Tunisian fruit-seller Mohamed Bouazizi burned himself to death one year ago in a catalytic event that gave rise to the Arab revolutions, writes Lassaad Ben Ahmed from Tunis One year after the catalytic event that led to the ousting of Tunisian president Zein Al-Abidine bin Ali last January and encouraged revolutionary movements throughout the Arab world, Tunisian politicians and others have gathered in the central Tunisian city of Sidi Bouzid where 26-year-old Mohamed Bouazizi burned himself to death on 17 December 2010 after his vegetable cart was seized by the authorities. The visitors included newly appointed Tunisian President Moncef Marzouki, a long-term opponent of former president Bin Ali, and the new Tunisian Prime Minister Hamadi Jebali, together with representatives of other political parties and civil-society organisations. According to a poll published at the beginning of this month, nearly one year after Bin Ali's flight from the country in January more than 90 per cent of Tunisians are optimistic about the course their country is taking, despite problems related to continuing unemployment, strikes and unresolved social demands. Many think that when the new government takes up its functions in earnest in the new year, the country will begin to put its problems behind it, particularly in the economic domain. According to Marzouki, various international partners have come forward with offers of help in investment and job creation, though many of these have been waiting for the situation to stabilise before following through on their offers of aid. Marzouki has appealed to Tunisians to observe a social "truce" over the next six months to allow the situation in the country to stabilise and to reassure foreign and domestic investors. However, for the time being the strikes and social demands that came in the wake of January's revolution have been continuing, and there have been disturbances in the supply of market essentials, including fuel and foodstuffs. Civil-society organisations have continued to pressure members of the Tunisian constituent assembly that was elected in October, hoping that the assembly's Islamist majority does not now try to impose its version of Islamic law on Tunisia. Protests took place late last month as a result of proposals to cut four days' pay from state employees' salaries in an effort to relieve the pressure on next year's budget. There have also been criticisms of Jebali's reported decision to include 51 ministers in his cabinet and of the size of Marzouki's own salary as president -- reportedly 30 thousand Tunisian dinars a month, or $22,000. In response to the criticisms, Jebali said that he intended to appoint only 32 ministers, together with 16 secretaries of state. The idea of cutting four days' salary had come from the previous government, he said, and the new government would not observe it. For his part, Marzouki declared that he intended to distribute an unspecified proportion of his presidential salary to the poor. Jebali said that the new ministers would also be expected to make contributions from their salaries to public funds. Marzouki has said that he intends to sell all the presidential palaces that were such a feature of Tunisia under the Bin Ali regime, only retaining the Carthage Palace for ceremonial purposes. Funds raised would be ploughed back into the economy for investment purposes, he said. Tunisia's constituent assembly was elected at the end of October with a mandate to draft the country's new constitution. The time that this will take has not been specified, and now that a new president and prime minister have been appointed, next steps include the agreement of a framework within which the assembly is to operate and the passing of the state budget for next year.
