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The transition from soft dictatorship to Banana Republic. The nation decays once more.
The above description of Tunisia - a nation meta-morphing from a stable and mildly prosperous soft authoritarian state to a supercilious Banana Republic - is credited to two French journalists who recently wrote an expose - naturally banned in Tunisia - on the first lady Leila Ben Ali and her Trebelsi family.
This is a family that knows no low, no respect for the rights of others and no regard for the future of Tunisia in its mafia efforts to monopolize the economy into their hands. And in the process undermine an already delicate middle class as their efforts undermine the competition, private property and the free market.
The exploits are too numerous to recount here in detail, but a few will illustrate their moral depravity and in audacity in theft.
A few years back two nephews of Leila - Imad and Moez Trebelsi - stole yachts from the French Rivera and the island of Corsica. French authorities were able to track down the yachts to Tunisian ports and one of the yachts, several million dollars worth, belonged to a wealthy French investor who is friends with French president Sarkozy. The Trebelsi family - as always - worked to create a shield around its own. It took nothing less than the French president to make a personal appeal to the Tunisian president Ben Ali - who is not enamored with the nature of the Trabelsis - to get back the yachts. This is a family that already has stolen funds and, yet, they still resort to such theft. Imagine a ruling elite which steals yachts. This is the depravity of this family and they have no boundaries. If they will risk stealing yachts, imagine what they will do in Tunisia where they can engage in daylight theft with impunity.
Here is one illustration: A prominent Tunisian businessman recently was confronted by the secret police working at the behest of the Trabelsis and their cronies. A member of the Trabelsi family wanted to takeover the industry that had made the businessman in question, Foued Cheman (textile firm), a millionaire and Cheman naturally refused to allow the company his father had created by taken over by Trebelsi thugs who wanted another source of revenue. This is when he started to get harassed and his firm was accused of tax evasion and fined millions. That was not all. This time secret police knocked on his door in his home overlooking the Mediterranean in the exclusive and beautiful hills of Sidi Bou Said. The daughter of Laile wanted to buy the house and the police advised him that he better sell or else. Being threatened with the insolvency of his firm and the loss of his house, Cheman took his family and sought exile in the United States. But not before - God bless - getting back at the Trabelsis. Before leaving, he sold his home to the new Iraqi ambassador to Tunisia with blessing from the American government and the Iraqi ambassador - backed by the United States - is not going to be harassed by the Trabelsi goons.
This is a family which will stop at nothing. And it is not about petty theft here and there, but about a culmination of theft - including from the public treasury - which is imposing burdens on the economic growth of the nation and on the Tunisian people.
Considering the recent law which will raise the retirement age by five years eventually based on the grounds that the nation's pension fund is in deficit. But extending the working years of the elderly when official unemployment hovers near 15% and unofficially may be several points higher does not make sense. But the government does it anyway. Why?:
In a country like Tunisia, where unemployment is 14.1%, one wonders why we would to force the elderly to continue working instead of having them retire and giving their jobs to the young people. The explanation is easy: the government – and by “government”, I mean the people in the government, particularly those who divert money into their own pockets – has been borrowing money from these social funds for various projects and thus does not have the money to pay retirees. Most of the projects, just like most of the Tunisian government, suffers from a high degree of corruption, which is to say at every level someone is skimming money off the project’s funding. So, instead of being offered their due retirement, the average elderly person is being forced to work to continue filling the pockets of these corrupt officials and these corrupt politicians. Had this money been spent for its original purpose, i.e., on pensions, the elderly would be retired and unemployment would be nearer 10%. Had all the other money filling the pockets of Ben Ali, Leila, their families and their cohort, unemployment would likely be nearer 5-6%. But what does a difference of 9% really mean in a small country like Tunisia, which has 10,328,000 inhabitants? 9% is only 929,520 people who would have jobs.
God have mercy on the Trabelsis.
