{UAH} Pojim/WBK: Look at Tunisia, you naive democracy exporters and importers - Comment - www.theeastafrican.co.ke

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Look at Tunisia, you naive democracy exporters and importers - Comment

Nearly four years ago, Tunisians rebelled and set off events that toppled longstanding and seemingly solid governments in Tunisia itself, then in Egypt and Libya.

The world's media were quick to baptise the uprisings "the Arab Spring." International media houses wheeled out their Maghreb and Middle East experts to help their readers, listeners and viewers understand what was happening and what it all meant. Many told of the dawn of "good governance," the product of a strong desire by long-oppressed masses to rid themselves of rule by strongmen.

Not to be outdone, the media in sub-Saharan Africa took to proclaiming that soon enough the contagion would spread south. Excitable local pundits predicted the collapse, due to mass action, of governments led by leaders deemed to have been around for too long.

As it has turned out, their predictions amounted to little more than wishful thinking for the most part. Soon enough, Egyptians baulked at the uncertainties "democracy" had handed them and opted for the stability and predictability they were used to under a "strong government."

Given what we see in Libya today, many Libyans must look back to the days of Muammar Gaddafi and wonder why they exchanged them for the promise of change that has turned out to be a bad joke.

And like the Egyptians and Libyans, Tunisians have now also discovered that while freedom as sold by rights activists and other members of the democracy exporting and importing fraternities can be appealing as an idea, in practice it can be rather messy.

The realisation became evident in the dying days of 2014 when large numbers of Tunisians elected as president a man they believe will return their country to the good old days of strong government.

The President-elect, 88-year old Beji Caid Essebsi, is no newcomer to politics. In some ways he seems to represent everything Tunisians rebelled against four years ago: For years he served under governments they hated for their dictatorship, including as head of intelligence and interior minister under the country's first president, Habib Bourguiba, whose tenure Tunisians associate with arbitrary detention and torture.

Interestingly, Mr Essebsi defeated a man whom observers would argue represents values Tunisians were willing to die for when they rose up against the government of Zine El-Abidine Ben Ali in early 2011.

Dr Moncef Marzouki, the 69-year old outgoing president, spent many years fighting for human rights and suffering periods of incarceration. He even has a strong record of writing about democracy. So why did they reject him after he had served only three years as interim president?

In some ways, Dr Mazourki was the victim of his own successful past as a political dissident. He, it seems, romanticised democracy and, alongside other democracy advocates, made promises about what it could deliver, that served only to raise popular expectations to unrealistic levels.

And then he came to power and for three years presided over rising terrorism, crime, and a struggling economy. It wasn't what Tunisians had looked forward to under democratic rule. And so they began to yearn for security and stability, and the guiding hand of a strong state to which they had long become accustomed.

During the presidential campaigns, Mazourki fought hard to remind Tunisians of their bad past of dictatorship and of the dangers of reversing the gains of the revolution. According to media reports, one of his key messages was that the elections presented them with a chance to decide whether their country would become a democracy or return to the old regime. To him, a vote for Essebsi would take the country back to dictatorship.

Many voters, however, were in no mood to entertain his gloomy warnings. One voter is quoted as saying, "We want our life to go back to how it was because in the past three years it has got really worse." Another argued that Essebsi's victory promised to lead to a middle ground, "a fusion between freedom and dictatorship."

Eventually, Dr Mazourki lost, albeit after two rounds of voting. It is clear that after harvesting the first fruits of revolution, many Tunisians, not unlike their Egyptian cousins, decided they were not to their taste.

‎There are lessons here for Africa's democracy warriors. Dr Marzouki's post-election reflections as quoted in one media report highlight and sum them up nicely: "I must confess that for us, many of us had spent our whole life in opposition, ruling a state was extremely new for us, so we had to learn. I wonder if we were not a little naïve."

The issue of naivety is particularly worth pondering. It is not uncommon for advocates of democracy and associated rights to talk and behave as if the intrinsic value of these things is self-evident to the ordinary man and woman on the street, who they assume is prepared to defend them above all else.

However, in the Maghreb as elsewhere in Africa, people seem to want governments that, above all else, know how to wield power and authority and deliver key tangibles without which all else is impossible — security and stability.

Frederick Golooba-Mutebi is a Kampala- and Kigali-based researcher and writer on politics and public affairs. E-mail: fgmutebi@yahoo.com

Look at Tunisia, you naive democracy exporters and importers - Comment - www.theeastafrican.co.ke
http://www.theeastafrican.co.ke/OpEd/comment/Look-at-Tunisia--you-naive-democracy-exporters-and-importers-/-/434750/2577234/-/150hqx3z/-/index.html‎

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