20 ans.... l'âge de la raison???

An uncriticised success
The press is heavily controlled and its
elections are little more than a facade, but Tunisia continues to be
held up by the west as a model Arab state, writes Ian Black
Ian Black
Thursday November 08 2007
The Guardian


Tunisia is not the first country that springs to mind in any analysis of current trends in the Middle East and North Africa.

President
Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali is far less flamboyant than his neighbour,
Libya's Muammar Gadafy. The country's 10 million people have not
experienced the horrors of Algeria's civil war next door and have
largely escaped jihadi terrorism. It is a modern state with a large
middle class where women's rights are firmly anchored - as well as an
exotic, sun-kissed holiday destination for millions of European
tourists.

But an important part of its story, as Ben Ali
celebrates two decades in power this week, is also that it is one of
the most unfree states in the region, where the media is strictly
controlled and democratic politics are little more than a facade.

"Tunisia
is always forgotten in the long list of rather nasty Arab regimes," the
Arabist blog commented a couple of years ago. "This is because it's a
small country and not politically important (and) because the regime is
quite clever at appearing moderate and buying off the foreign press
when it needs to (particularly in the Arab world, but also in Europe)."

Ben
Ali, a soldier turned security chief, came to power in November 1987
when the ailing president, Habib Bourguiba, revered hero of the
independence struggle against the French, was declared senile and unfit
to rule - an event still referred to grandly as "The Change."

Ironically,
one of Ben Ali's first statements was to pledge that he would never be
a president for life. Now aged 71, he shows no sign of stepping down;
posters and slogans describe him as "the best choice" for 2009. (The
constitution was rewritten in 2002 to allow him to begin a fourth
five-year term with a thumping, Soviet-style 99.9% of the vote in 2004:
thus his irreverent, punning nickname "Ben a vie" - "for life.")

Tunisia's
democratic credentials rest on regular elections, but parliament is
dominated by the ruling party, the Constitutional Democratic Rally -
easily done since 80% of seats are reserved for it. The remaining 20%
are held by six small opposition parties.

The country's Islamist
movement, an-Nahda, is outlawed, its members jailed, exiled or dead.
The government claims it has no political prisoners. But, says Human
Rights Watch, "there are still dozens held in Tunisian prisons just
because they opposed the government."

With growth this year a
solid 6%, the official emphasis is on the country's genuinely
impressive progress: "On this 20th anniversary ... that Tunisians of
all categories and ages are celebrating with extraordinary pride, the
economic, political and social achievements initiated and promoted by
President Ben Ali ... confirm our conviction that Tunisia's development
experience is a model to be followed," gushed La Presse, the leading
French-language newspaper.

Adverts in western papers on
Wednesday lauded its "openness to the modern world, a spirit of
tolerance and moderation, a rejection of extremism and a confident
embrace of global developments."

Unsurprisingly, there was no
mention of grave problems over civil liberties and human rights abuses,
many committed under sweeping anti-terrorism laws introduced in 2003.

Like
Egypt's Hosni Mubarak, Ben Ali has benefited from his role as a staunch
ally in the US "war on terror", giving him apparent immunity from
pressure to open up a stagnant system.

The Tunisian was the
first Arab leader to visit Washington after President Bush's "forward
strategy of freedom" speech in the wake of the Iraq war, but he flew
home to business as usual.

Europe's record in promoting
democracy in Tunisia has been no better. Trade relations with France
and Germany have overridden all other considerations.

Jacques
Chirac famously lauded its human rights record as "very advanced"
because "the most important human rights are the rights to be fed, to
have health, to be educated and to be housed."

Tunisia was the
first "Mediterranean partner" to sign an association agreement with the
EU, but Brussels has failed to engage with opposition groups, shunning
any contact with Islamists. Since all NGO's require a government
licence, this reinforces a stifling status quo.

Repression of
the media continues, with great efforts devoted to fighting cyber
activists. Reporters Without Borders calls Ben Ali's internet policies
"among the most repressive in the world".

These plumbed depths
of farce in 2005 when Tunis hosted the UN's World Summit on the
Information Society - designed to bridge the digital divide between the
west and the developed world. When unlicenced NGOs convened for a
parallel free internet forum, their meeting was dispersed by police. As
in Egypt, judges have been intimidated. Tunisians, says the human
rights lawyer Radhia Nasraoui, live "in fear and submission".

"It's
a shame there are so many restrictions on freedom of association and
speech, because they're not necessary," argues Claire Spencer, a
Maghreb expert at London's Chatham House. "Tunisia has a long history
of gradualism and constitutionalism. Tunisians are open, liberal and
business-minded, more politically conformist than revolutionary."

Bourguiba's
achievement, continued by Ben Ali, was to create a progressive Tunisian
"model" - promoting the emancipation of women, family planning,
secularism and literacy - that has often been hailed elsewhere (and
with not a little condescension) as producing "an Arab country that
works". That may have been true once, retort opposition activists, but
today it has become a "monolithic and corrupt society."

Its ban
on some rites are deemed to undermine freedom of religion. Harassment
of women wearing the hijab and men wearing beards is increasing, says
Amnesty International. Some women have been ordered to remove their
hijab before being allowed into schools, universities or workplaces or
forced to remove them in the street.

The spectre of the Islamist
threat - doubtless real but almost certainly exaggerated - has been
used at home and abroad to justify a crackdown on dissent.

"Better a bad president," goes a common refrain, "than being ruled by fundamentalists."

In
2002, al-Qaida blew up an ancient synagogue on the island of Djerba
(killing 19 German tourists). A shootout with the security forces early
this year rang more alarm bells about a jihadist threat, perhaps linked
to Algeria and Morocco, across the Maghreb. This danger, chorus the
experts and analysts, is employed as a "sword of Damocles," to convince
waverers that stability and security must always come first.

Prospects
for significant political reform in Tunisia, as in Egypt, look bleak.
Twenty years since The Change, it is still hard to imagine life after
Ben Ali.

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