Global Arab Network | Tunisia celebrates 22nd anniversary of the Change

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Tunisia celebrates 22nd anniversary of the Change

Saturday, 07 November 2009 09:33

Tunisian President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali delivers a speech during a ceremony held on Saturday on the occasion of the anniversary. Here follows the full text of the speech:
“In the Name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate
Fellow citizens,

With great pride and enormous joy, our people celebrates today the 22nd anniversary of the Change of November 7, 1987; twenty-two years of hard work and continuous development and construction, offering Tunisian women and men, from all social categories and all regions, the attributes of safety, serenity and decent living, and opening up for them wide prospects for ambition and optimism about the future.

This has been achieved through a balanced political, economic and social progress, with interconnected contents and clear objectives, based on dialogue, participation and consensus.

Today, we are pursuing this process with our people, driven by our commitment to the historic mission we have assumed for their sake, while being proud of their renewed confidence in our policies and choices, and their adherence to our programmes and orientations.

I take this opportunity to extend my thanks and consideration to all the citizens who supported my candidacy, voted for me and responded positively to my Electoral Programme. My thanks are also due to our prestigious party, the Constitutional Democratic Rally, and to all the national opposition parties, organisations and associations.

I am indeed satisfied with, and proud of, the success of the presidential and legislative elections at all stages and at all levels.

These elections were, in fact, held within a context of order, discipline, clarity, transparency and respect for the law, and they were followed by Tunisian and foreign observers.

Through these elections, the Tunisian people have, once again, shown their awareness of their rights and duties, their political and civilisational maturity, and particularly their worthiness of an advanced democratic and pluralist life.

I take this special national occasion to offer my warm congratulations to the members of the Chamber of Deputies who won the confidence of citizens in their respective electoral districts. I will be pleased to visit them soon at the Parliament’s premises to take the constitutional oath before them and before the members of the Chamber of Advisers.

I also wish to congratulate, in this special national ceremony, all those who will be honoured, in a moment, with the November 7th Medal, commending their valuable efforts to anchor and consolidate the foundations of our civilisational project. I also pay tribute to all our national competences and creative people for the generous services they provide to their country.

I wish to extend my congratulations to Pr. Bellachhab Chahbani who has been awarded the “November 7th Prize for Creativity” for this year, commending his efforts to invent a water conservation machine and urging him and all Tunisian researchers to show more excellence and distinction.

We are invariably committed to our pledge for Tunisia, and are keen on defending it and enhancing its prestige, out of faithfulness to the memory of its martyrs and to the different generations of its militants. We are indeed devoted to serving its interests and making new strides toward achieving further glory and prosperity for its people.

Today, our determination to further enrich the process of democracy and pluralism, and to expand the scope of progress and well-being in our country, is as firm and strong as never before. We will forge ahead with this action, drawing support from the confidence of our citizens, adhering to our Programme for the coming five-year term and relying on the intelligence of our sons and daughters and on the capacities and competences in our society, to meet the challenges and win the stakes of the current stage.
May God grant us success!”

The constitutional accession of President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali to the highest executive office, on November 7, 1987, ushered the country into a new era, often referred to as the Change.

Since the first days of the Change, President Ben Ali initiated several major reforms anchoring democracy and enlarging political participation. Reforms did away with "presidency-for-life" and made it easier for Political candidates to compete for the presidency. Electoral reforms also made it possible for the opposition to enter Parliament for the first time, in 1994, and then to garner 20% of the seats during the 1999 and 2004 elections. The same percentage of seats was set aside as a minimum for the minority candidates in municipal councils after the local elections, of 2000.and 2005.

In November 2001, President Ben Ali announced further democratic reforms: constitutional sanction of human rights; creation of a second legislative body to reinforce legislative power, giving the Constitutional council more powers to ascertain the regularity of presidential and legislative elections. All provisions were part of a constitutional reform adopted by popular referendum in May 2002. Tunisia's second legislative chamber, the chambers of advisors, was inaugurated in August 2005.

On November 7, 2007, Tunisian President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali announced, in a major address, a number of measures to promote democracy and human rights.

