When one remembers, that the 2011 uprising was primarily triggered by economic and social disparities and that now those disparities are not only growing, but that nothing has been done to narrow the gap, it suggests that social explosions will inevitably continue.
A post-revolutionary context is supposed to be one of “pluralism” where different political, intellectual, and social tendencies co-exist and compete at the same time. However, in Tunisia, we seem to confuse “pluralism” with “bipolarism”.
More than two years after the “revolution”, this very elite is still lagging behind; complaining about the absence of an “intellectual revolution” while no revolution whatsoever has yet occurred in our intellectuals’ minds.
In our Tunisian post-revolution context, it has become quite the trend to display signs –or symptoms- of being “revolutionary”. The word has grown into an umbrella epithet for those who are “fashionable”, “educated” and “sophisticated”. It has become synonymous with “taste”, “culture”, and the elusive notion of Leftism that has developed in a generally politically-illiterate country; the all-at-once neoliberal-communist-socialist-nationalist-anarchist ideologically elusive Leftism.
The “Tunisian Revolution” has lost a good deal of its gloss. The rhetoric remains “radical”, the reality much less so. That it was a genuine national uprising engaging virtually the entire population is beyond doubt – and as such, nothing short of a regional inspiration. That it can be characterized as “a revolution” is open to question. What has changed?
At the heart of the plight of the more than 700 wounded and the families of the 300 martyrs is the fact that they were used for political purposes during the elections campaign. Today, those in power are busy sharing the pie, on the other hand the losers aspire to a piece of the pie and in the midst of this very struggle for power the cause of the wounded is lost.
To the outside world Tunisia, the small country that inspired the Arab world to revolt, is moving towards a substantive democracy. Protestors, from all walks of life, took to the streets of Tunisia and shouted with one voice” the people demand the fall of the regime”. Although the demands were crystal clear “jobs, freedom and dignity”, the current troika government – a coalition government formed by Ennahda after October 2011 elections- has been virtually paralyzed to concretize those demands.
The State is the largest employer in the country. Immediately following independence, being hired by the Government was considered the foregone conclusion for a degreed graduate. Some people were even hired before they had actually obtained their degrees.
One year after the revolution that sparked the Arab Spring, Tunisia faces ongoing economic and political struggles as it attempts a painful transition to democracy. Jessie Deeter reports, as part of a collaboration with the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting.
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