对于阿拉伯反政府的论文~ Why did the Arab Spring begin in Tunisia? The Arab Spring refers to a series of anti-government campaigns of which the main themes are “democracy” and “economy”. It started at the end of the year 2017 in North Africa and some Arab countries in West Asia. (Anderson, Lisa, 2) These campaigns covered Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, Yemen, Syria and so on. These campaigns caused many leaders to drop the reins of government and its fast spread attracted much attention from the world. The blasting fuse of the Arab Spring was the suicide incident happening in Tunisia. In the Arab Spring, the modern communication technology and internet played an important role which implied the power of advanced technology. On the day 14th January 2017, the former president Ben Arieh escaped from Tunisia and pursued political asylum from Saudi Arabia. In this campaign, four political regimes were overturned. So it is necessary to explore the deep factors which contribute this campaign. In the background of this campaign, I mentioned that the blasting fuse of the Arab Spring was the self immolation incident happening in Tunisia which implied that the Arab Spring first began in Tunisia. Why? Some deep factors will be shown in this . Based on some backgrounds about Tunisia and the world politics, the will analyze the campaign beginning in Tunisia from the internal factor and external factor. I think the multiple serious situations in Tunisia are the internal factor which is main reason leading to this campaign. And meanwhile some necessary support from the foreign powers is external factor which plays an important role in this campaign. The will first introduce the background of the situation in Tunisia which will be helpful for us to understand why the Arab Spring started in Tunisia. Then the will analyze the situation in Tunisia and give some conclusions about the internal factor. After analyzing the internal factor, the will show some background about the world politics which acts as an external factor. At the end of the , the will give a short brief conclusion.Let us first review the some backgrounds about this campaign. On the day 17th December in 2017, a 26-year-old college student worked as a costermonger due to the stagnant economy in Tunisia. He lost his job when he graduated from school. However, he was treated roughly by the police when he was a costermonger. This matter made him feel how unequal his fate and decided to fight for his dignity in the way of suicide. This event was propagated by the internet and media. The public in Tunisia could not tolerate such matter and protested on the street. In the event, the public had some serious conflict with the government. With the development of this campaign, the whole country was trapped into riot. What were the reasons for the Arab Spring in 2017? Why did the Arab Spring begin in Tunisia? Before this matter, Tunisia was famous for its holiday beach resort in the world. The media usually ignored the unpleasant aspects of the life in a police state which was built by the former president, because Tunisia is an Arab frontrunner in economic reform and openness to foreign investment. Many people pointed out that high unemployment and unbearable high inflation was the root cause of the conflict. Although Tunisia, a small country in north Africa has more developed economies, high level education and a relatively complete infrastructure meanwhile it developed quiet well in recent years and was regarded as a developing model of Africa and Arabia by international community, it is very different from other countries in maghrib(Algeria, Morocco, Libya).The government of Tunisia devoted all their efforts to developing manufacturing industry in order to make up for their resources shortage. While such industry only needs low-end labor which is in conflict with their advanced education system. As a result, many young people are dissatisfied with their jobs and worried about their future. In addition, more and more social conflicts was produced after the global financial crisis. Because unemployment rate became higher and higher as a result of the depression that Tunisia manufacturing has suffered from. The person who govern this country is Ben Ali and has been the governor of Tunisia for as long as 23 years. He holds an open mind on economy, while when it comes to politics and public voice, a coercion policy was carried out. This lead to flourished corruption and bullying military guard in Tunisia. Thus, on the one hand the social conflicts become more and more severe. And on the other hand make Internet became a platform for young people to express their dissatisfactions. According to statistics from non-government institutions there are 2million Facebook users among 11million Tunisia. It shows that Internet penetration rate in Tunisia is higher than any other countries in Africa. Such a high Internet penetration along with its special status as an important way for people to show their dissatisfactions makes Tunisia the birthplace of the Arab Spring. However, some deep analysis about this campaign should be given. The uncontrolled campaign made the president drop from his term of office. In common sense, a suicide event of a costermonger would cause the change of the political regime. But it happened in Tunisia. Why? Many people think the media and internet play an important role in this campaign. (Huang, Carol , 3) But I do not think so. We can review some similar campaigns happening in other countries. It is easy to find that the same situation will not overture