When in power, authoritarian regimes can look immovable – even when, in hindsight, they
turn out to have been brittle. This seems to have been the case with Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali’s Tunisian regime.
Weeks ago, nobody would have believed that the Tunisian strongman, who has held power for more than 23 years, could have been chased from office so quickly. A diplomat friend who served in Tunis
marvelled at the dictatorship, where information was so restricted that he depended on information from colleagues stationed elsewhere in the region.
Ben Ali’s rule was apparently total; the opposition was comprehensively suppressed and the population had little scope for expression or assembly.
A month ago, however, unrest erupted after an unemployed graduate set himself alight after police confiscated fruit and vegetables he sold without a permit. Fed up by the state’s suppression and angry over the levels of unemployment – with Ben Ali and his family seen as having enriched themselves at the expense of the nation – the people took to the streets.
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