São Paulo – The participants in a panel on North Africa, held this Friday (27th) in Davos, Switzerland, during the World Economic Forum, were unanimous in saying that the main challenge facing the region is unemployment and that the new regimes which arose out of the Arab Spring will need to show results quickly.
The new prime minister of Tunisia, Hammadi Jebali, informed, according to a statement issued by the Forum, that in his country there are 800,000 people unemployed, 200,000 of whom hold university degrees, and each year another 75,000 graduates are sent into the labour market. In Tunisia, 400,000 people are living on less than one euro per day. It is worth noting that the country has approximately 10.5 million inhabitants.
To the debaters, the future of North Africa depends on the establishment of democratic governments, and the end of the rule of traditional political elites. In the elections held recently in Tunisia, Morocco and Egypt, there was clearly a preference for religion-oriented parties.
The new leaders in the region, however, claim that the rise of Islamic parties is not an obstacle to democracy. “There will be no discrimination based on religion, language or gender,” said Jebali, who is affiliated with Al Nahda, a moderate Islamic party.
Along similar lines, the Moroccan prime-minister, Abdelilah Benkirane, stated: “Who cares if these governments are Muslim or not? What matters is that they are democratic.”
The former secretary general of the Arab League and Egyptian presidential candidate, Amr Mussa, claimed that the region has “embraced democracy.” “The question is whether the West will be able to deal with Arab democracy. The West wants democratic elections, but it also wants the elections to be won by whoever favours it,” he said.
Another candidate for the presidency of Egypt, Abdel Moneim Aboul Fotouh, the secretary general of the Egyptian Doctors’ Union, added that the West had no problems supporting totalitarian regimes in the past. “By the way, the West should apologize for having backed these regimes,” he said.
In the Egyptian parliamentary elections, the Muslim Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party was the most voted, followed by the Al-Nour (Light) party, which follows Salafism, an ultraconservative Islamic school of thought. To Mussa, the participation of religious radicals in the election may yield positive results. “It will force them to be more pragmatic,” he said.
Fotouh also said the time has come to respect women’s dignity. Jebali added that “we cannot have an amputee democracy.” “We must take the entire population under consideration. We cannot ignore women,” said the Tunisian, adding that many women were elected for the Parliament, including many from the Al Nahda party.
*Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum
