Reuters, by
Christian Lowe, TAZARKA, Tunisia, Wed Nov 23, 2011
 |
A protester
shouts ''We want justice!'' during a demonstration outside the
parliamentary
building in Tunis November 22, 2011. (Credit: Reuters/Zoubeir Souissi)
|
(Reuters) -
Ridha Ben Salha is fed up waiting for Tunisia's revolution to translate into a
better life for his town.
He and a
group of his friends and neighbors spent weeks camped outside Tazarka's biggest
employer, a gas and oil processing plant, to pressure its owners into giving
more jobs to local people and putting more money into the community.
They had
hoped after President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali was thrown out in January there
would be some relief from poverty and inequality.
But that
hasn't happened, and people in Tazarka, 90 km (55 miles) south-east of the
capital, are getting angry.
"All
we are asking for is our rights," said Ben Salha outside the site, which
he and dozens of others brought to a standstill late last month by blocking
trucks from leaving with their cargoes of cooking gas.
Tazarka
stands as a warning to Tunisia's post-revolution authorities of what could
happen to the country if they don't match the new freedoms won in the
revolution with improvement in ordinary people's living standards -- and fast.
"Why
should a population support a democracy if they do not get anything, if the
work does not come?" said a Western diplomat in the capital Tunis.
A BEACON
FOR THE REGION
Tunisia's
revolt began when a provincial vegetable seller set fire to himself in protest
at official repression and swelled into demonstrations that forced Ben Ali to
flee. Its success inspired uprisings in Egypt, Libya, Yemen and Syria that have
changed the political landscape of the Middle East.
Last month,
the north African country was praised again as a beacon for the region when it
held its first ever democratic election and handed power to a moderate Islamist
government.
But behind
Tunisia's progress toward democracy lies an uncomfortable truth: in the 10
months since the revolution, the standard of living for the average Tunisian
has got worse.
The new
government, which knows the revolution was about joblessness and poverty as
much as ending repression, understands the need to improve living standards.
But it is handicapped by the sharp economic slow-down that has followed Ben
Ali's departure.
Foreign
tourists -- Tunisia's biggest source of revenue -- have canceled bookings and
some foreign investors have put their projects on hold.
The
conflict in neighboring Libya, Tunisia's principal trade partner in the region,
has further hurt growth.
From 3
percent in the last year of Ben Ali's rule, growth in gross domestic product
(GDP) is forecast to drop to about 0.2 percent this year, though officials
expect it to bounce back to 4.5 percent in 2012.
Unemployment,
at 13 percent at the end of 2010, will rise to 14.5 percent this year,
according to central bank projections. The jobless rate among young people is
much higher.
Central
Bank governor Mustapha Kamel Nabli has warned of the consequences of economic
failure.
"The
democratic process to which the Tunisian people ... aspire will succeed only if
economic and social conditions are favorable," he wrote in his annual
report.
UNFULFILLED
HOPES
Tazarka's
tale is one of dashed hopes and grinding poverty.
The town is
a short drive down the coast from Hammamet, a chic resort where German and
French tourists stay in all-inclusive beach resorts surrounded by
bougainvillea.
Before the
revolution, the former president's nephew used to have a villa there, with a
swimming pool and quartz rocks decorating the garden.
On the road
to Tazarka, the landscape quickly turns to scrub. The villages by the roadside
are ramshackle collections of rough-built shacks with heaps of rubbish strewn
between them.
Just
outside the town, an elderly farmer and his wife are bent double in a field,
planting carrots. There are few cars. Young men buzz around on mopeds. Farmers
use horse-drawn carts to haul their produce.
It was
here, three years ago, that the plant was built in a plot by the sea.
Owned by
Italian oil company ENI and the Tunisian state energy firm, it processes oil
and gas pumped onshore from the Baraka and Maamoura fields in the
Mediterranean.
People in
Tazarka hoped it would bring them jobs and money.
But they
were quickly disappointed. People who took part in the blockade at the plant
told Reuters only 20 local people were hired to work there, in unskilled roles
such as security guards.
There was
talk of the plant's owners making contributions to infrastructure improvements
in the town, such as new road construction. That, the protesters said, never
happened.
The
townspeople did not press the issue. The time was not right. Ben Ali's police
state cracked down on any dissent, and in any case, people had come to expect
neglect from the authorities.
The
revolution changed all that.
The local
mayor was replaced, and with renewed hope that the new authorities would
support them, Tazarka residents tried again to get what they felt was their
due.
They drew
up a list of demands to present to the plant: a grant of 3 billion Tunisian
dinars ($2 million) each year to the mayor's office, employment for 100 local
people, $120,000 for local youth associations and $2,000 for each of the town's
300 poorest families.
The new
mayor tried to help. Meetings were held; the regional governor's office and
even the police and military talked to the protesters.
But when no
money was forthcoming, local people decided to take radical action. They set up
roadblocks outside all the entrances to the plant to stop it operating. Picket
lines were manned around the clock. Protesters slept under tarpaulins and cook
tinned sardines on campfires.
The
blockade ended earlier this month after the government had talks with ENI
representatives and the state energy company. The industry ministry said in a
statement solutions to the underlying dispute are still being explored.
The
townspeople have no choice but to wait -- at least for now.
"There
is only one thing in this town: this," said Abdellatif Lassad, 23, who
left Tazarka to find work in Paris and was back home for a vacation.
"There
are lots of people in Tazarka who do not have work. There is just the post
office, the police station and that's it," he said.
An
executive with ENI in Tunisia said he was not authorized to talk about the
dispute. The company's headquarters in Italy did not respond to a request for
comment.
A TYPICAL
STORY
Tazarka's
story could apply to any one of the hundreds of Tunisian towns just like it.
The
caretaker government has obtained a big aid package from the European Union and
Group of Eight to help stave off a looming economic crisis. The Islamist-led
coalition which will soon take power has also encouraged investors by promising
liberal, business-friendly policies.
But it is
unlikely the government will be able to improve things fast enough to head off
protests, especially in the poorer provinces away from tourist hot-spots on the
coast.
Trade
unions, among the biggest movers behind the revolution, are likely to resume
strikes and sit-ins, which they put on hold for the election. Jobless youths
could also riot, as they have done several times already this year.
"Protests
by a mixture of disenfranchised youths and ...(union) activists have already
caused the fall of two cabinets since the removal of Ben Ali," said
Jean-Baptiste Gallopin of consultancy Control Risks.
"The
new government should take note."
(Additional
reporting by Tarek Amara and Abdelaziz Boumzar; Editing by Sonya Hepinstall)
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