Citizens hopeful as new Tunisian government forms

Tunis, Tunisia (CNN) -- As Tunisians adjust to a new government following the ouster of their longtime president, some say they are cautiously optimistic about the future -- and freedoms -- of Tunisians.

"My mom and sister were crying on the phone because they heard gunshots," said Selma Beji, recalling last week's unrest. But by Tuesday morning, her family -- who live in the northern suburbs of the capital Tunis -- reported that the situation was relatively calm.

"We were like, this is going to die off," said Beji, a native of Tunisia now pursuing her MBA in the United States. But she said she was amazed the protests -- carried largely by young adults and social media -- led to such change.

"Facebook was the drive of this revolution. Everybody was on Facebook," she said. "If these protests started 5 years ago, they would have died."

On Monday, Tunisian opposition leaders joined the current ruling party in a new government to replace Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, who fled to Saudi Arabia last week after ruling the country for 23 years.
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Ben Ali's departure followed weeks of protests over what Tunisians said were poor living conditions, high unemployment, government corruption and repression.

Al Kallel, a Tunisian native living in California, and a group of Tunisian friends held up signs at Facebook's headquarters in Palo Alto, California, on Saturday to "thank Facebook for enabling our nation (both inside and outside the country) to freely share their opinion online, bridging our way to democracy."

Kallel said when he lived in Tunisia, residents didn't have access to Facebook.

"You can't pass info around without being censored," Kallel told CNN's iReport.

The unrest was triggered by the December suicide of Mohamed Bouazizi, an unemployed college graduate who set himself ablaze after police confiscated the fruit cart that was his source of income.

And recent diplomatic cables from the U.S. Embassy in Tunisia, disclosed by the WikiLeaks website, revealed growing discontent with what Tunisians believed was widespread corruption and nepotism within Ben Ali's government.

The new government will be led by current Prime Minister Mohamed Ghannouchi, who took charge of the North African country when Ben Ali fled.

Ghannouchi's 19-member Cabinet will include three opposition leaders and 10 independents, he announced Monday. The new government will be tasked with leading Tunisia toward new elections, he said.

Beji said she was somewhat disappointed because "many of them are from the old government."

"There are a couple of oppositionists, but honestly, in Tunisia, it's known that the opposition is with the government," she said.

The new government includes opposition leaders Mustafa Ben Jaafar, who will serve as health minister; Ahmad Ibrahim, education minister; and Ahmad Najib Al Shabi, minister of local development. Among the holdovers is Ahmad Friaa, the interior minister.

Friaa, speaking on state TV, said 78 people have died in the clashes across several weeks, and 94 have been injured, among them many police officers. He urged people to stop riots and to work with police. Friaa vowed that those who should be held responsible for mistakes of the past will be punished.
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He also said the cost of the turmoil of recent weeks is 3 billion Tunisian dinars (about $2 billion).

Friaa ended his speech saying, "Yes for democracy, yes freedom, no for chaos."

On Monday, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called for a return to stability "as soon as possible."

Speaking in Abu Dhabi, Ban told reporters the new government should protect human rights and guarantee freedom of speech and association. But he said he remained "extremely concerned" about the ongoing clashes in the streets. On Monday, police fired tear gas into crowds of demonstrators in Tunis.

Over the weekend, Tunisia's army clashed with armed gangs and remnants of Ben Ali's personal guard. Police have arrested looters and as many as two dozen of the ousted president's relatives since Friday.

Experts say the kinds of protests seen in Tunisia could inspire similar actions, particularly by unemployed young people, in other Arab nations.

And more cases of men setting themselves on fire have been reported in Algeria, Egypt and Mauritania.

Fawaz Gerges, professor of international relations at the London School of Economics, said Algeria may be the most perilous country not only because it neighbors Tunisia, "but the conditions in Algeria resemble those of Tunisia," he said.

Beji said some of her friends in Tunisia who have college degrees are unemployed.

"I'm very optimistic about that after this," she said of Tunisia's employment situation. "I think more investors are going to start coming into the country. The country has a lot of potential."

Already, filters on websites such as YouTube -- put in place under Ben Ali -- were dropped, and Internet speed picked up considerably -- a development that followed the new government's vow to ease restrictions on freedoms.

Beji said she hopes the next president will support freedoms for Tunisians -- especially after what regular citizens showed what they are capable of.

"I think the next president is going to be scared. The revolution happened with no arms, no guns, no nothing -- just people on the streets," she said. "I think the next president would be a little worried if he didn't give us freedom of any kind."


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