Tunisia - en revolusjon som kan smitte

Hva får man hvis man blan­der sosiale medier, høy­skole­ut­dan­net ung­dom og en mis­for­nøyd mid­del­klasse? Svar: Revolusjon.

Omvelt­nin­gen i Tuni­sia har preg av revo­lu­sjon: det var fol­ket som vel­tet pre­si­den­ten. Spørs­må­let er bare hva som føl­ger. Hele Midt­østen føl­ger spent med.

Many people in the wider Middle East shared a sense of cele­bra­tion about the poli­ti­cal chan­ges in Tuni­sia, reve­ling over the his­to­ric moment Fri­day in which a popu­lar upri­sing for­ced a sit­ting Arab pre­si­dent out of office.

In con­trast, Arab govern­ments offe­red mostly tepid reac­tions to the popu­lar overthrow of Mr. Ben Ali. The Egyp­tian For­eign Mini­s­try said in a state­ment that it “respects the choi­ces made by the Tuni­sian people,” but added that it “trusts they are wise enough to…avoid plun­ging Tuni­sia into chaos.”

Det er opp­sikts­vek­kende at Frank­rike nek­tet å ta mot pre­si­den­ten, og at Barack Obama hilste det tuni­siske fol­kets kamp. Det er noe helt annet enn taus­he­ten i den ara­biske ver­den. Selv­føl­ge­lig vil “ver­den” legge merke til hvor­dan auto­kra­ten ender opp - i Saudi-Arabia.

Men vil vest­lige ledere tørre å backe fol­ke­lige pro­tes­ter i ara­biske land? Det er et far­lig spill. I et land som Egypt står isla­mis­tene sterkt. Det skal de etter sigende ikke gjøre i Tunisia.

Men lov­løs­he­ten truer. NRKs strin­ger i Paris, Erik Aas­heim var i en kystby og det var sky­ting over alt og folk bar­ri­ka­derte husene sine. Det lover ikke godt.

But uncer­tainty linge­red in Tunis. Alt­hough Mr. Ben Ali was out of office, the security struc­ture that had become a hall­mark of his ten­ure showed no signs of weakening. Mar­tial law was in effect around the coun­try. Mul­tiple security police units patrolled cen­tral Tunis, and the army was deployed around the city. Aut­hori­ties kept the pub­lic from congregating.

Stem­nin­gen var like­vel opti­mis­tisk blant mange.

Still, the mood among many citizens appea­red joy­ful. Many were relie­ved at the announ­ce­ment that passed power into the speaker of parliament’s hands accor­ding to the con­sti­tu­tion. “Today is the first day I am proud to be Tuni­sian,” said lawyer Nouredd­inne Jerbi. “Ben Ali is gone, his family are gone and the rule of law is being respec­ted,” he said.

Tuni­si­ans Topple Lea­der
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