Since the Change of November 7th, 1987, Tunisia has placed the protection and promotion of human rights at the top of its agenda. Under the leadership of President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, it has taken a host of initiatives to promote human rights, be they political, civil, social, economic or cultural.

Tunisia has given special attention to the protection of civil rights. To this end, it has introduced a series of reforms that provide the legal framework for the preservation and protection of these rights. It also ratified without reservations the 1988 United Nations Convention against Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment.

The 1959 Constitution guarantees freedom of religious faith and worship. The law of May 3, 1998, pertaining to mosques, provides that "individuals and groups are free to exercise their right to worship in mosques," and that "the State guarantees the sanctity of mosques and the respect due to them." The State protects the places of worship of all religions, and safeguards the right of religious minorities to practice their own faiths.

Tunisian legislation prohibits incitement to religious or racial hatred. The educational system, as defined by the Law on Education of July 23, 2002, promotes the values of religious and racial tolerance and gender equality.

Freedom of opinion and expression has been consolidated through a host of measures, including successive reforms into the Press Code (1988, 1993, 2001 and 2006), aimed at further reinforcing public freedoms. The latest amendments abolished the crime of "defamation of the public order" as well as the procedure of "dépôt légal" (legal submission of copies of published material).

The Tunisian media landscape is today open and pluralistic. Access to the Internet, satellite channels and foreign newspapers and magazines is readily available to all Tunisian citizens all over the country.

On May 3, 2001, President Ben Ali exhorted journalists to write on all subjects, indicating that there are no taboo subjects except what is forbidden by law and by the ethics of the journalistic profession. He also stressed the responsibility of the media to help change mindsets, including those of certain officials who "have to get used to accepting criticism".

In October 2004, President Ben Ali affirmed, in Point 21 of his Electoral Program for Tomorrow's Tunisia, his determination to promote and encourage media pluralism, by increasing support to the press of political parties, enlarging forums of dialogue, and enhancing private initiative in the information sector.

On the other hand, President Ben Ali announced, in his speech of November 7, 2005, his decision to enrich the composition of the Higher Communication Council, by including in it, in addition to the competent specialists known in this field, personalities reflecting the diversity of the components of civil society and political actors.

As part of the process of promoting information institutions, President Ben Ali announced, in his speech marking the 20th anniversary of the Change, his decision to make of the Higher Communication Council an institution with its own entity and financial autonomy, and to consolidate the prerogatives of this Council, by making it responsible for following up the performance of media institutions, particularly the audio-visual media, assessing their programs and contents, and submitting suggestions to promote them in a way that meets national choices and orientations, and conforms to the ethics of the journalistic profession and media work.

On November 7, 2007, in a major address, President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali announced a number of measures to promote democracy and human rights.

In an address on January 24, 2008, President Ben Ali announced that this Committee will gain an autonomous status and larger prerogatives , as well as benefiting from a revised composition “in such a way as to strengthen communication between the state and civil society components.”

Freeing private initiative and revitalizing market mechanisms have been part of far reaching structural reform which opened the Tunisian economy to the outside world, diversified productive sectors, and made the economy overall more efficient and more resistant to external shocks.

Since 1987, the GDP growth rate has averaged about 4.5% a year (with a significant acceleration over the past four years) as compared to only 2.4% during the 1982-86 period. The stabilization of the macroeconomic framework and improvement of the overall balances is reflected in the curbing of the inflation rate from more than 8% in 1987 to 2.8% in the year 2003, as well as in the reduction of the balance of payments and the state budget deficits which in turn led to a substantial improvement in the debt parameters.

Moreover, Tunisia is ranked first in North Africa, in the annual report on good governance recently published by the Harvard Kennedy School of Government. The report credits Tunisia with an overall score of 71.5 points out of 100.

Tunisia is credited with excellent scores on the strength of its performance in terms of “human development,” “transparency and rule of law” and the “climate of security”, with scores of 89, 70.5 and 100 points respectively.

Tunisia comes ahead of Algeria (7th), Morocco (12th), Egypt (18th) and Libya (21st).

