MENA Experts’ Open Letter to Obama about Tunisia  

 

 

On the eve of President Obama’s meeting with Beji Caid Essebsi, President of Tunisia, at the White House, Sixty Tunisia and MENA region experts sent the following OPEN LETTER to President Obama urging him and his administration to provide much support to Tunisia; the one country undertaking a successful and promising democratic transition in the entire region of the Middle East and North Africa.

 

 

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May 20, 2015

 

Dear Mr. President,

Tunisia celebrated the Jasmine Revolution’s fourth anniversary with the election of President Beji Caid Essebsi, who will be visiting you tomorrow at the White House. This historic Tunisian election is by most accounts the first peaceful and fully democratic transfer of power in the Arab world. However, Tunisia’s political transition has only just begun, and it will take many years to consolidate. Significant challenges remain, especially in the areas of security and the economy.

Two months ago at the Investment and Entrepreneurship conference in Tunisia, you announced that the U.S. will remain a “great friend and partner” of Tunisia as it moves forward to develop “strong and democratic institutions” along its “long and difficult path, as it works to improve the lives of its people.” The U.S. is to be congratulated for moving to increase Economic Support Funds and military assistance to Tunisia from low pre-revolutionary levels to a $134.4 million request for FY 16, but U.S. assistance to Tunisia continues to languish near the bottom half of MENA countries. (Assistance to Tunisia, for example, remains many times below assistance levels to Morocco and Jordan.) Security threats and other uncertainties threaten to undermine Tunisia’s halting economic recovery. While the U.S.’s own security posture has positioned it well to assist Tunisia quickly with aspects of security and counter-terrorism, economic inputs from the U.S. have been nothing less than disappointing.

Tunisia needs bold action from your administration and the U.S. Congress now. Tunisia needs direct economic stimulus. Tunisia needs at least $800 million annually of economic assistance (the administration has requested over $1 billion for Jordan, but the request for Tunisia is less than 14% of that, for a country nearly twice the size.) For FY 2015, there needs to be an urgent supplemental appropriation for Tunisia, for which there is gathering support in Congress. The U.S. should then co-organize an international donor conference in the fall of 2015 to address Tunisia’s short, medium and long-term needs, with the goal of an additional $5 billion annually for three years to address Tunisia’s impending budget shortfalls. This optimal, multilateral approach is much better than leaving Tunisia in the position of looking for quick fixes from single Arab Gulf countries as it approaches the looming budgetary crisis.

In addition, Tunisia needs international assistance to deal with the new wave of hundreds of thousands of refugees coming from Libya, and the previous hundreds of thousands of Libyans whose personal savings and access to capital is quickly running out. Tunisia also needs maritime support to deal with the migration crisis off its eastern coast; Tunisia is only 60 kilometers from Lampedusa and is perfectly positioned to play a much larger role in assisting the entire Mediterranean region in this regard. Tunisia also needs to develop a re-insertion fund to support and attract former fighters returning disillusioned from conflicts in Syria and Libya. The last thing these returning fighters need is social opprobrium and economic exclusion, pushing them back into the hands of terrorist recruiters offering paychecks and support for their families.

Young people across the MENA region increasingly view lack of robust international support for Tunisia and a faltering Tunisian economy that cannot provide sufficient jobs for young people as evidence that that there is no democracy dividend. As Transparency International reports attest, petty and bureaucratic corruption in Tunisia is on the rise amidst economic degradation. To mitigate against these trends and dispel this disillusionment increased economic support funds should be targeted at combating corruption at all levels and strengthening the very democratic institutions that you mentioned in your March remarks. Now, Tunisia is borrowing money simply to pay existing government salaries, hardly a context in which Tunisian can engage in the institutional overhauls necessary to overcome pre-revolutionary habits and corrupt capital flows.

To summarize, the U.S. should:

• Increase ESF to at least $800 million annually for three years, beginning in FY 2015. A May 15 letter from ten U.S. Senators supports a significant but unspecified increase in ESF funds for 2016, and calls on this assistance to be “reliable and consistent” over several years as a part of the nascent U.S.-Tunisia strategic partnership.
• Increase the U.S. contribution to the Tunisian American Enterprise Fund from $60 million to $100 million.
• Increase economic assistance focused on traditional infrastructure like roads, bridges, and other public works to create jobs and directly stimulate economic activity. More importantly, this would send a message to disfavored and insecure interior areas that the miserable conditions there that prompted the revolution will begin to be addressed.
• Increase economic assistance focused on anti-corruption measures and building strong democratic institutions.
• Co-organize an international donor conference with the goal of raising $5 billion annually for three years to support Tunisia’s political and economic transition.
• Provide assistance to Tunisia to provide for African and Middle Eastern conflict refugees, Libyans falling into hard times, and economic migrants from across the African and Asian continents desperate to survive and provide for their families.
• Accelerate the progress towards a Free Trade Agreement before, during and after the June Trade and Investment Framework Agreement (TIFA) meeting. The White House can help with the political aspect of this, and USTR should be urged to raise the FTA negotiations with Tunisia to the highest priority level.
• Find programmatic means and expert assistance to support every aspect of Tunisia’s proposed 14-point economic plan, both in implementation and in assistance to mitigate the social costs of any necessary reforms such as subsidy reform.
• Include in any assistance package increased funds for security and justice sector reform. The perceived lack of democracy dividend in Tunisia (both among Tunisians and neighboring populations) needs to be reversed with significant increases to IMET, FMF, and ESF funds targeted to these areas. Transitional justice and security reforms have to be a primary focus.

