The hype about Tunisia’s political progress has become completely disconnected from the reality on the ground, argues Moncef Marzouki, who served from 2011 to 2014 as the first elected president of the Tunisian Republic after the country’s 2011 revolution. That reality is stark: Tunisian democracy is at risk, he writes for Foreign Policy:
The corrupt media, business elites, and the politicians of the old regime have joined forces, with the support of some regional powers, to hijack our post-revolutionary institutions. The much-touted “national unity government” that currently rules the country has become a vehicle for the revival of the old regime and the careers of its stalwarts. When current Prime Minister Youssef Chahed was appointed as the head of the government on August 3, his first act was to appoint 12 new governors – nine of whom were officials of the old regime. There is good reason to believe that his appointments to lower positions in the administration will follow the same pattern.
To meet the goals of the 2011 revolution, Tunisia must accelerate reform of its highly centralized system to bring government closer to citizens and make it more accountable and responsive, says a World Bank report.
