Tunisia: Understanding Conflict 2012 - Johns Hopkins School of ...

Issues Unaddressed
Talking with youth around the country, it is apparent that they were generally turned off
by the NCA campaign process because they felt that the politicians were not addressing
their issues during the campaign period but rather were bickering among themselves. The
three issues that seemed to be of greatest concern to youth during the time of the elections
were justice, job creation, and educational reform. Though the value placed on each one
may differ depending on the region, socio-economical background, and/or level of
education, many youth would agree that these are the most important changes for
Tunisian society. They may seem like obvious demands that any Tunisian politician
would want to address during an electoral campaign. However, the youth felt that the
politicians did not pay their concerns enough attention during their political campaigns.
Justice
Many youth in the interior, who had been marginalized under the previous regime,
suffered greatly for their participation in the protests in December 2010 and January
2011. Like Bouazizi, many youth in the region were not fortunate enough to receive a
university education or have access to lucrative jobs. For a long time, Ben Ali typically
invested along the coastal regions and tended to neglect developing the interior.
Consequently, many youth either were unemployed or sought jobs in the informal
sectors, selling minor goods or doing odd jobs. In the end, this frustration became so
unbearable that the youth stormed the streets in protest, calling for massive change in the
current living conditions. Starting in Sidi Bouzid after Bouazizi’s self-immolation, the
protests quickly spread to nearby Kasserine and Thala, where tensions flared as many
residents took to the streets and protested day and night. As the protests grew and began
to spread across the country, the Ben Ali regime grew desperate to find a solution. In a
poorly calculated attempt to disperse the protestors, Ben Ali ordered the police to fire on
the unruly protestors in both Kasserine and Thala. Around 7 to 12 January 2011, some 50
people, 30 many youth, were shot by snipers who intentionally aimed for the chest and
30 The actual number of those murdered during the Kasserine and Thala protests varies depending
on the source. Most sources corroborate that the number is somewhere in the 50s.
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