The chief justice has yet to respond to those would have done so but with more in thirty minutes next on aljazeera its inside story to stay with us. Al jazeera. And for you. Violent protests in tunisia hundreds of arrests theres anger over a price rises and tax hikes but the government says theres no other way to cut a ballooning deficit so how will two new zero resolve its deep rooted economic problems this is inside story. I welcome to the program im Adrian Finnegan is widely regarded as the only democratic Success Story from the arab spring uprisings but its had nine governments since the overthrow of its longtime dictator in twenty eleven and all of them of struggle to tackle high unemployment especially among the youth towns and cities in the interior a worse off than those including the capital tunis on the coast hopes that the two thousand election revolution would bridge that gulf. Been dashed demonstrations against the governments austerity measures this year began on sunday and quickly spread the price of basic goods from food to fuel has soared but the government sticking to its budget the main trades union and parties in the Ruling Coalition say the protests threaten to destabilize the country is a closer look at todays is economy unemployment is running up more than fifteen percent its estimated that a quarter of young people are without work tourism accounts for around eight percent of tunisias economy and provides thousands of jobs but the industry has struggled after two gun attacks in twenty fifteen that killed dozens of people and the budget deficit has ballooned reaching six percent of Gross Domestic Product last year the government promised to cut spending in exchange for a loan from the International Monetary fund the measures including tax hikes aimed to bring the deficit under five percent of g. D. P. Our serious hashim reports now from tunis. They are fully as i can show you right now there is this build up which continues this is a protest that has been called for by the tunisian opposition by the popular front which is an Umbrella Organization of different leftist groups opposed to the government and to the austerity measures so you can see behind me in this crowd which is chanting the people would like the government to scrap the austerity measures they want those decisions made by the government to be scrapped as soon as possible otherwise they say that they will continue to take to the streets until those measures are put on the. Side this comes as a very critical moment no moment for the two dizzy ends and for the government on sunday to his in with commemorate the seven i did the story of the two thousand and eleven revolution people say basically that they were hoping to see their lives improve their Living Standard is much better than the past they say that the government has betrayed them without putting an employee. And poverty and also building a very Strong Economy which many people here believe is not the case now theres been a build up of Security Forces around this area the building that you can see behind me is one of the main headquarters of the police so theres been this buildup of Security Forces and they would like to ensure that those protests dont judge degenerate into any acts of violence because over the last few days weve seen some of those protest movements degenerating into attacks against a good two forces and setting fire on a police station. In the southern is the southern part of the country. All right lets talk more with our guests joining us from tunis today is a son ill say here a member of parliament with a conservative an actor posse part of the Ruling Coalition from beirut were joined by nicholas no codirector of Tunis Exchange a Research Summit involving all sides of the political debate in tunisia and also in tunis Muhammadiyah Hamami whos an independent Research Consultant whos been observing tunis as protests on the streets gentlemen welcome to you all about how to start with you what exactly are people protesting about what is it that they but they want that the withdrawal of these a ceratin measures or change of government. Well that i think there is. A lot of demand so thats why we should separate what they are protesting and what they are demanding so they are put to sing the general economy except to ation where they are living so during the last years the economy condition of musses nations became worst but the new fineness law that has been adopted by the government by the end of december triggered this new wave of protests that are mainly organized by this new movement new Youth Movement called. The net which means indonesian dialect what are we waiting for and the main demand now is the suspension of the effects of the finest lot of thousand and eighteen the Prime Minister says that the protesters are criminals that looting and vandalism is unacceptable and that legitimate protest should take place in Daylight Hours this is the after the violence that we saw at night those protesting at the moment representative of people in tunis here with legitimate demands. Every time i talk with someone and ask about his opinion here in canada they Start Talking about that talking about the looting and those who are involved in violence and simply because they have been doing the last days a whole Media Campaign focusing only on that unfortunately the official discourse is also focusing on that in the same way that in the beginning of the of the revolution benignly was accusing the protesters to be only. Losers when a new reality its definitely not. The strategy helps the government to avoid talking about the real issues its true that there is violence but its not the main problem that everyone should focusing on if if things if theres progress today its because of the economy situation that can go in worse and worse day after day so there is violence or not its for sure the economy situation