"Tunisia, with its highly educated population and vibrant civil society, had raised the greatest hopes of a successful leap from dictatorship to democracy. Now the disenchantment is palpable"

http://www.smh.com.au/world/uncertainty-prevails-as-protests-echo-chaos-of-arab-spring-20120916-260ey.html

Uncertainty prevails as protests echo chaos of Arab Spring

Ned Parker

"In Tunisia, the first of the Arab states to cast off their longtime ruler, people remained shocked by Friday's assault on the US embassy in Tunis. They blamed their government for not reining in ultraconservative Salafists.

''The government should have interfered with the Salafists long ago but they waited only until it affected American diplomatic relations,'' said Intissar Misrati, a 19-year-old university student.

Tunisia, with its highly educated population and vibrant civil society, had raised the greatest hopes of a successful leap from dictatorship to democracy. Now the disenchantment is palpable as the predictability of autocratic rule has been traded for enigmatic political parties and volatile religious groups."

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/world/uncertainty-prevails-as-protests-echo-chaos-of-arab-spring-20120916-260ey.html#ixzz26dzwEk2m