Photo Gallery: Unrest Continues in Tunisia
The World from Berlin 'Tunisia's Incomplete Revolution'
It didn't take long for many Tunisians to become disillusioned with the country's latest government. Just a day after a "unity government" was announced on Monday in an effort to quell continued unrest in the country -- which led to the fall of President Zine el Abidine Ben Ali late last week -- many were already voicing disappointment.
"I am afraid that our revolution will be stolen from me and my people," 22-year-old student Ines Mawdud told the Associated Press on Tuesday. "The people are asking for freedoms and this new government is not. They are the ones who oppressed the people for 22 years."
Some members of the cabinet appear to have been listening. On Tuesday, four ministers resigned from the new government, all of them from opposition parties, in apparent protest at the fact that many key posts did not change hands despite Ben Ali's departure. The prime minister along with the ministers for defense, foreign affairs, internal affairs and finance were all unchanged.
'Ambitious Program of Reform'
In an interview with French radio, Prime Minister Mohamed Ghannouchi had asked for patience and support, saying that ministers from the previous government were needed for their experience. "Give us a chance so that we can put in place this ambitious program of reform," he said.
But three ministers with the country's largest trade union, including Labor Minister Houssine Dimassi and minister without portfolio Abdeljelil Bedoui turned their back on the cabinet. They were joined by Health Minister Mustapha Ben Jaafar of the opposition party FDLT. A fifth minister told the AP that she was also considering handing in her resignation.
It is unclear how the resignations might affect the new government. The cabinet includes 40 ministers and junior ministers and new presidential elections are set to take place in 60 days. Several other opposition leaders who were given spots on the cabinet, including Najib Chebbi, the founder of the Progressive Democratic Party (PDP) have elected to stay on for now.
German commentators on Tuesday took a look at Monday's government reshuffle and at hopes voiced in the West that the Tunisian example may ultimately be the beginning of the end for many autocratic governments in the region.
Left-wing Die Tageszeitung writes:
"Tunisia's revolution is incomplete. And it will remain so for the time being. All the euphoria about the first successful uprising against an Arab dictator in the 21st century cannot disguise the fact that Tunisia's society lacks the organizational and structural preconditions to seize power in the country."
"You can't take over the state apparatus of an Arab dictatorship made up of police, army and bureaucracy by simply 'cutting off the head.' The 'government of national unity' that has just been proclaimed means in effect that the old, corrupt elites will remain in power."
"The revolution lacks the necessary leadership. No new leadership will be able to establish itself in the 60 days remaining until the new election of a parliament and president is held."
"The revolutionary Tunisians lack allies. The individual demonstrations of solidarity from Cairo to Sanaa and from Algiers via Amman to Beirut remain symbolic. The Arab word's regimes have survived far more powerful demonstrations unscathed. And the Arab potentates will now do everything in their power to curb any opposition with their secret services, police and brute force."
"And the West? The unctuous declarations being made by European and American politicians about the establishment of true democracy, freedom of opinion and freedom of the press amount to nothing but empty rhetoric. The West refused to acknowledge democratic election results in Algeria and the Palestinian Territories because the wrong side won."
Center-left Süddeutsche Zeitung writes:
"Most European governments appeared dumbstruck for days during the Tunisian uprising in which demonstrators were demanding democracy, freedom of the press and justice -- values the EU usually backs forcefully. But Tunisia is a prime example of how pretense and reality can drift apart. It is difficult to recall any criticism from Brussels or important European capitals of Ben Ali's police state and cleptocracy. Tunisia, the sunshine dictatorship, was regarded as a stable factor in a restless region. Tourists appreciated the country and enjoyed the Tunisians' hospitality. Who is going to bother reading Amnesty International reports when they're busy leafing through their holiday brochures? European entrepreneuers praised the freedoms that Tunisia offered investors, and magnanimously overlooked the lack of political freedoms."
Conservative Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung writes:
"The regime change in Tunisia need not have a direct domino effect. For one, the peoples of the Arabian Peninsula aren't questioning their monarchies. The tribal societies are stable, the rulers have granted freedoms and their good governance is being honored. On the other hand, the old Arabian elites will learn from Ben Ali's fall. Ben Ali was different from other Arab dictators in that he created his own little elite that had no roots in society. By contrast, other autocrats co-opted parts of society in order to protect their regimes. Nevertheless, a spark of protest could fly over, for example to Algeria, where the military stamped out serious unrest in 1988, or to Egypt, where the divide between rich and poor is becoming ever wider. Or even to Iran, where the democracy movement was suppressed in summer 2009 and has gone underground, where it waits for new impetus."