is really bad and thats what the government should focus on instead of just attacking and framing all the protestors as rioters and violent ok mamma before we bring in our other guests just give us some idea of the impact that these price and tax rises have had on ordinary people what is daily life like in tunisia for young Unemployed People or people who are living in the less well developed parts of the country the interior. Yeah well usually the image often is presented as a divide between a cold solution that is developed and to reason there is less developed where there is no infrastructure and no and where the life is this is difficult in reality its much more complicated than that thats why today the fish and the movement emerge in and emerge among students who are based in tunis who are living in low income regions after not only about interventions and the coast and so the price increase is general it has been caused by two things first the dinar depreciation that caused by the Monetary Policy followed by the government and the second thing which is the new taxes brought by from the new law so today is a very difficult for people to rent houses and even to survive even those who have stable jobs are not going to talk about the the fifteen percent doc if you take the general Unemployment Rate or the more than thirty percent if you only focus on the news if you focus on those people we cant even talk about them because they dont even have any income but lets even talk about those who have a stable public job most of them are in debt and are struggling to survive and to run thousands and and to buy food to feed to and to allow their kids to go to school and to provide them with every day in the cities and the situation is going more central and wars so if people in tunisia compare this to asian with that with the Previous Year they dont compare this to asian to other countries that are probably in a war situation and that sort of legitimacy or so i think that shouldnt just take a comparative approach we should see what people want and what are they expecting and what are they aiming for nicholas know in beirut how damaging is this for the tunisian government to what extent is is tunisia is government caught between a rock and a hard place. Its a very difficult situation i mean lets remember were were well known from the revolution of two thousand and eleven there have been trying times tunisians the Tunisian Civil Society groups have won the Nobel Peace Prize you have a representative on the show with us that has admirably strive to write a new constitution which is a model for the region in the world tunisia has faced tremendous terrorist attacks that have nothing to do really with its own internal issues but have to do with a region thats simply on fire i mean libya is a big failed state with multiple warlords and external influence that is very difficult for tunisia which doesnt have basically has a very small army to defend itself so they face tremendous problems the key issue however is whether or not the tunisian elite and the Political Leadership and the elected representatives of tunisia together with their strong external backers are going to finally address the root problems here in tunisia sorry there in tunisia which is primarily centered on the Socio Economic well being of the vast majority of tunisians who are every day suffering under inflation corruption and monopolistic practices by a very narrow tunisian economic elite that is very hard to solve and in my view the International Community and the i. M. F. And the world bank and others have unfortunately chosen with some in the tunisian leadership to take the easier way out it is much easier to raise the price of a man or womans coffee or a product that they use every day or gas or whatever or their cellphone for example its much harder to address the root cause of took economic and security rot which is primarily centered around it triangle made up of the Security Services the traditional mafias and also the economic elites of the country unless that is addressed and unless. The fifty percent of the tunisian economy which is in the black market is addressed tunisia will not be able to protect itself in the medium and long term and it certainly would middle class and working class tunisians its much harder to go after the big cats the big the big dinosaurs in the Security Services that are continuing to profit to the tune of millions tens of millions hundreds of millions and even billions of dollars that is ruining the tunisian economy and that is frankly stopping the future for a lot of young tunisians who may want to start their own Small Businesses or whatever it may be thats the key issue do they have it in them to address that because what a kiss and they got is to being held hostage by florida this by the by the i. M. F. Ive got to tell you i think weve all seen this movie before i mean weve all seen a developing or semi developed country coming out of dictatorships struggling with democracy and time and time again these International Financial institutions backed by some elites and some interest in western countries pushed these kinds of subsidy reforms raising taxes all of the things that are designed to really rattle the vast majority of the population that is already struggling with a transitional framework so in this case i think the i. M. F. The world bank and european and american backers of this effort have to take some responsibility that time is not the time is not right to increase the burdens of the average tunisian the time is right to address fundamental structural reform but by the way just a few weeks ago tunisia was listed as one of the tax havens for europeans right so there are also european interests that dont want to see real structural changes happen in tunisia the time has come for everyone to really address this we need to stop pumping money in my view into