Bin Ali rules forever

Tunisian President Zeinel-Abidine Bin Ali is slated to win a sweeping fourth term presidency during the country's fourth presidential election ever since Tunisia won its independence from colonial France in 1957.

An army general who was appointed Prime Minister under deposed president Habib Bourguiba, Bin Ali took over the rule in 1987 in a bloodless coup. Since then, he has been boasting about the supposedly unprecedented levels of modernization that his state has reached.

As an evidence to modernization and as a tribute to the father who salvaged Tunisia from its previous dictator who ruled for 30 years, Bin Ali's Party - the Constitutional Democratic Rally (CDR) - sponsored a referendum to amend the nation's constitution.

Under the old constitution, no Tunisian was allowed to win more than three presidential terms. The constitution also stipulated that the age of a presidential candidate should be less than 65 years.

More than ninety-nine percent of the 10 million Tunisian population voted in favor of scrapping the two articles that once restricted the number of presidential terms and the age of the candidate.

This done, the ruling party pleaded that Bin Ali "accept" to run for a fourth five-year term. In a CDR-sponsored conference called the Conference of Hope held in Tunis between July 28 and 31, Bin Ali stood before a huge audience and said "yes." Bin Ali's acceptance prompted public and non-governmental institutions to bombard the presidential palace with letters of thanks to their president who accepted to renew his rule.

According to the Tunisian press on which front pages Bin Ali features every day, the omnipotent president has displayed a prudent vision. Notwithstanding corruption in the state's bureaucracy, reported violations of human rights, censorship of press and media, problems of deforestation and shortage in water resources, Tunisians still gave their president a 99.5 percent vote of confidence.

The Tunisian government, and more precisely Bin Ali's entourage, also makes sure that the Arab press adequately covers achievements of the Tunisian president while leading his country over the past one and a half decades.

In Beirut, reputable newspapers styling themselves as pan-Arab ran - over a span of a few days - columns of presumably news coverage from Tunisia. In these prepaid press releases so-called news coverage, articles praised the level of modernity that Tunisia has reached.

Tunisia, under the rule of Bin Ali, witnessed the improvement of the rights of women and children. "Women even became judges," reported a Lebanese newspaper. The newspaper, however, failed to report the insurmountable amount of political intervention in the Tunisia judiciary that has constantly failed to stop arbitrary arrests of political activists who have been jailed without trial according to reports from amnesty international.

During the days of Bin Ali, unemployment reached as far down a rate as 15 percent. The rate of people living under poverty stood at 10 percent. The Tunisian Dinar lost some of its value facing an already devaluated American dollar. This economic performance was so commendable that made Tunisia insist that their president run for a fourth term in October. What would be the results of the election poll? People should either take a wild guess or should wait and see.