A message from Tunisia

Recently, the power of the people and particularly the youth accomplished one of the most awaited goal of the Arab world by overthrowing the autocratic, corrupt and seemingly unassailable regime of Mr. Ben Ali. It is a reminder of the fact that the government is for the people not the other way round and when government fails to perform its duty, it needs to go.

Democracy has hitherto being an elusive thing for the Arab world as most of the nations are still ruled by autocratic regimes; rulers too cold to venture out of their kingly palaces to work for the people, too tenacious of their power and to say the least are subservient to the interests of the erstwhile colonizing countries or the West. There is large scale poverty, unemployment and lack of basic amenities. Lack of democratic system has ensured that the corrupt system remains entrenched to the core and the general plight of the people continues to deteriorate. This story is shockingly true for countries like Egypt, Algeria, Yemen, Algeria, Libya. Even as this is being written, people in many of these countries are getting inspired to encore the events of Tunisia in their lands. There is incoming news of youth in Yemen shouting for abdication of power by the autocracy hogging the galleries of power for 30 years.

Tunisian revolution was the outcome of smoldering discontent of the public. Right from the self immolation of the educated unemployed Tunisian youth things moved quite fast and spun out of the control of the government. It was really shameful for the country that an educated youth, instead of channeling his capabilities for nation building, had to kill himself in desperation. It betrayed the kind of mess Tunisia was into. 

A particularly interesting facet was the role played by the social networking sites like Twitter, Facebook, YouTube. the people could sustain the momentum of the movement and mobilize themselves. they efficiently used the new technology of internet to usher in the modern ideals of democracy to their land. It also rings in the fact that the internet in general and social networking revolution in particular has bestowed immense power in the hands of public to organize themselves, and effect the changes they wish.

But, given the overthrow of the rule accomplished, the Tunisians have a momentous and arduous task of setting in place a democratic system on which they can rest their hopes for a bright future. They need to prove before the world that the momentum is still very much there and it's continuously directed towards nation building. It is imperative in order to save their country from falling into the hands of another corrupt rule without democratic set up and dangers of civil wars. The Tunisians should take a lesson from the Indian struggle of independence particularly events post independence when the Indians showed grit to enforce the ideals of constitution throughout the territory of India, reigning in wayward princely states and establishing democracy on firm ground. Indian government, on the other hand, should express its solidarity with them as has been our national tradition throughout the national struggle to support any quest for democracy, independence.

In the whole episode the international community had, to an utter dismay, very less to vouch for. No country raised a strident support for the cry of ailing Tunisian junta. US, particularly, could have voiced a support for them and gained much confidence from the future Arab leaders: THE ARAB YOUTH. It would have helped bridging the gap between the US and the Muslim world as the current feeling of revolution is rife across the middle-east. Instead it chose to remain silent praying that the puppet rule of the West remains intact.

Better start now than never, the international fraternity, particularly the US, EU and other developing countries should support the Tunisian people in their endeavor. The UN should ensure that a transparent system is properly placed in the country to set it on the path of progress. International pressure should be mounted on the other autocratic regimes to mend their ways lest they meet the same fate. After all, when were they most vulnerable to change than now?

Finally, it can be said that Tunisia has shown the path for the rest of the Arab fraternity towards new modern political order, an order which is needed for meeting the challenges of the new century and improving their quality of life. Not just in prayers, the Arab brothers this time need to look west towards Tunisia for solutions and inspiration.

cheers
TBS