A Fight in Tunisia

TUNIS (Reuters) - A surge of anger in the streets over police repression and poverty swept Tunisia's veteran leader from power on Friday, sending a chill through unpopular authoritarian governments across the Arab world.

President Zine al-Abedine Ben Ali stepped aside after more than two decades in power and looked to have flown out of the country. His exact whereabouts were unclear.

Ben Ali's prime minister told Tunisians he would steer the state until early elections. The streets of the capital were calm amid heavy security, but some analysts questioned whether the change of face at the top would satisfy the protesters.

After days of violence that spread from provincial towns to Tunis, leaving dozens dead as security forces struggled to contain angry young demonstrators, the government declared a state of emergency and imposed a dusk-to-dawn curfew.

The violence and rapid turn of events sent shockwaves across the Arab world, where similar authoritarian rulers are deeply entrenched, but face mounting pressures from growing young populations, economic hardship and the appeal of militant Islam.

Once Obama has made sure that the dictator is down, he said that he salutes the "courage" of the Tunisian people and called for free elections. Wait: does that mean that he now calls for free elections in the other dictatorships that he sponsors, like Morocco, Libya, Egypt, Jordan, Qatar, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Afghanistan, Kuwait, Oman, UAE, and Yemen?  Or he only wants free elections 1) in countries that are not aligned with the US: 2) in dictatorships that are sponsored by the US ONCE THE DICTATOR IS DOWN.

The historical significance of what happened in Tunisia is huge.  This is the first time an Arab dictator is overthrown by a popular uprising.  It is too early to speculate whether this will or can spread, but I think one lesson is too obvious: the Arab people have realized that overthrowing a regime is much much easer than they had thought.   If the Iranian Revolution had an impact on Arab politics, this will certainly has an impact.

 

The Tunisians overthrow their dictator. This should shake all the other dictators in the arab world.

 

 

sanizadeh wrote:

 

The Tunisians overthrow their dictator. This should shake all the other dictators in the arab world.

 

 

 

That should be "this should shake all the other dictators IN THE WORLD". ...

But capsize it did Friday, after a 29-day popular uprising against unemployment, police brutality and the regime's corruption. It was the worst unrest since Ben Ali took over.

Not once in my 43 years have I thought that I'd see an Arab leader toppled by his people. It is nothing short of poetic justice that it was neither Islamists nor invasion-in-the-name-of-democracy that sent the waters rushing onto Ben Ali's ship but, rather, the youth of his country.
No doubt, every Arab leader has watched Tunisia's revolt in fear while citizens across the Arab world watch in solidarity, elated at that rarity: open revolution.

"Goosebumps all over. I can't believe I lived through an Arab revolution!! Thank you, Tunisia!" tweeted Gigi Ibrahim, a young Egyptian woman whose handle is Gsquare86. "The power of the masses is capable of toppling any dictatorship. Today was Tunisia. Tomorrow is Egypt, Jordan. LONG LIVE REVOLUTION!"

MONTREAL - Canada's Tunisian communities have rallied in support of a populist uprising that drove the president of the North African country from power this week. President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali fled Tunisia on Friday after a month of violent protests over corruption, a lack of jobs and clampdowns on civil liberties.

More than 1,000 people marched through downtown Montreal Saturday afternoon in solidarity with protesters in Tunisia, where at least 65 people have been killed in recent weeks.

"My dream and my hope is to basically see Tunisia a real free democratic Arab country, proud with his democracy, and proud by his people," said Hichem Zibi, a 32-year-old from Tunisia who now lives in Montreal.

Ken Burch wrote:

Congrats to the people of Tunisia. 

The army should just turn power over to them, this time.

Greetings to all from Mahmud in Tunisia.

I have been here for more than a month. What a delight to witness this historic event in my land of birth. The city of Sidi Bouzid, location of the first spark of this revolution is at 100 km. The only leader of this revolution are the people themselves. 

The Tunisian Army intervened only to protect the people from the police. General Ben Ammar, who heads the Tunisian Army refused to read any statements or declaration and refused to appear on TV. The Army is in charge of protecting people and vital infrastructure and resources from the militia of the former President, Ben Ali. The power is not in the hands of the Army.

I knew it was coming. I saw the burning desire for freedom in the eyes of the courageous people of Ghafsa when the Viva Palestina Convoy entered the country in February 2009 on its way to Gaza.

Our convoy witnessed the menacing secret police intimidate the crowds to stop them from gathering to cheer us on.

This vast army of spies, thugs and enforcers even tried to stop us from praying in a local mosque.

That they stood their ground to cheer us on prompted me to leave my vehicle and hug all the women who had turned out. We exchanged cards and small gifts and then, to my horror, I discovered 24 hours later that every woman I had embraced in the streets of Gafsa had been taken away and questioned.

Human rights organizations have constantly condemened and exposed the brutality of the Ben Ali regime but that has not stopped America and European leaders from intervening or putting on pressure to stop the brutality.

Sadly, it serves western interests to have a people brutalized and subjugated.

The Tunisian phenomenon is not about the ousting of a president; it is about the collapse of the Western-colonial model of globalisation, write Abdul Ilah Albayaty, Hana Al Bayaty and Ian Douglas

The Tunisian uprising is nothing but the natural result of the failure of the globalisation model and the impasse affecting the entire world. Indeed, as soon as an economy opens up to foreign capital and one gives the local economy and services over to market forces, the state’s role is automatically undermined and remains only to protect the model itself. By consequence, whether in Tunisia or elsewhere in the developing world, it resulted in a contradiction between the people’s interests and the class created to protect foreign capital...