Tunisian President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali PHOTOS: AFP/getty images
Good Neighbours
By Peter Guest | Published: 28 July, 2010
Negotiations over expanding Tunisia’s integration into the European Union are raising questions about the efficacy of Brussels’ soft power mechanisms in promoting political reform in the Southern Mediterranean
Speaking in a cool room off the courtyard of Tunisia’s palatial house of deputies, Agrebi Saida and Dr Emna Ben Arab, both members of parliament, are keen advocates of their country’s progress. Their obvious pride in the social and economic advances that have been made inevitably bubbles over into overt frustration as they contemplate the international perception of Tunisia and the demands for change coming from Europe.
“We were the first country to sign the Barcelona Process [on Mediterranean integration]. The government was hopeful when we signed this. Of course, there are lots of benefits to this agreement, but not to the extent that we expected,” Ms Ben Arab says. “There are lots of conditions, talking about democracy, human rights, as a condition for economic partnership. Of course democracy is an irreversible choice in this country, human rights is on the top of our agenda, but we are doing this at our own pace. You cannot expect a country such as ours, with the neighbours it has, with the culture it has, to be overnight a Western-style democracy. This is unrealistic.
“It is unfair to compare this country – whether in terms of growth or in terms of democracy and human rights – to Europe, to America. We should be compared to Arab countries, we should be compared to Africa,” she says.
There is one area in particular that Ms Saida is keen to stress. “Until now America and Great Britain – their women work like men, but they don’t have the same salary.” Tunisia, she says, has legislated to ensure equal pay for equal work since the 1960s.
Female empowerment has been, in development parlance, “mainstreamed” into Tunisia’s plans since independence. The country’s Personal Status Code enshrines the rights of women and their equality, and their political representation is on a par with much of Southern Europe – approaching 28 percent in parliament and 35 percent in municipal government. When compared to either its African or Arab peers, Tunisia has performed well across the majority of human development indicators, particularly those relating to education, maternal health, child mortality and women’s rights. The 2010 African Economic Outlook report produced by the OECD, Uneca and the African Development Bank says that the country has already achieved Millennium Development Goals one to four and seven, and is on track to meet goal five – maternal health – by 2015. Of all the MDGs, only in its attempts to tackle HIV/Aids, malaria and other diseases – goal six – is Tunisia currently off target.
Under the current president, Zine Al-Abidine Ben Ali, who began his fifth mandate in October, Tunisia’s economic growth has been solid and relatively equitable. It has opened its industries for international competition to a large extent, attracting foreign direct investment into its technology and manufacturing industries. It has begun to industrialise, even in remote areas, through the creation of investment zones across the country, creating jobs outside of the four sprawling urban centres that form Grand Tunis. It is advanced in its implementation of a free trade agreement with the EU.