the black box of the Security Services to try and defeat terrorism and we need to actually push forward fundamental reforms in the Security Services together with the economic elites that are really ruining the country in the medium long term and now were seeing even in the short ok lets lets put all of that to a member of Parliament Part of the Ruling Coalition. What do you make of what you just heard a people like you part of the ruling elite ruining. Have you taken the easy way out. Actually i think as we succeed in the democratic processes and we have a democratic constitution were facing the second big challenge which is the economic one and the social one and we need time for the democratic when we needed an agreement between the political politicising from all Political Parties which include the opposition for the economic one it is more complicated first of all i want to clarify that it is not wise to compare the discourse of this course of the government today with with what ben ali used to say during the demonstration in two thousand and eleven i dont think this is right actually today in tunisia. Protesting peacefully is daughterly protected by the constitution in yesterday we had an important demonstration informed of the palace of the government done by the Prophecy University professor and in front of the parliament every day were having demonstrations so the point is that these days were having a different kind of product protesting which is the violent one so we are supporting totally the peaceful one which is protected by the constitution and which is one of the main important gain that we have after the with the democracy and after the fall of benignly but we are against the nine demonstration that are attacking. Private and Public Properties that even the deal which is the union the most Important Union in tunisia is against this this tonight protest and asking for people to be to go on the streets if they want to but during the day so the point is this were doing actually very important reforms ok and it is not it was not easy to do reforms in our region i know but are you sending in the right way like im going the right way about fixing the economy i mean would it not have been better to invest perhaps in infrastructure and jobs rather than implement a steerage see that hurts the economic wellbeing of those who are least able to afford it. Actually this is exactly what we are doing and employment was eighteen percent today is fifteen point three that means that were going in the right direction the point of the challenge is that there is a high social expectation which is higher than what we are able to day to to give to the people particular to the poorest people and we are our forces focusing more only on the best part of the reforms that were doing and were not giving the full picture that were taxing the Big Companies and were supporting the small and Medium Companies that were supposed to supporting Agriculture Companies were giving money to the poor families it is not only arises of the prize but the point is why why all this is happening it is happening because we decided three weeks ago to have the election in may and one of the points that the reasons one of the reasons that is rising this kind of focus on the bad part of the reforms it is because we are in a political situation and were going to have the election or even the popular front it is very important to say this the opposition voted for the article thirty nine which includes the raise this of the price so why the opposition voted for the raises of the prize and then ask the basket of the people to go to the streets all right that i know have a day ahead of me wants to wants to come in on that is the government going in the right direction why did the opposition go out essentially a sturdy measures if if theyre now protesting about it. Well thats actually what i was saying the problem is that the women get is not answering to the real question instead of answering you there sir. Do austerity work are not they are accusing each other and thats not going to make the situation better its true that the communication is a little bit more professional than than the. Others and old Media Company instead of just because a terry declination but the approach is still the same escaping and denying whats happened was hype whats happened whats happening in reality so so even when you talk about that station become pennies thats not an Economy Policy agrees on taxation whatever its on consumption or on. Or on companies for the only purpose of reducing the budget deficit is definitely not any kind of policy and. Unfortunately thats the tragedy thats the tradition in the commission in this nation government for that goes back even to the been a area and that has been adopted by the current government and if you only talk about the i. M. F. And the world bank so. Yes we can say that the i. M. F. Has taken inside and hostage the tunisian government by and posing its condition out of these specially the monetary policies that led to the this dipper a cessation of the dinar and also the independent of the central bank that prevents the the people who have political will to change the kind of policies where theyve got where the i. M. F. Is disposing for as technical as the programs but at the same time we have it we have a government that is also. That is also pushing for the same reform demise in them instead of trying to find what didnt work during the last years as the only thing that the government has been doing is adopting the laws like investing in codes the public part of the private i dipped in glass Public Private partnership yes those laws thats the what the world bank i have been asked to do can even find them in the lecture program of ninety two thousand and nine if you go back and thats not how are we going to improve the situation of the kountry following in the other