Increased turbulence in the Middle East and North Africa only raises the stakes of Tunisia’s success or failure. U.S. policy must reorient away from primarily fighting terrorists allied with armies from less than democratic states and express this new emphasis through bold and dramatic action on Tunisia. This will demonstrate to everyone a renewed U.S. commitment to democracy and democratic dividends. Tunisia’s political, economic, and security needs amount to less than a tenth of a percent of current military expenditures in the region. A unequivocal message to six million young Tunisians, over one and a half million displaced Libyans, and migrants and other populations from across the region will come across loud and clear-a message that the U.S. supports Tunisia and Tunisia-like outcomes, more than just military action, and realizes the increased trade and entrepreneurship-while critical for Tunisia and important for the U.S.-cannot rise to the level of adequately addressing Tunisia’s coming budget crisis and stagnant post-revolutionary economic recovery.

The best antidote to the rise of extremism in the region is not further arming of local factions. It is seeking and encouraging democratic outcomes. This is not always easy in the fog of war and terrorism, but right now Tunisia offers the best democratic example, ever, in the MENA region. We have to show that we care more than all else about elected and accountable governments serving their populations and increasing stability and peace. It is time to invest seriously in the Arab world’s only true democracy. Henry Kissinger recently said that the U.S. needs greater “moral clarity” in its foreign policy globally and to the Middle East region in particular. What better moral clarity could there be than backing Tunisia in its moment of need, the country that is the best hope for the MENA region?

 

Sincerely,

Radwan Masmoudi                                 William Lawrence

President, Center for the Study of               President, American Tunisian

Islam and Democracy                                    Association

 

Stephen Bosworth                                   J. Scott Carpenter

Former U.S. Ambassador to                         Former Deputy Assistant Secretary

Tunisia                                                               for Near Eastern Affairs, State Department

 

John Esposito                                            Graham Fuller

University Professor                                        Former Vice-Chair

Georgetown University                                   National Intelligence Council

 

Charles Butterworth                               Bruce Lawrence

Distinguished Professor Emeritus               Distinguished Professor Emeritus

University of Maryland                                  Duke University

 

Gordon Brown                                           Paul Salem

Former U.S. Chargé d’Affaires,                     Vice President, Middle East Institute

Tunisia

 

Asma Afsaruddin                                      Phillip Breedon

Chairperson of the Board, CSID                   Former Minister Counselor for Public

Indiana University                                           Affairs, U.S. Embassy Tunisia

 

William Zartman                                      Jillian Schwedler

Johns Hopkins University                             Hunter College

 

Afred Stepan                                               Marc Gopin

Columbia University                                       George Mason University

 

Steve Heydemann                                     Mohamed Malouche

Georgetown University                                   Chairman of the Board, Tunisian

American Young Professionals

 

Wayne White                                               Khaled Mattawa

Former Deputy Director                                  Award-winning Libyan writer

State Department INR/NESA

 

James Phippard                                         Gregory White

Former President, American Tunisian         Smith College

Association

 

Tarik Youssef                                              Nate Mason

Silatech                                                               Mason Strategies

 

Najib Ghadbian                                          Waleed Hazbun

Free Syrian Representative to the U.S.        Director of Middle East Studies

American University in Beirut

 

Andrea Khalil                                              David Mednicoff

City University of New York                           Director, Middle East Studies

University of Massachusetts, Amherst

 

Hafed al-Ghwell                                          Anouar Boukhars

Atlantic Council                                                 Carnegie Endowment for

International Peace

 

Aly R. Abouzakouk                                     James Le Sueur

Libyan American Political Affairs                   University of Nebraska

Council

 

Nader Hashemi                                            Arun Kapil

Denver University                                               Catholic University of Paris

 

Tarek Al Baghdadi                                      Jawed Zouari

Libyan Center for Democracy                          Democratic National Committee and

and Human Rights                                             Seattle Central College

 

Ted Swedenberg                                          Abnieszka Paczynska

University of Arkansas                                      George Mason University

 

Jacob Mundy                                                 Elizabeth Bishop

Texas State University                                       Colgate University

 

Hrach Gregorian                                         Reda Oulamine

American University                                           Arab Justice Foundation

 

Monica Marks                                               Mohamed Chtatou

Oxford University                                                Former senior ISESCO official

 

Mona Russell                                                 Daanish Farouki

East Carolina University                                    Duke University

 

Katherine Hoffman                                     Timothy Abdallah Fuson

Northwestern University                                    University of California Berkeley

 

Ed O’brien                                                        David Fredricks

University of the District of Columbia             Former Peace Corps Country

Director

 

Kamal Oudrhiri                                              Sarah Eltantawi

Grove of Hope                                                        Evegreen College

 

Anouar Haddam                                             Timothy Resch

Movement for Liberty and Social Justice         Former Peace Corps Volunteer

Algeria

 

Ashish Sen                                                         Joel Rozen

Journalist                                                                 Princeton University

 

Albert Abertson                                               Rachida Djebel

Independent Consultant                                       Baltimore Museum

Libya Program Manager

 

Bill Aossey                                                         Jose Casanova

Midamar Corporation                                           Berkley Center for Religion, Peace,

and World Affairs, Georgetown

University