Arab Spring states need bridges of trust

If the transition to democracy since the Arab Spring has been bumpier than expected in Egypt, Tunisia or Libya, it is because bridges of trust and communication are still missing

By bridges, one does not mean the concrete and steel infrastructure that was the pride of the pre-revolutionary regimes. Those anti-flooding wonders saved thousands of lives, but could not cover up policy failures and shortcomings. Those arched frames only lent themselves to the pomp and ceremony of red-ribbon inaugurations.

Still missing today are the crucial social, cultural and political bridges that past political generations neglected to build. Without these bridges, there cannot be peaceful or stable societies — just islands of people in a state of continuous belligerence.

In certain aspects, the problem is generational. There is a clear gap today between the black-and-white-television generation, which used to be happy to see its post-independence leaders promise it the world.

The current generation of unemployed young graduates will not accept blank cheques. While many of the post-revolution leaders call for patience as they try to address lingering injustices, the 20-something electorate wants the immediate fulfilment of the dreams they harboured when they rose up against obsolete and disconnected rulers.

Between the younger generation’s yearning for immediate gratification and the tough reality on the ground, there is another bridge missing: That of time. New governments are seeking a grace period in order to be able to provide greater opportunities, better jobs and a more dignified life for their young citizens. Ironically, frustrations grow stronger today as dissatisfied groups of the population, with an unprecedented sense of ownership of their fates, hear the pleas for patience.

In many ways, previous rulers had it easy.

Beside generational cleavages, societies are divided by critical gaps between vying value-systems. Tense polarisation between Islamists and secularists, in particular, betrays a disconnect between large groups of society who, instead of talking to each other, talk at each other.

Distrust is fuelled by the fear of each group that its’ value-system is existentially threatened by that of their rivals — as prisms of mutual distrust and suspicion continue to breed stereotypes and self-perpetuating demonisation. The new climate of unfettered competition of ideas has rendered value-system clashes look more ominous. Global communication revolutions, which accelerated all cultural and political transformations, did the rest.

In a place like Tunisia, secularists and Islamists, need to rise above preset notions and find a common ground, beyond the largely-inflated perception of irreconcilable differences.

Despite the apparent chasm separating them, the two main blocs have in common a time-honoured tradition of moderation and openness that has marked the ideas of indigenous Sunni thinkers and modernist reformers alike, since the 19th century. Radicalism was never part of that legacy. Missing this bridge increases the risk of taking the wrong turn to extreme violence.

Striking discrepancies

Tunisia’s core identity is not a mirror of secularist doctrines of the West nor is it a replica of ultra-conservative dogmas of the East. With their common moderate heritage, its citizens are better equipped to engage the world. They know that progress cannot be driven by a self-defeating clash of civilisations nor by an illusory end of history. It is driven by economic competitiveness, scientific innovation and technological progress.

Another potentially-explosive gap that continues to provoke unrest and instability, in Libya, Tunisia and Egypt, is the sense that certain regions of the same country were treated less fairly than others. When you look at development and employment indicators you are bound to acknowledge the striking discrepancies and imbalances.

The challenge today is how to deal with regional inequities without jeopardizing the territorial integrity of current nation-states. Separatist calls could be just ways to pressure already-weak central governments. But they could be also a dangerous new trend to be taken seriously.

Sooner or later there is no denying the need, also, to bridge the gap between the members of the previous political class and the post-Arab Spring generation. The revolutions’ victors resent the politics that were and shouldn’t have been.

They need time to reconcile themselves to the notion that all things had a context and that most people did their best, even if they were not always brave enough to do the right thing. All generations of previous six decades, from all hues and affiliations, need time before they can deal with the legacies of the past, its individual mistakes and collective sins.

The victims of oppression need time before they can see the past not as reason to visit revenge upon others but as a catalyst to reach out and talk. Before it is all water under the bridge, both need time and courage. The courage, for some, to recognize the errors of the past; and the wisdom, for others, to realise that crushing their previous foes only perpetuates the damaging ‘winner-take-all’ policies of the past.

Between regimes, despotic and democratic, there should be a perennial bridge called the state.

All such bridges will allow the emergence of a new political culture. One of dialogue and compromise, not violence and confrontation. All members of society, especially the political elite amongst them, have to gain awareness of the need to co-exist despite their differences.

Previous regimes, including the one under which I served, did not do what it could do to build those kinds of bridges. ‘Positive-sum-game’ mindsets can still pave the way for successful transitions where all could be winners. But, for that to happen, it is in the hearts and minds of people that many of the bridges must, in the first place, be built.

Oussama Romdhani is a former Tunisian minister of communication. He served as a Tunisian diplomat to the US from 1981 to 1995. He is presently an international media analyst.