– By Bhumika
– Intern IPPCS’21
It’s surprising how an act of self immolation by a local street vendor in a small town in Tunisia ignited the mass anti-government protests all over the middle east. Almost after a decade of the fiercest fire in the country, the crowds are back on the streets. The only difference is, this time they are raising the flags and condemning the president Kais Saied for sacking the PM Hichem Mechichi and freezing the government. The fragile form of democracy which was established after the forced step-down of the president Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali in 2011 has come to a standstill due to mishandling of the deadly coronavirus pandemic and the ongoing economic crisis. The streets have become a battle space where the supporters and the opponents of the president are fighting eye to eye. The critics didn’t miss a beat in categorising the entire plunging of the state mechanism as a coup. The global arena couldn’t help but wonder whether the country which came out of Arab Spring with the utmost silver linings is in danger of labeling itself as a dictatorship? The survival of the last fragments of democracy is in the hands of the largest labor union and the military of the country. Even though Mr. Saied has come forward and tried to justify this power grab of his by citing the Article 80 of the constitution, the Ennahda muslimist brotherhood are doing their mighty best in protesting against this atrocious misuse of political authority. They have staged a sit-in after being barred entry to the parliament complex. In hopes of untangling this power struggle between the military and the UGTT on one side and Ennahda, the Islamic Democratic political party of Tunisia on the other, it becomes imperative to get a hold of the basic facts which created it in the first place.
THE RISE OF ARAB SPRING
The Jasmine movement overturned the lives of the Tunisians with the force which was unimaginable till the the morning of when Mohamed Bouazizi decided to stand up against the government and became a catalyst for one of the largest political movements the human race has ever seen. The death of a struggling poor man on 4
January 2011, by the tightening hands of the autocratic government struck a chord in the hearts of people and led up to them coming on streets and giving expression to their pent up aggression of ages. There was nothing phony about these mass protests and hopeful yearnings. On the part of Ben Ali and his wife, the reviled Leila al-Trabulsi, Tunisia was suffering from high youth unemployment, inequality, and outrageous nepotism. A show of parliamentary elections and Western support was put to please the general public while the freedom of expression was held under a tight grip by the government.
Indeed, it was the oppressive regime riddled with immense corruption of Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali in Tunisia that was the first to take the fall and motivate the other Arab countries in joining the ongoing fight. Soon after, the dictatorship of Hosni Mubarak in Egypt collapsed. As did that of Colonel Gaddafi in Libya. Others like that of Bashar al-Assad in Syria wobbled, as the scoffs of ‘the people want the fall of the regime’ continued to reverberate throughout the Middle East and parts of North Africa. In total, the Arab Spring sunk its roots deepest into six countries, promising a more democratic, more liberal future in each. It was a genuinely inspiring moment.
Tunisia was the only state that seemed to have sustained the democratic gains of the Arab Spring. It staged parliamentary and presidential elections. After the assassination of leftist leader Mohamed Brahmi, It survived a deep political crisis in 2013. Furthermore, it drew up a constitution, protecting citizens’ rights, including free speech, in 2014. Tunisia was the poster picture of the Arab Spring’s success – the proof that not all of the spirit of those intoxicating days in 2011 had evaporated. That was until the other shoe dropped and Kais Saied sacked the prime minister, suspended parliament and granted himself interim executive powers. This crisis is long in the making. After almost perfectly handling the first wave of COVID-19 in mid-2020, the country fell into a deep political, economic, and later health crisis.
INTERNATIONAL REACTIONS
The global community took its sweet time in reacting to the event of July 25, with most political leaders of different countries giving out weak, largely insignificant statements. The shocking thing is neither the USA nor the European Union (EU) responded. It was only when the situation deteriorated that the White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki informed reporters that administration officials were in touch with their Tunisian counterparts “to learn more about the situation, urge calm, and support Tunisian efforts to move forward in line with democratic principles.” And further they issued an official statement “siding with Tunisia’s democracy”.The State Department published the statement after Secretary Antony Blinken called President Said urging him “to adhere to the principles of democracy and human rights.”
Meanwhile, the EU waited two full days before issuing a formal declaration. Joseph Borrell, the EU’s policy chief, involved “the restoration of institutional stability as soon as possible and, especially , for the resumption of parliamentary activity.” Individual EU member states also didn’t try to hide their discontent at the events in Tunisia, but none took a sturdy stance against President Saied’s actions. Germany said it was following the latest developments “with concern” while France called for a return to the normal functioning of the state’s institutions.
So far, it seems like most international actors are taking a bystander position and waiting for the storm to settle a little to see how the situation in Tunisia evolves. Too many commentators at the global level appear to think this was all inevitable. They speak and write to hint democracy is a luxury an impoverished country cannot afford. But that is simply far from the truth. For all Tunisia’s problems, more democracy is always the answer, not authoritarianism brought under the disguise of betterment.
References :
1. Karim Mezran, Alissa Pavia, Tunisia was the only democracy to blossom from the Arab Spring. Now it’s a mess. Atlantic Council, July 28, 2021 2. Tim Black, Tunisia and the tragedy of the Arab Spring, Spiked, August 10, 2021
3. Shadi Hamid, Tunisia, democracy, and the return of American hypocrisy, Brookings, August 3, 2021
4. https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/7/26/tunisias-political-crisis-all-you-nee d-to-know-in-500-words
5. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/jul/27/tunisia-political-crisis-greeted indifference-streets-capital 6. https://www.icwa.in/show_content.php?lang=1&level=1&ls_id=6257&lid=429 2
onducted a total of five underground nuclear tests, breaking a 24-year self-imposed moratorium on nuclear testing. Pakistan followed, claiming 5 tests on May 28, 1998, and an additional test on May 30. The unannounced tests created a global storm of criticism, as well as a serious setback for decades of U.S. nuclear nonproliferation efforts in South Asia. On May 13, 1998, President Clinton imposed economic and military sanctions on India, mandated by Section 102 of the Arms Export Control Act (AECA), and applied the same sanctions to Pakistan on May 30. Some effects of the sanctions on India included: termination of $21 million in FY1998 economic development assistance; postponement of $1.7 billion in lending by the International Financial Institutions (IFI), as supported by the Group of Eight (G-8) leading industrial nations; prohibition on loans or credit from U.S. banks to the government of India; and termination of Foreign Military Sales under the Arms Export Control Act. Humanitarian assistance, food, or other agricultural commodities are excepted from sanctions under the law. 
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The foreign ministry
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