The third annual report published by the Kennedy School of Governance which is part of Harvard’s school of political sciences, focuses this year on “Strengthening Governance in Africa”.

The rankings were established on the basis of 57 indexes of good governance centred on such determinants as security, transparency, rule of law, participation and human rights, economic stability and human development.

The report stresses the correlation between good governance, on the one hand, and development and security of each country, on the other.

It also points out, that the “best governed African countries are those which are well led, provide their citizens with the best services, hold free and fair elections and are the least corrupt.”

Regarding The 2010 Doing Business Report, Tunisia is ranked 69 overall by the World Bank Group and International Finance Cooperation IFC, after gaining 4 places in comparison with 2008 (73) .

Tunisia has won 70 places overall moving from 143d place to 73d place in terms of protecting investors , it has also gained 2 place in terms of “Trade across Borders”, moving from 42d to 40.

The report indicates that Tunisia eased trade rules by raising the total tax rate for businesses by 3.7 percentage points, through an increase in social security taxes of 0.6 percentage points and an increase of 3.1 percentage points for abandoning accelerated depreciation.

Thanks to the setting up of an electronic one stop shop, Tunisian traders can quickly file all documents required to clear their cargo online; moreover, the system has reduced processing delays by two days.

Tunisia also strengthened investor protections by requiring greater corporate disclosure.

With this improvement, Tunisia remains ahead of MENA region countries including Turkey, Morocco and Algeria. In the Arab world, it is preceded by the Gulf countries and in Africa by South Africa.

The report is based on 10 major indicators including ease of doing business, starting a business, dealing with licenses, employing workers, registering property, getting credit, protecting investors, paying taxes, trading across borders, enforcing contracts, and closing a business.

17 of the 19 economies in the region passed regulatory reforms to create opportunity for domestic entrepreneurs and 131 countries reformed business regulations between June 2008 and May 2009.

The 2009- 2010 World Economic Forum Global Competitiveness Report ranks Tunisia for the third consecutive year, as the most competitive economy in African and in the Maghreb.

The Report ranks Tunisia 40 th in the world before South Africa (45), Jordan (50), Brazil (56), Turkey (61), and the Russian Federation (63).

In the Euro zone, Tunisia does better than Portugal (43rd), Poland (46th), Slovakia (47th), Italy (48th), Hungary (58th), Romania (64th) and Greece (71st).

The report is based on data and surveys involving 12 ‘pillars’ covering, institutions, infrastructure, macro-economic stability, health and primary education, higher education and training, goods market efficiency, market size, labor market efficiency, technological readiness, financial market sophistication, business sophistication, and innovation.

The report writes that Tunisia’s efficient government institutions (15 th) remain its main strength , along with a high level of security (23 th ) and an educational system which ensures a good quality of education (29 th).

In sub-headings, Tunisia ranks 5th in the world in terms of wastefulness of public spending, 7th in terms of quality of math and science education, 8th in agricultural policy costs, 9th in the availability of scientists and engineers and 11th in the protection of minority shareholders’ interests.

The country is also ranked 16th in terms of public trust of politicians and 18th in the world in matters of impartial government decisions.

Tunisia keeps its economy in the right track, thanks to the country's political stability since the Change on November 7, 1987, the climate of confidence, and the liberation of initiatives, Tunisia has been able to take confident and decisive steps towards the openness of its economy and the achievement of social welfare for its citizens.

In this perspective, Tunisia has initiated an important program of multisectoral reforms aimed at laying the foundations for a solid, diversified and competitive economy capable of adapting to the new international environment.

These basic reforms which aim to eliminate the imbalances impeding the deregulation of initiatives, have affected in turn prices, commerce, the tax system, the investment incentive system, the banking sector, the stock market and the capital market as well as the restructuring of public enterprises and the start of a major program of privatization and administrative reform.

At the same time, special attention has been paid to the promotion of human resources through reforms of the educational and vocational training systems, which is likely to fulfill all the necessary conditions for the success of the program of overall upgrading of the economy, to improve productivity and face foreign competition under the best possible conditions.

Perseverance with reforms has enabled Tunisia to make significant gains on the economic as well as the social fronts.

Global Arab Network

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