Not every country is as open to political retreads, apparently. Good for them. Maybe they can teach us how to push back when the same old people are brought back over and over, regardless of how much they damaged the system the last time. Is our system with constant war and bailouts for the richest of the rich really all that different? It used to sound like a stretch but not now.
After only one day in existence the temporary government, designed to prepare for full democratic elections after the fall of Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali's dictatorship, was in difficulty. Three ministers in the important opposition UGTT trade union quit, including transport and labour ministers, saying they had "no confidence" in a government that still featured members of the RCD party that ruled under Ben Ali. Then the health minister, Mustapha Ben Jafaar, head of the FTDL opposition party, quit for the same reason.
Several hundred protesters, led by trade unionists and leftwing opposition parties, took to the streets of Tunis demanding that the new cabinet be purged of the old guard that had served Ben Ali. The peaceful protests were violently repressed by riot police who fired teargas into the crowd and pummelled protesters to the ground with batons and kicks. The protesters, singing the national anthem, repeatedly tried to regroup around the city and were repeatedly brutally broken up and forced to flee screaming into side streets.
"I am afraid our revolution will be stolen from me and my people. The people are asking for freedoms and this new government is not. They are the ones who oppressed the people for 22 years," said Ines Mawdud, a 22-year-old student at the demonstration. Peaceful protests calling for the RCD to be disbanded were also held in Sidi Bouzid, the city where criticism of Ben Ali's government first erupted last month, and two other towns.
