Tunisia beckons India's tourists and investors By DILEEP PADGAONKAR Tunisia is a mere blip on the radar screen of India's tourists, investors and foreign policy makers. Yet, this country, sandwiched between Algeria and Libya on the northern tip of Africa, beckons millions with its splendid beaches and resorts, cultural sites dating back to three thousand years and its bracing Mediterranean climate. Its political stability and fast growing economy lure investors from around the world even as its modern, moderate and tolerant Islam gives it the status of a privileged interlocutor for nations engaged in the struggle against terrorism and religious fanaticism. The Indian visitor is greeted everywhere with much warmth and bonhomie. Tunisians hold the leaders of India's independence movement in awe. Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru are household names. A street in Tunis is named after the former. One of the finest restaurants in the capital - Le Duc - is located there. India's secularism also finds much praise from ministers down to the mullahs looking after the main mosque in the holy city of Kairouan. And finally the obsessive interest in Hindi films allows conversations between Indians and Tunisians to flow easily. These days the mood is especially upbeat in the country. Presidential and parliamentary polls were held in the last week of October. Voter turn-out exceeded 90 per cent. The incumbent, Zine al-Abedine Ben Ali, was returned to office with a whopping 99.44 per cent of the votes cast in a three-cornered contest. His party, the Democratic Constitutional Rally (RCD), secured 91.59 per cent of the votes and 80 per cent of the seats in the 182-member Chamber of Deputies. The opposition parties had to be content with a meagre 36 seats. These figures, according to critics of the Ben Ali regime active in Paris and London, are proof enough that democracy in Tunisia is a cruel charade. Their criticism, reflected mainly in liberal and left-wing French newspaper and magazines, has been particularly harsh in the weeks preceding the elections. Stories of arbitrary arrests, travel restrictions on dissidents, lengthy jail terms and even torture abound. None of them find the feeblest echo in the local press. Its dreary conformism detracts attention from the genuine gains made by the country under President Ben Ali's leadership which has just entered its 13th year. Indeed, even if individual and public freedoms are restricted, the country has been inching towards a more open, transparent and pluralist society. President Ben Ali took the initiative to amend the Constitution to enable other candidates to stand against him. The number of opposition candidates in the Chamber of Deputies has also increased. The critics argue, not without reason, that all this has no more than a symbolic value. But the fact remains that the general feeling in the country runs in favour of the President's slow but steady march towards a full-fledged democracy. If nothing else, the horrific events in neighbouring Algeria over the past few years has driven home the point that a descent into chaos has to be prevented at all costs. Several other factors appear to bolster the President's popularity. One is his determined opposition to religious extremism. It finds a ready echo in a country where Islam, Judaism and Christianity have co-habited in mutual respect and tolerance. President Ben Ali's policies against the extremists are rooted in the sacred texts of Islam itself. Renowned theologians have consistently interpreted the texts in a liberal manner. The message has thus gone down well among the people. Even those who charge that the President exaggerates the threat of extremism to eliminate all real opposition to him acknowledge that Tunisia cannot go the way of the Taliban. Equally impressive are President Ben Ali's actions to ensure gender equality. One of the first moves of his predecessor - Habib Bourguiba - after Tunisia won its independence from France in 1956 was to abolish polygamy, institute judicial divorce, set the minimum marriageable age at 17 for women, decree that the marriage was contingent on their consent and give widows the right to custody of their minor children. Since he came to power on November 7, 1987 and initiated the Era of Change, President Ben Ali has taken several steps to strengthen the rights of women. The most significant was an amendment of the Code of Personal Status which made it obligatory on both spouses to "treat each other with respect and assist each other in managing the household and the children's affairs." This replaced a clause which stipulated that the "woman must respect the prerogatives of her husband." The married woman was given the right to manage her own private life and affairs. A fund was set up to ensure payment of alimony and child support to divorced women and their children. Penalties for marital violence was re-enforced. And non-discrimination between men and women in places of work was made compulsory. That is not all. Family planning was encouraged by making it clear that special attention should be devoted to women's reproductive health and diseases specific to women. Laws were passed for the import and sale of contraceptives. Mechanisms were set up to enforce the laws. One major off-shoot of these moves has been the decline in the rate of population growth from 2. 46 per cent in 1986 to 1.6 per cent in 1998. The Tunisian woman is now active in all fields of endeavour. Women representation in Parliament, for instance, has doubled from ten to twenty over the past five years. These gains have not been easy to come by. As the minister in charge of women and the family, Mrs. Neziha Zarrouk, pointed out, the fundamentalist movement, which began to gain ground in the latter half of the 'eighties, focused its attacks on policies aimed at bringing about gender equality. She said it required great courage for President Ben Ali to strengthen the rights of women. These rights, he argued , were part of the civilisational heritage of the Tunisian nation. None would be allowed to roll them back. Yet another factor explains the popularity of the Ben Ali regime. From 1962 onwards, the economy has grown at the average rate of 5.1 per cent at constant prices. Per capita income has increased at the rate of 3 per cent during the same period. Per head GDP stands at $ 2032. Inflation has been at its lowest in a quarter of a century at 3.1 per cent. The unemployment rate is around 15.2 per cent. A National Employment Fund will start functioning in January to reduce this figure further. President Ben Ali's economic advisers - notably the soft-spoken and erudite Minister of International co-operation and foreign investment, Mohammed Ghannuchi (who was appointed Prime Minister on Thursday) - are quick to point out that the "Tunisian way" has not been determined by the World Bank and the IMF. Various "solidarity" schemes have been implemented to help the needy not so much in the form of doles but in terms of loans for specific development-related projects. Major investments have been made in the education and public health sectors. Access to basic goods and services for the most dispossessed sections of the population has been ensured. Salaries are hiked every three years. Poverty has gradually come down from 11 to 6 per cent in the past few years. The advisers add however that the country cannot afford a moment's respite. Exports have to be stepped up considerably if Tunisia is to cope with the abolishing of tariff barriers with Europe in 2008. This calls for greater effort to increase the efficiency of the economy. The privatization process will need to be given a fillip. Subsidy schemes need to be trimmed. More investments will have to be made in the area of infrastructure. And all this will have to be accomplished without endangering social peace. The population as a whole has to adjust to the often harsh consequences of structural adjustments. If not, its accumulating frustrations can provide fertile ground for the religious extremists and the dogmatic leftists. The size of the Tunisian market - the population is just above 9 million - has deterred Indian businessmen from exploring investment opportunities in the country. But they should know that given the special arrangements between Tunisia and Europe, Indian goods can make their way into Europe. Indian foreign policy makers could also consider a stronger political relationship between the two countries. Tunisia - which has shown "understanding" of Pokhran II and New Delhi's stand on Kargil - can be trusted to try to blunt the edge of anti-India resolutions passed in bodies like the Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC) at the behest of Pakistan. As for Indian tourists, they can succumb to the spell of Carthage and of the country's other sites which bear the imprint of a succession of rich civilizations - Berber, Punic, Roman, Byzantine, Arab, Spanish, Turkish, Jewish and French. They can feast on the sea-food and savour the sixty-four varieties of dates grown in the country. And, should they feel home-sick, they can go to a cinema hall near the souk (bazaar) to watch a recent Hindi film with an audience which turns ecstatic when the stars break into a song-and-dance. * The author visited Tunisia at the invitation of its government on the occasion of the 12th anniversary of the ruling party, the Democratic Constitutional Rally.
For reprint rights: Times Syndication Service
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