As recently as December last year, the outlook for Tunisia remained grim: International lenders were withholding money, Parliament remained deadlocked and investigations into the assassination of two politicians were ongoing.
However, on Friday, French President Francois Hollande and other world leaders attended a ceremony for the formal adoption of a document being praised as one of the most progressive constitutions in an Arab nation.
The Arab Spring that began in Tunisia is being described by many analysts as a region-wide winter, especially in countries such as Egypt, where the country’s first popularly elected leader — former Egyptian president Mohamed Morsi — was deposed by the military. However, Tunisia remains a bright spot since its fractious elected assembly finally wrote and passed a progressive constitution last month.
“This text honors your revolution. It can serve as an example and reference to many other countries,” Hollande said during the ceremony before the Parliament of Tunisia. “You have an obligation to succeed for yourself and for all the other countries watching you. Tunisia is not an exception, it is an example.”
The speeches lauded the country’s ability to transcend differences and forge the consensus necessary to produce a constitution.
Libyan General National Congress President Nouri Abusahmain, whose country is struggling to register voters to elect the commission to write a constitution, sounded almost rueful in his praise, saying: “Libya intends to follow the same path.”
Tunisian President Moncef Marzouki in his address also highlighted the sacrifices that the country made.
“By adopting the constitution, Tunisia celebrated a triple victory — over dictatorship, over terrorism that seeks to spread chaos and block our path to democracy and over our own divisions,” he said.
The praise contrasts attitudes toward Tunisia in July last year when Hollande last visited and the constitutional process was stalled.
“Today we are going again because it’s a success,” said an official with the French presidency, who spoke on condition of anonymity in keeping with government policy.
While Hollande was the only European head of state present, the ceremony in Tunis also included a host of dignitaries from around the world, particularly from Africa.
Conspicuously absent was any representative from fellow Arab Spring nation Egypt, whose relations with Tunisia have been tense since Marzouki called for the release of Morsi following his imprisonment by Egypt’s military.
On Monday, US President Barack Obama called interim Tunisian Prime Minister Mehdi Jomaa to congratulate him on the new constitution and invite him to Washington.
After overthrowing former Tunisian leader Zine El Abidine Ben Ali in 2011, Tunisians brought a moderate Islamist party into power allied with two other secular parties. However, the coalition struggled in the face of continuing social unrest, high unemployment, the rise of a radical Islamist movement with ties to the assassination of two left-wing politicians.
The deadlock over the constitution exacerbated the economic crisis in Tunisia and the IMF withheld a US$500 million loan. Inflation soared, the budget deficit swelled and demonstrations spread over high food prices and the lack of jobs.
However, with the passage of the constitution, Tunisia’s image abroad has brightened, the IMF released its planned loan, the slide of the Tunisian dinar has halted and the stock market has perked up.
Tunisian financial expert Ezzedine Saidane said the World Bank is now expected to extend a loan of its own soon and the African Development Bank will lift a moratorium on lending to Tunisia.
“People feel better and are relieved somehow,” he said. “I think the mood has changed tremendously, both inside the country and outside the country.”
In a message, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon made it clear that it was not just France that viewed the Tunisian experience as a model for the region.
“I count on the government and people of Tunisia to continue to inspire the world as they did some three years ago, and serve as an example for dialogue and compromise in resolving political disputes across the region and beyond,” he said.
The only sour note in the ceremony came when the US delegation walked out of the assembly hall during the speech by Iranian parliamentary speaker Ali Larijani, who took the opportunity to slam US and Israeli meddling in the region, calling the Jewish state a “cancerous tumor” in the region.
In statement, Washington said its delegation left “due to the false accusations and inappropriate comments made by the Iranian representative present regarding the United States.”
Saudi Arabian largesse is flooding Egypt’s cultural scene, but the reception is mixed. Some welcome new “cooperation” between two regional powerhouses, while others fear a hostile takeover by Riyadh. In Cairo, historically the cultural capital of the Arab world, Egyptian Minister of Culture Nevine al-Kilany recently hosted Saudi Arabian General Entertainment Authority chairman Turki al-Sheikh. The deep-pocketed al-Sheikh has emerged as a Medici-like patron for Egypt’s cultural elite, courted by Cairo’s top talent to produce a slew of forthcoming films. A new three-way agreement between al-Sheikh, Kilany and United Media Services — a multi-media conglomerate linked to state intelligence that owns much of
The US and other countries should take concrete steps to confront the threats from Beijing to avoid war, US Representative Mario Diaz-Balart said in an interview with Voice of America on March 13. The US should use “every diplomatic economic tool at our disposal to treat China as what it is... to avoid war,” Diaz-Balart said. Giving an example of what the US could do, he said that it has to be more aggressive in its military sales to Taiwan. Actions by cross-party US lawmakers in the past few years such as meeting with Taiwanese officials in Washington and Taipei, and
Denmark’s “one China” policy more and more resembles Beijing’s “one China” principle. At least, this is how things appear. In recent interactions with the Danish state, such as applying for residency permits, a Taiwanese’s nationality would be listed as “China.” That designation occurs for a Taiwanese student coming to Denmark or a Danish citizen arriving in Denmark with, for example, their Taiwanese partner. Details of this were published on Sunday in an article in the Danish daily Berlingske written by Alexander Sjoberg and Tobias Reinwald. The pretext for this new practice is that Denmark does not recognize Taiwan as a state under
The Republic of China (ROC) on Taiwan has no official diplomatic allies in the EU. With the exception of the Vatican, it has no official allies in Europe at all. This does not prevent the ROC — Taiwan — from having close relations with EU member states and other European countries. The exact nature of the relationship does bear revisiting, if only to clarify what is a very complicated and sensitive idea, the details of which leave considerable room for misunderstanding, misrepresentation and disagreement. Only this week, President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) received members of the European Parliament’s Delegation for Relations