Dr Ahmed Kedidi
Tunisia has recently witnessed clashes between inhabitants of the border city of Dehiba and security forces.
A man in his twenties has died and many have been injured. In the border governorates of Ben Gardane and Tataouine, young protesters in many marginalised cities have taken to the streets asking the government for employment and development.
The clashes were apparently sparked by restrictions on citizens of these border cities trading across the border with Libya — something they have done for a long time. The people on either side of the border belong to the same tribes.
The real reason behind the violence is the implementation of unjust laws that do not allow people to trade freely across the border, which is something Slim Riahi, one of the presidential candidates, had promised to address.
Riahi’s party is a part of the government and I hope to see this party work to implement new laws in the border areas.
Successive governments have held on to outdated laws that harm people and the country’s economy, and the government is trying to fix this by pointing guns at the people.
The first law that must be changed is that “any evil act must be eliminated.”
I had the opportunity to deal with my country’s problems, and found that Tunisia’s woes stem from tyranny, corruption and an unbalanced society.
Optimistically, I noticed that the Arab Spring brought the problems to the surface as it freed our voices from fear. I have followed the commentators and party leaders on TV as they dwelt on the obstacles that hinder the development of our country and threaten its social security. But few of those people, in my modest evaluation, have tried to go to the roots of the obstacles.
From my experience, it is clear to me that Tunisia’s problems are rooted in laws from the beginning of the independence era, which were written with good intent by Habib Bourguiba, the leader at the time, to protect Tunisia in the 1950s and 1960s.
I was a member of Bourguiba’s party and advocated its policies, but in the 1980s I began to realise that laws are like live creatures that can be nurtured and modified in line with developments in society.
It was expected that the Tunisian elites would push for amendment of these laws. It is not logical that our sons should suffer due to laws from the time of their grandfathers, or even from the colonial period. The young generation has different problems.
As the French law professor Casamayor said, each law is like a medicine; as the latter is prepared in a laboratory to cure a disease, laws are passed to address deficiencies in society.
The application of both medicine and law is tried in our daily life. For the former there are doctors who track the results over years to make sure that it doesn’t cause any serious complications.
If the medicine is proved to have negative side effects, its composition is changed or it is pulled out from the pharmacies.
Casamayor said law was subject to the same logic. If it is proved to the ruling elite that a law does more harm than good, they should amend it or withdraw it to frame a new law that matches developments in society.
The second and most dangerous law is related to personal status, and it was enacted on August 13, 1956. Bourguiba had intended to protect the family with this law, but with the passage of time this law is having serious repercussions.
Courts are not able to decide on complicated cases in a timely manner due to a lack of resources and the limited number of judges. Over the years, thousands of divorce cases have piled up, resulting in the separation of thousands of couples.
The Tunisian family is no longer built on love and compassion, but on the basis of a judge and a lawyer.
Judges will tell you that divorce cases take years to settle due to the complicated procedures. A study is required for sociologists, law professors and religious scholars to amend these laws.
The third law that requires reconsideration is the one related to state property or what we call “the lands of socialism”, which dates from the colonial era.
The nationalisation of agricultural land act of May 12, 1964 made the state the owner of large tracts of land, big portions of which were given to those who were close to two former presidents, Bourguiba and Ben Ali. The rest were neglected and young farmers were deprived of the right to own them despite the fact that they were qualified to take good care of these lands.
Because of this most of the pastures became infertile and young people in dire need were not allowed to bring life to these lands. This law still exists because those who benefited from it oppose any amendment in it.
Even after the revolution, every government has had a ministry for the state’s properties, instead of a ministry for distributing them. We are waiting for the new council representatives to do this good act for the sake of compensating people for the time wasted in addressing the wrong issues.
The fourth catastrophic law, called FCR, is about the import of vehicles from abroad. A third of those dealing with this are officers and workers from the customs administration.
I request the representatives and ministers in the new government to visit Rades port to experience the chaos there. Officers are required to register all departure and entry dates, which are almost erased on old passports. This is not only time consuming but also a torture for people who have endured the hardship of a journey.
Then, on Al Monsaf Bay Street, officers blackmail citizens who have come from abroad, asking them for tens of documents and government stamps. I am sure that the state gets only a few pennies from this exercise after paying the salaries of all the officers who do this silly work.
The result is that thousands of cars remain indefinitely in the parking lot of the harbour, which is full of worn-out cars. It would have been better for the state to request citizens living abroad to pay an amount for bringing a car into the country. This will spare us the law, which limits each family to owning only one car at a time.
Slim Riahi, many ministers and representatives have assured me that they are aware of these issues and will deal with them once they are in office.
These are amendments that cannot wait. I pray to God to support us in achieving them before the situation becomes more critical.
The author is a politician and columnist
