The volatile Arab Spring is far from over, according to the audience at the latest New Arab Debate in Tunis, the birthplace of the uprisings which have rocked the region since 2011.
Seventy-two percent of participants, mostly university students and political activists, observing the third anniversary of their uprising, voted against the motion: ‘The Arab Spring is finished’.
Speaking for the motion, Raoudha Ben Othman, a professor of Linguistics at the University of Tunis who ran unsuccessfully for a seat in the country’s Constituent Assembly, said the euphoria over changes in the Arab region had ended.
“We have gained a lot of things but we have to admit that the road to democracy is long and messy,” she said.
“The Arab Spring is finished,” she added “but the {real} revolutions are now on.”
Opposing the motion, Tarek Cheniti, blogger and human rights activist, said the fight for dignity and freedom continues with varying results. But across the board, the seeds for democracy were being planted.
“In Tunisia we have a new constitution that respects freedom of conscience. We have a new body that will prevent torture, a new transitional justice law that will set the tone for democracy and journalists are pushing hard for media freedom. In Morocco, the constitution was changed giving more power to the prime minister,” he said. “We have to celebrate those achievements and build on them.”
Noomane Fehri, a liberal member of the Constituent Assembly echoed that sentiment, saying the majority had shown their taste for compromise and commitment to a political road map.
This, he said, had allowed Tunisia to avoid the fate suffered by Egypt and Syria.
“The consensus under the road map was to draft a new consititution – we bring a new non-partisan government and we convene elections. This is what is happening now.”
A male student disagreed with Ben Othman that the Arab Spring is over. “It is too early to say that… We lived under a dictatorship and we need time to adjust to the situation we are in… We need to adjust to the reality that we are now responsible to ourselves.”
Another woman added: “If the Arab Spring is finished we would not have been able to hold this debate.”
Seven percent of the audience changed their vote during the debate, swinging away from supporting the motion to opposing it. In a vote taken before the start of the debate, 35 percent of the audience supported the motion and 65 percent opposed it.