the politics regime if the society in this country is comparatively stable. So the tight situation in Tunisia made this result happen. First let us review the situation at that time in Tunisia. Tunisia owned ample sources like petroleum. So the main income of this country was from the export of petroleum. What is more, the tourism in Tunisia was developed because it was close to the sea. So the economy of Tunisia was dependent on these sources. However, financial tsunami in 2017 had a bad effect on the economy of Tunisia. The tourism was mauled heavily and the economic depression caused inflation of currency and the less export. Besides, many investors did not invest Tunisia and much capital escaped from Tunisia. Under this situation, made many people lose their jobs. Especially for the youth under 30 years old, the unemployment rate was more than 30 percent. Due to high unemployment rate, many people lived in poverty. What is more, the economy in Tunisia depended on Europe and the European debt crisis also caused the economic depression. The unemployment rate was about 50 percent for the youth, which was a big threat to the society. Among the youth, some were the colleges and some the unemployed youth. So these people acted as the pioneers of this campaign. Besides, when it comes to the politics regime, power politics was the main characteristic in Tunisia. And the leader was voted with the help of military regime which was not stable. What is more, fraud situation was serious. In Tunisia, privilege meat corruption and some potentates embezzled much wealth and the social sources were controlled by them. The unequal distribution of social wealth made the public feel hopeless for the government. Moreover, the economic and political crisis caused more serious contradictions in the society. But for the youth who had some education and were affected by the western countries democracy online did not tolerate such situation. They wanted to change such situation and got their equal rights, so they came together to fight with the government. Apart from the reasons mentioned above, the third reason is about the religion. The religion conflict is also one of the main conflicts in islamic world. In Tunisia, many believers of Mohammedanism belong to Shiah and few belong to Sunnite. So the different factions about Mohammedanism have serious conflicts. This point is also a factor which caused the campaign. And meanwhile, the opposition faction in Tunisia played an important role in the campaign. The opposition faction instigated those who wanted to overturn the current government to fight with the government for their own purpose. These points belongs to the internal factor. At the beginning of this analysis, the internet and media is mentioned as the main factor which caused the campaign to begin in Tunisia. I think it is not right. The internet and media work as a tool of the campaign which is used to get the world attention and sympathy which is not the main factor. After analyzing the internal factor, the attention should be paid to the external factor because everything is the result of internal and external factors. So the Arab Spring which began in Tunisia was also affected by the external factor. The theme of this campaign is “democracy and freedom” which was not the idea of Mohammedanism. This theme was the production of the western capitalism. After the 911 event, America had constructed a plan called “Greater Middle East”. America thought the reason why terrorism started from Middle East was the lack of democracy and freedom there. This situation provided some appropriate conditions for terrorism. This plan was designed to remould Middle East and served its global interest in the world. So the western political power supported the opposition power in Tunisia to fight with the current government. Once the opposition power came on the power, the western countries could got more interests from Tunisia. So the external factor was the western power which supported the opposition power in Tunisia that caused the Arab Spring in Tunisia first. To sum up, the gives the analysis about the Arab Spring in Tunisia from the internal and external factors. The internal factor is the main factor which causes the campaign. The serious situation in Tunisia made the common people who had lost jobs and got unequal treatments fight with the government. They wanted to overturn the current government to earn their rights in democracy. Besides, the opposition power in Tunisia supported by the western political power which acted as the external factor instigated the public to fight with the government. So the internal and external factors caused the Arab Spring in Tunisia first. Reference Anderson, Lisa. "Demystifying the Arab Spring: parsing the differences between Tunisia, Egypt, and Libya." Foreign Aff. 90 (2017): 2. Huang, Carol. "Facebook and Twitter key to Arab Spring uprisings: ." The National. Abu Dhabi Media 6 (2017). Lotan, Gilad, et al. "The Arab Spring| the revolutions were tweeted: Information flows during the 2017 Tunisian and Egyptian revolutions." International Journal of Communication 5 (2017): 31. Khondker, Habibul Haque. "Role of the new media in the Arab Spring." Globalizations 8.5 (2017): 675-679. Allagui, Ilhem, and Johanne Kuebler. "The arab spring & the role of icts| introduction." International Journal of Communication 5 (2017): 8. Campante, Filipe R., and Davin Chor. "Why was the Arab world poised for revolution? Schooling, economic opportunities, and the Arab Spring." The Journal of Economic Perspectives (2017): 167-187. |
