2021年1月23日
今日注目の地域
今日はチュニジア アラブの春編の続きです！
3分で読める本記事の構成は以下のとおりです。
特殊なチュニジア
Tunisia(チュニジア)では、他の中東諸国（イエメン、シリア、リビヤ、エジプト）と違ってアラブの春が大きな紛争につながらなかったのですが、大規模な紛争はないものの Tunisia(チュニジア)では高い物価や失業率の高い状態が続いていて、それに反発する抗議活動は今だにずっと続いているんです。
主な原因
長く続いた独裁政権を倒したものの不安定な情勢が続いている原因の一つとして、”大きな変化に抵抗があった” というのがあります。
アラブの春のあと、独裁者の政党が解散して新しい政党がつくられていくなど、民主化が進んだわけですが、独裁政権で活動していた政治家の多くが Tunisia(チュニジア)の国政にそのままたずさわり続けたんです。
結果
民主主義をとおしてみんなの意見を取り組まなければいけないために、独裁政権にくらべて政治が複雑化したは良いものの、政治内の腐敗には大きな変化が見られないままだったわけです。
また、政府による自由の制限はある程度解消されたものの、こういった状況から政府への信頼も落ちていき、投票率も下がっていくんですね。それだけでなく、Tunisia(チュニジア)の安定しない国家体制に我慢できず、イスラム国のような軍事組織に多くの若者たちが流れていっているんです。
2021年初めにも高い失業率や安定しない経済へ反発するプロテストがおきているんですね。
参考
BBC news, Al Jazeera, CSIS, Human Rights Watch, United States Institute of Peace
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英語版
Tunisia was a country where the Arab Spring began in 2010, and the movement of protests against dictatorship spread through Arab countries.
In Tunisia, Zine El Abidine Ben Ali had led his dictatorship for a long time, but it was full of corruption, including high rate of youth unemployment even for collage graduates and bribes and abuse of power by police officers.
A Tunisian guy Mohamed Bouazizi could not stand this situation and put himself on fire in front of the government building in order to claim the government corruption. This incident led a lot of people to start protesting in Tunisia.
What was new here was that people recorded the protests and posted on Facebook. At that time in Tunisia, freedom of speech and press was restricted by the dictators, and therefore social media was one of the limited ways to report what is happening in Tunisia to the outside world. The posts on Facebook reached to foreign media and was reported through out the world.
Since the issue in Tunisia became no longer only the country's issue but gained global attention, people in Tunisia succeeded in overthrowing the long-time dictatorship.
Tunisia, however, still had to face its economic struggle. Even today, high rate of youth unemployment and inflation are big issues in Tunisia.
One of the reasons why Tunisia succeeded in overthrowing the dictatorship, but failed to achieve stable governance and economy is because the country did not fully change a political climate from the dictator Ben Ali regime since it brought so many politicians back from the dictatorship.
Although new political parties were introduced and Ben Ali's party was dissolved after the Arab Spring, the political competition between secular parties and Islamist parties, such as Ennahda, under democracy instead of the one dictating party ruling the country made the country's political system to become more complex at the same level of corruption.
Though strict restrictions by the government were loosen at some level, people in Tunisia have gradually lost trust in the government as seen in the decrease of voting rate. The instability in the country has also led young people to join ISIS in other countries in the region.
In 2021, protests against high unemployment rate and its economic instability has continued, including violation of private and public property, such as looting while police responded by firing tear gas.
