Tunisia needs stability

"Unemployment figures also fail to reflect details on the quality of jobs available for youth. It is important to remember that Mohammed Bouazizi, 26, the young Tunisian who burned himself to death and was the catalyst for the Arab Spring revolution, was employed. He was a frustrated street vendor protesting the injustices facing the working poor," noted Ghada Barsoum, Assistant Professor of the Department of Public Administration at the School of Global Affairs and Public Policy at the American University in Cairo.

The situation is the same all over the country.

In another essay in the Cairo Review journal, Barsoum added that "these 'bad' jobs offer low incomes and no benefits in the form of pension schemes, medical insurance or potential for growth."

In Tunisia and Libya, the process of drafting new constitutions has also been messy. Drafting a constitution anywhere in the world is always a difficult, contested affair. But in the end, compromises are made, deals are struck and a document that captures the agreed national consensus is produced.

Libya too has its fair share of challenges. The transitional government under Prime Minister Ali Zidan needs to impose order, disband the former rebel forces, rebuild the economy and move toward managing the pledged transition to democracy. The civil war ended after the fall of the four-decade regime of Muammar Gaddafi, and Zidan is now preparing the ground for a new constitution and fresh parliamentary elections in 2013.

Tunisian Mohammed Bouazizi wanted a better life, some respect and dignity. He didn't want to have his handcart confiscated by the authorities, he hated paying bribes to the local authorities, he didn't want to be slapped, abused and spat on by police officers and he couldn't imagine life without his cart and produce. That's why he set himself on fire. He died in hospital, but the match that killed him also fired the anger of millions.

Two years after his death and the consequent overthrow of Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, unemployment in Tunisia is still a big problem. 

In 2011, the year Bouazizi died, the unemployment rate was at 19 percent, according to data from the World Bank. That was because of the political and economic turmoil that followed the revolution.

"The unemployment rate in 2012 declined to 17.6 percent but this is not enough to reduce the stock of largely unemployed young educated workforce," the World Bank said in its assessment report.

But the World Bank is optimistic that the economy in Tunisia will keep growing, at 3.7 percent this year, and 4.9 percent next year. However, unemployment will climb to 18 percent this year.

Bouazizi's mother was arrested in July 2012, for exchanging insults with a judge. The remnants of Ben Ali's frustration still exist in the security establishment and the bureaucracy.

"Tensions also exist between internal security elements and their new political bosses. The army currently shares the government's interest in seeing democratic governance take root in Tunisia. But if the civilian government fails to stabilize the country, the military could take a more direct governing role," Strategic Forecasting (Stratfor), a global intelligence firm, noted of the situation in Tunisia.

Defining citizens

For Khouri, the turmoil in Libya, Egypt and Tunisia, is inevitable as people find hope for their nations.

"Citizens know in their bones that in the new Arab world being born, constitutions matter. They are not just symbolic documents, or copies of European texts, as was the case previously. They define who we are as citizens of sovereign states. They capture our values and guarantee our rights and responsibilities. They limit the power of the state. They affirm our humanity. That is why people are out in the streets fighting to make sure that this time around, after three generations of dilapidated statehood and denied citizenship, these constitutions will have integrity, and make us proud to be citizens of sovereign Arab states," Khouri noted in the essay in the Cairo Review journal.

Looking forward, these countries will need to keep a tight leash on the ruling elite in order to not lose their gains. They will also need sufficient support so that they get the confidence to march toward establishing rule of law and prosperity. CA

(Reporting from Kenya)