In the main yard of Sidi Bouzid, the birthplace of the Tunisian revolution, stands a statue of the most famous vegetable cart in the history of mankind—the cart of Mohammed Bouazizi. The yard too now carries the name of the nation’s revolutionary hero.
In the main yard of Sidi Bouzid, the birthplace of the Tunisian revolution, stands a statue of the most famous vegetable cart in the history of mankind—the cart of Mohammed Bouazizi. The yard too now carries the name of the nation’s revolutionary hero.
Bouazizi pushed his small cart, filled with small boxes of vegetables, and went out everyday to fight hunger, poverty and destitution and to provide for his family. He knew that his cart, which he watched all day long, would not bring him a fortune, rather only a few dinars from customers who shared with him the misfortune of hunger and poverty.
Mohammed Bouazizi, the vegetable street vendor, is the son Sidi Bouzid province, located in mid-western Tunisia. It is one of the most marginalized and poor provinces and its people often complain about high unemployment rates. It has entered history from its wider doors, without knowing that the small cart that carried a few pounds of peppers, tomatoes, onions and potatoes would become the symbol of dignity in Tunisia.
Standing adjacent to this cart, Bouazizi doused his body and burned the foundations of repression, starvation and marginalization. He burned himself and the hearts of most of the Tunisians—bread and dignity are inseparable.
A municipal officer slapped Bouazizi in the face, which was in effect a slap to the man’s pride and a turning point in the history of Tunisia. It was the moment that he chose to put an end to the suppression and injustice that he suffered throughout his life. The Tunisian people soon joined him because they were suffering the same suppression and injustice.
Abject poverty and humiliated dignity made people go the streets to call for “Freedom,” “Work,” and “Dignity.” These have become the magic words that led to the overthrow of the former president Ben Ali, or “the tyrant” – the term the angry people use in describing him.
Today, Tunisians want to live in a country where the poor are not hungry or disgraced; a country that respects the citizens’ purchasing power, and which distributes its wealth fairly. Today they dream of a Tunisia that is a heaven for all of its Tunisians who are capable of sharing its resources fairly and justly.
Tunisians have allowed themselves to continue dreaming. The cart of Mohammed Bouazizi carried them to a new and different phase; the impossible became possible when they found themselves capable of overthrowing a tyrant regime that had controlled them for more than two decades. Their dreams have grown and produced many more.
Today, Tunisians’ dreams are no longer limited to “Freedom,” “Work,” and “Dignity.” They now want to build a democratic state and they want to build the Second Republic, which establishes a new relationship between the ruler and the ruled.
People demanded a National Constituent Assembly to draft a new Constitution for the country. They also demanded multi-party and transparent elections with the participation of all forces in the country and from the different political streams to ensure the democratic transition of the Tunisia of the “revolution” into a safe country where street vendors and the unemployed are not forced to burn themselves because of poverty.
The people did not stop dreaming. The electoral process that occurred on October 23, 2011 reflected the peoples’ desire to build the second Tunisian Republic on the basis and principles of a democracy that is based on justice, equality and equal opportunities.
Faced with this keenness and under the pressures exerted by the street, the politicians didn’t have many choices other than to work within the framework of political consensuses. This is because the country, during the election phase and the phases that followed it, such as the formation of the constituent assembly, has been witnessing events that express the emergence of a newly born democratic phase.
The post-Bouazizi phase has carried with it significant challenges in the political arena. After the assassination of martyr Chokri Belaid on February 6, 2013, and the assassination of MP Mohamed Brahmi on July 25, 2013, which took place on Republic Day, new challenges and demands of better security situation and resistance of imported terrorism started to surface.
During this period of time, politicians were focusing on the political crisis storming the country. They did not care about vendors’ carts, which grew empty as a result of the continuous increase in prices. They did not know or feel that many of the Tunisian people have become incapable of buying just one kilogram of pepper, so they passed the 2014 Finance Act, the drop that made the cup overflow.
The optimism of the Tunisians has soon turned into pessimism, confusion and inability to predict what will happen in the coming few hours. The chaos witnessed by most of the roads in Tunisian provinces’—reflected in the smashing and burning of public institutions— are clear indications that Tunisia today is on the brink of a second revolution.
It is a revolution against governmental taxes, which have burdened the people. Instead of decreasing these burdens, the government passed the 2014 finance law, which contains unjust tax increases in a number of its articles.
Three years since the outbreak of the revolution, the slogans of the January 14, 2011 revolution have not changed and people still have the same demands: “Freedom,” “Work,” and “Dignity”?
In the meantime, the cart of Mohammed Bouazizi continues to be the most prominent witness of the revolution while the vegetables he once sold are even less attainable by the same people who wanted a revolution to help them live a better life.
