Revolution in Tunisia: Lessons for Africa

LAWRENCE OOKEDITSE
Correspondent | Friday January 21, 2011 00:00

His Prime Minister, Mohamed Ghannouchi announced a national unity government that includes three opposition leaders and members of the old regime but this only fuelled the revolutionary fires. The looting and protesting did not stop as calls for the removal of all figures associated with Ben Ali mounted. Thus all who 'eat' with a despot in other African countries should be warned that when revolutions bring the tyrant down, such persons and their families will face the wrath of the people.

In Tunisia it is now public knowledge that government will hold elections in six months, free political prisoners, lift restrictions on all political parties and civil society organisations and create special commissions to pursue political reform, investigate the violent actions of the former regime and fight corruption. The unthinkable has happened after 23 years. Not just 23 years. Within that period Ben Ali had been winning in five successive elections.

Results of presidential elections at TunisiaOnline.com indicate that in 2004, participation in the last general election was 89 per cent. In the presidential vote, Ben Ali soundly defeated his challengers, Mohamed Bouchiha (PUP), Ahmed Inoubli (UDU) and Ahmed Ibrahim (Ettajdid Movement) for a fifth term in office. His 89 per cent of the vote was slightly lower than what he got in the 2004 election though. How then can it go wrong for such a well-supported president?

Corruption, unaccountability, waning democratic space and an economy that is increasingly not working for the majority of the people would know better. Now, in many African countries these ills are glaring.

Therefore, amidst the smoke, curfews and a popular uprising in Tunisia are lessons for the entire African continent. Especially for the unaccountable leaders who run countries in ways that suggest they believe they own the people. Tunisia's popular uprising points out those regimes which serve themselves are bound to crumble.

Last minute promises similar to Ben Ali's will not buy patience. Most unaccountable leaders would have been shaking at television scenes of military officers shaking hands and sharing jokes with some of the protesters. In a way this suggested that the ground is shifting. The military is no longer exclusively beholden to a despot. They may be quiet but when a popular uprising occurs, they will not slaughter protesters.

Borzou Daragahi, reporting from Tunis posted that 'interim Prime Minister Ghannouchi acknowledged the growing role of the army, which has been widely recognized as key to the uprising's success. One opposition figure close to the leaders of the transitional government said some army units refusal to violently put down demonstrations in the western city of Thala, led the military to turn on Ben Ali rather than risk civil war'. This is a disturbing trend to many in the Arab world and elsewhere in Africa - they often think the army should defend the president at all times.

The head of Tunisia's Bar Association, Abderrazak Kilani has been widely reported to be saying that 'what is obvious is that this revolution makes other Arab regimes afraid, because their fear is there would be a democratic system in Tunisia that would be seen as a model by their populations' and 'that many of those don't see this in a good way and If they want to create chaos, they can'. Luckily, there has been no scenes of counter-revolution sponsored from outside. The export of revolution though not actively by Tunisians cannot be ruled out.

Already, the Los Angeles Times reports that the popular revolt has inspired reformers and revolutionaries in Arab countries ruled by repressive and entrenched regimes. They posit that in recent days, attempted self-immolations like the one in Tunisia have taken place in Egypt, Algeria and Mauritania. Meanwhile, in Cairo, a 50-year-old man frustrated by difficult living conditions set himself on fire outside the Egyptian parliament on Monday, the official news agency reported.

The surge in an increasingly educated middle class, a burgeoning civil society riding on the growth of the middle class and growing international calls for democracy and pledges to support pro-democracy movements all haunt unaccountable leaders. Karl Marx was a genius but it appears he never devoted as much time and thought to the middle class-petty-bourgeoisie, as they were referred to. Though the revolution in Tunisia may not be a radical ushering in the state favoured by Marx, it showcased the power of the urban middle class nevertheless. Many in Africa should be afraid that it will spill over.

After 23 years, Tunisia proves that it matters not how long you have been at the helm; all dictators have their day. It also says that the people have the power. They may elect you back to back on five occasions but at some point, they will get fed up and make a move on you. So, you are to forever be vigilant and wary of your unpopular actions. Those who rule by impunity will be left exposed as the military and the police are after all children of the people. Many of them will not shoot at their brothers and sisters at your mere command. Even though in all fairness to a fallen president, at the height of the uprising, maybe in efforts to buy time, Ben Ali did ask the military not to shoot at the protesters.

The international community, as Laurent Gbagbo in the Ivory Coast would by now have learnt, is no longer keen on supporting unpopular rulers. Yes, they may have their own interests and 'use' dictators while it is still opportune and discard them when they are no longer needed. But the bottom-line is that dictators in a way stand alone.

The popular uprising in Tunisia points to the fact that Africa, whether in the Maghreb region, is still Africa. Many differences may be discernible among the people but their political institutions generally match. As such, the fate of one African state can easily be replicated in another. If all we were all so alike in the ability to build great state institutions!

And oh yes, to those who idolise Ernesto 'Che' Guevara, Fidel Castro, Mao, Marx, Lenin and other revolutionaries, popular uprisings are not confined to history. They can and they do still occur today. Tunisia is a blow to those who thought revolution belonged in the past. It is one old restless world.