of internet users actually fuelled the aspirations of the people to desire and demand more from the regime; which it failed to do, and instead tried to crack down on these demands. 

Author’s Bio

Tejas Vir Singh is a third-year student at O.P. Jindal University currently pursuing a bachelor’s degree in law. 

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