End of sham democracy is nigh

The Tunesian President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali has tried to appease his angry people by promising to create 300,000 jobs within two years. But at the same time he referred to the demonstrators as "terrorists". His sham democracy is starting to crumble, the business paper Il Sole 24 Ore notes: "This is the greatest challenge President Ben Ali has faced since the terrorist threat of the 1980s. Back then he prevented the fundamentalism that had taken hold in neighbouring gas- and oil-rich Algeria from spreading in his own country by making 30,000 arrests and launching an unprecedented reign of oppression in Tunisia. His system of rule was legitimated by this experience. In exchange for stability, security and economic progress the Tunisians were forced to accept a fraudulent democracy in which any kind of dissent was censored and oppressed. … Surveillance and punishment is the president's recipe, and he personally takes care of every detail when it comes to security. … The opposition has been utterly destroyed in these last two decades, while civil society appears confused and disorganised. The protest is all the more dangerous because it apparently has no leaders with whom one could negotiate."

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