Tunisia

Lord Purvis of Tweed Excerpts

Wednesday 30th November 2016 Lords Chamber

[Lord Purvis of Tweed (LD)]

On 17 December 2010, a 26 year-old Tunisian street vendor, Mohamed Bouazizi, had his goods and equipment confiscated, as he would not bribe a police officer to allow him to continue trading. When he protested, the police slapped him in the face and humiliated him. He went to the regional governor’s office to complain and was rebuffed. He then doused himself in fuel and set himself alight. He died 18 days later. One of his visitors in hospital was the then President, Ben Ali. Five thousand people participated in his funeral procession and the protests grew and grew, in size and over a wider geographical area in the region. The President and the Government of Tunisia fell, and the same happened in other countries. A simple, self-destructive act—a result of hopelessness and humiliation—stimulated what many refer to as the Arab spring, although many, as we have heard, resent that term.

In the subsequent tumultuous six years, Tunisia has undergone widespread change and, in many respects, resisted the pressures from external neighbours. Libya has descended into bloody internal conflict and continues to remain tense, if relatively peaceful, and the MENA region as a whole is at a turning point. This subject is the focus of an inquiry by the International Relations Committee of this House, on which I serve, looking at the changing of sovereignty and of the power balance in the region. Tunisia, as one example of that, gives us many lessons, and it is the particular focus this evening.

I give credit to my noble friend Lady Suttie for bringing Tunisia—its history and opportunities and the pressures that it faces—to the attention of the House. I congratulate her on her foresight. She could not have known when she tabled this Motion a number of months ago how topical it would be, given the recent Hammamet conference I attended with my noble friend and the noble Baroness, Lady Hodgson, the ongoing trade discussions in Tunisia and the focus of the international community. All credit is due to my noble friend for such forward thinking.

The British Council in Tunisia allowed the noble Baroness, Lady Hodgson, my noble friend and myself to interact with young people in Tunisia, across the Maghreb and the wider region and to have an open dialogue about the pressures and opportunities that the region faces. One contributor at the conference said that only the British Council could bring together a session that included an astrophysicist, an academic, a poet, a textile artist, an economist and a Member of the House of Lords to discuss UK and north Africa issues. But the British Council, as well as the British embassy, is doing sterling work in Tunisia, which I will return to in a moment.

In addition to the work on supporting Tunisia, as my noble friend Lady Suttie mentioned, the All-Party Parliamentary Group on the British Council is also carrying out an inquiry into resilience to radicalisation for young people in the region. As the noble Baroness, Lady Hodgson, mentioned, Tunisia is certainly a victim of radicalisation, but, equally, it can show us signs of how we can combat it. One of the most humbling aspects of discussions I had with Tunisian MPs and young people in Tunisia, including in a round table of the International Relations Committee that we conducted last week, was that they were suffering radicalisation but could offer us examples of how to solve the issue. I hope that the Government will respond positively when the inquiry of the British Council APPG concludes its work. From my meetings with delegations from the Egyptian Parliament this week and from the Iraqi Parliament yesterday, I know that we can look to Tunisia in particular for examples of success in combating radicalisation and violence—examples from which we can learn lessons for the region as a whole.

As has been said, Tunisia has not had an easy five years since the uprising and the revolution. The Government in Tunisia are the seventh since 2011. They are currently led by the 41 year-old Youssef Chahed—we wish him well and we wish the stability of Tunisia well. But there is no question that the political instability, as the noble Lord, Lord Anderson, said, has raised considerable concerns within Tunisia. Protests are ongoing and in a way, to pacify protesters, the Government continue to offer more and more public sector jobs. As my noble friend Lady Suttie said in her comprehensive speech opening this debate, private sector unemployment is still high and public sector employment is extremely high. Public sector finances remain perilous. Combined, that shows that considerable economic pressures face Tunisia. We know that the latest statistics show that 23.5% of women are unemployed. We know that the country has a massive underutilisation of a significant part of its economy. With public sector salaries representing half of all government expenditure, we know that the economic situation in Tunisia is fragile.

That is why, as the noble Lord, Lord Patten, and my noble friend indicated, the decision of the British Government not to change their travel advice, which continues to inflict considerable problems on the tourism industry in Tunisia, warrants proper scrutiny. When we were there very recently, I met a trader in the souk in Hammamet who regretted that there were not more British there. The noble Lord, Lord Patten, mentioned the Russians. The trader regretted that there were more Russians there than British tourists. He had learned English not through schooling but through self-tutoring because of the British tourists there. Our Government should clarify their position and I hope that the travel guidance will be reviewed very soon.

One of the reasons why I admire Tunisia is that, when it has gone to the brink with its political and economic difficulties and there has been political cleavage on sectarian grounds, the leaders have stepped back and realised that peaceful and open dialogue is necessary. The global recognition in the form of the Nobel Prize being awarded to the quartet is absolutely justified.

The UK has a significant role to play. I have been to Tunisia three times this year as well as welcoming many of its MPs to the UK, and I have not met a single Tunisian who does not desire much deeper and closer links with the United Kingdom through trade, culture and political support despite all the different pressures that Tunisia faces, including corruption and lack of economic development. I took part in a Westminster Foundation for Democracy process with the Tunisian parliament’s anti-corruption committee, which recognises that this is an issue that needs to be tackled, and the UK has much to offer in support of that. The opportunities for the UK to support Tunisia are huge, and we must not let the Tunisian people down.

I turn to a final aspect, which more than anything else shows me the reason why we need to do this work. The British Council Facebook page alone has 203,000 likes posted by Tunisian people who have a desire to learn English, compared with the House of Lords Facebook page with 9,000 likes. There is a massive desire among Tunisians to learn to speak English and deepen links with this country. I hope that the Government will respond positively to this debate and bring the same element of foresight shown by my noble friend Lady Suttie in offering support to Tunisia and showing that country a hopeful and optimistic way forward.