In less than a month, ordinary Tunisians from across the social spectrum brought down the cleptocratic 23-year regime of president Zine el Abidine Ben Ali and unleashed an avalanche of popular protest movements that continue to rumble across the Middle East.
The catalyst was the self-immolation of the 26-year-old street vendor Mohamed Bouazizi from Sidi Bouzid, a small town in the country’s interior, on 17 December 2010. His personal reasons included the confiscation of his wares and humiliation experienced at the hands of municipal authorities but his protest and subsequent death caught the imagination of a whole nation, fed up with the corruption and lack of accountability of their government and the poverty and hopelessness of a country where 40% of the population was unemployed.
Within four weeks of the initial protests following Bouazizi’s dramatic act, sustained street protests, strikes and general civil unrest had forced Ben Ali to flee the country for Saudi Arabia, reportedly with vast quantities of gold and valuables accumulated over his long reign, and an interim administration to be set up under Mohamed Ghannouchi, Ben Ali’s long serving prime minister.
The so-called ‘Jasmine Revolution’ has served as a model for other protest movements in the region, though few, including Egypt’s own revolution against the corrupt regime of Hosni Mubarak, have been as relatively peaceful. The decision by Tunisia’s army not to fire on its own people and to side with the protesters when it became clear that the old regime was tottering, was pivotal in deciding the outcome of the Jasmine Revolution.
As can be seen with the ongoing fighting in Libya where pro and anti Gadaffi forces battled each other for 6 months before rebels were able to force their way into the capital, a strong popular movement can give the impetus for revolution but force of arms usually decides the outcome.