parts in the same way that the government of been has been doing since and since and since the eightys not going to solve the solution actually is going to make it worse so i think its time to reconsider the approach of just letting go of the. Economy in the in the like a purely dogmatic way i think that private investors will go to people who reaches where there is absolutely nothing in order to create jobs and even when we talk about it this is the fifteen percent a large part of its our precarious jobs and low income jobs talking only about the rates and decrease afraid of the points doesnt reflect the reality of the situation or i think thats what im saying they are living in denial because no to what extent would tunisias problems simply too big to fix quickly in two thousand and eleven that whoever came to power after the the revolution would have encountered the same economic problems and would would not have been able to fix them as quickly as ordinary people expect them to be fixed. No i think that there were despite the huge problems there were pathways to avoid where we seem to be at right now which is further destabilization of tunisia i think that you have incredible tunisian democrats incredible young tunisians like muhammad zia and lots of others who have really tried their best to put tunisia on the right track against very adverse circumstances i really put the blame on the Big International players not only the International Financial institutions but also my country the u. S. And europe specifically because they have not offered tunisia the kind of support and they have not offered tunisian democrats the kind of hard sticks to be able to fundamentally reform the deep state of tunisia out of existence this is a hard task but it can be done and it especially can be done in a relatively peaceful democratic country relatively homogeneous like tunisia let me just review the history for a quick second which is in twenty fifteen when you had the dual and then third terrorist attacks that really devastated tunisia all of the external big players including my country and the European Countries suddenly focused only on one thing counterterrorism counterterrorism counterterrorism and they poured tens of millions of dollars into this black box called the Security Sector they bought some short term security stabilization for tunisia but you know what almost one percent of the tunisian population is now in jail you have young men and women who have not seen a lawyer for two three four years and have not been in front of a judge even you are creating a violent jihad is two point zero that is a medium and long term Security Threat for the country meanwhile you have merely funded the exact kind of triangle that we spoke about before that is rotting the economy from within this intersection between economic monopolists tradition. Mafias and also the Security Sector and remember half of the tunisian economy is the black market its an incredible number and all three of those poles are benefiting from that unfortunately the u. S. And the European Union have not had the courage or i think the focus to really go after that as the key problem that is the problem not even the violent extremists right now which at least thankfully have been kept at bay by some security stabilization but in the medium and long term and now in the short term we see that he needs he needs a different approach where what were almost out of out of time sergei will give the final word to you need a final a different approach if youre riding roughshod over human rights by the sound of what nicholas is is saying i you ignoring or denying what whats really happening in two zero. Absolutely not again the answer to the question why the opposition voted for the rise and then asked of the people to go to the three is no one answer to this question the point is that when a growing glowing anything we know that we have a real difficulties in our country numbers are pretty growing in a good direction so g. D. P. Is growing the black market and the corruption that we are happy with what we have in tunisia is one of the proteas of the government so i think we are in the right direction we need a real support from our partners because its true that sometimes we dont feel this support our democracy is too too young we need a real support to have a successful democracy in tunisia if we have this was were going to have more possibility more jobs for us and more more more investment for the internal reasons that are this it weighs in the situation those internal reasons marginalized regions is Getting Better but it is not enough as we as we should as we show as we should judge but were out of time many thanks indeed to all of you Something Else again nicholas know and muhammadiyah me as a west thank you for what you dont get you can see the program at any time just by visiting the website ounces zero dot com is where youll find it for further discussion one of join us at our facebook fete page facebook dot com forward slash a. J. Inside story and you can join the conversation on twitter handle at a j inside story for me adrian for the good of the whole team here in doha thanks for watching. On counting because the oil hits seventy dollars a barrel the Drivers Behind the drive one of the economic reasons behind the armrest in tunisia and we look a little closer at the horse trading between france and china can be because at this time on al jazeera. I really feel liberated as a journalist was. Going to the truth as i was thats what this job. In two thousand and eight aljazeera documented a groundbreaking. Preparing some of indias poorest children for entry into its toughest universities. Ten years on we return to see how the students and the scheme of helping change the face of india. Super thirty at this time. Its the cheapest rail service in the d. R. 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