The world watched in awe a few weeks ago as a people’s revolution resulted in the toppling of a dictatorship. In subsequent days, Tunisians took measures to disgourge profits from corrupt and autocratic political officials, freezing off-shore accounts and seizing large sums of gold. Now, the Tunisian populous are tuning their attention to corrupt employers, fat cats who enable dictators like President Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali to maintain power.
In Tunisia, workers stormed out of the state-run shipping company the other day. For decades, they had lived quietly in relative poverty as their bosses, all members of the former ruling party, drove luxury cars and owned mansions.
Only 10 days ago, the police would have suppressed this mini-uprising and arrested them. Now, it was a new order. Pumping their fists, the workers accused the company’s chairman of embezzlement and demanded his resignation.
Across this nation, Tunisians are experiencing a blossoming of freedoms after a popular uprising ousted President Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali from power on Jan. 14, ending his autocratic rule. Many are voicing their thoughts and ideas after living for nearly a quarter of a century in fear. Others, for the first time in their lives, are demanding justice for relatives killed by his regime.
The happiness is tempered by unease, for their future is still uncertain. Protests are unfolding daily in the capital to demand that the interim government purge all members of Ben Ali’s party. The opposition is weak and divided; some fear militias that supported the president might create problems. More.