Languages over the Web E-governance and Multilingualism in Tunisia

Languages over the Web

E-governance and Multilingualism

in Tunisia

Memoir in fulfillment of the Requirements

for the License in “Business English”

Authors: Amel Cherif

Mohamed Bouagina

Supervisor: Dr.Sayah Chniti

Acknowledgement

We would like to express our deepest gratitude and appreciation to our

Professor, Dr.Sayeh Chniti for her supervision, advices, and guidance

from the very early stage of this research and for sharing her valuable

time and motivation throughout the work.

Amel Cherif and Mohamed Bouagina

Table of Contents

GENERAL INTRODUCTION................................................................................................. 2
I. THE STATE OF LANGUAGES IN TUNISIA. ................................................................. 4

1. Tunisian Dialect .............................................................................................. 4
2. A Special Status for French ............................................................................ 5
3. The Trend Towards Arabization ...................................................................... 6
II. EGOVERNANCE IN TUNISIA........................................................................................ 9
1. Assessing E-Governance: .............................................................................10
2. E-Governance Phases...................................................................................10
III. TUNISIAN MINISTRIES OVER THE WEB ................................................................16
1. Main sections in official websites: ..................................................................16
2. Monolingual, Bilingual or Multilingual ? ................................................................. 17
2.1. Religion is Monolingual .........................................................................20
2.2. Foreign Affairs Foreign Tourists and Foreign Languages .....................21
IV. E-GOVERNANCE IN SOCIAL MEDIA ......................................................................25
1. Ministries on Facebook ..................................................................................25
2. Language(s) Used .........................................................................................29
CONCLUSION .....................................................................................................................31
BIBLIOGRAPHY ..................................................................................................................34

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GENERAL INTRODUCTION

"Language has always been the perfect instrument of empire." Says Antonio de

Nebrija, Granidtica Castellana. Until the eighteenth century Arabic was the

prevailing language in North African Arabic countries but as soon as the first world

war was declared not only were Arab countries colonized but also the Arabic

Language was facing danger.

In 1881 France made Tunisia a protectorate and started to introduce French as

an official language of social and economic affairs . Even after its independence in

1956 the process started by France continued to have its effects on the status of

Arabic as it remained the official language for Tunisians. Some of its effects are still

visible in the Tunisian dialect which has so many borrowed words and expressions

adapted from the French language. This change was not the last change that the

Arabic language witnessed in Tunisia. In the begging of 1990s, the internet became

the ultimate tool for communication , people were communicating via the Internet

not only in its established language English, but also in a many other languages

,leading the world towards globalization and multilingualism. Even under the

former regime, the Tunisian government showed determination to deal with such a

change on the level of language and communication with its citizens. This evolution

raises a large number of questions. What is the state of languages in Tunisian official

spheres after all those changes? How did the Tunisian government cope with the

revolution of internet and globalization? Did ICT with its corollary E-Governance

contribute to enhance the trend towards Arabization started in the 70’s and

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confirmed by successive reforms, or did it open the way for the emergence of new

dominant languages?

This paper will explore these questions through a survey of official websites and

focus on the languages used and the examination of the content that these websites

are providing with the communication channels. To address these multiple issues,

this research is divided into four main sections.

The depict state of languages in Tunisia with a particular focus on the Tunisian

dialect, the status of the French language and the result of Arabization politics in

Tunisia.

The second section is dedicated to the phenomena of E-Governance in Tunisia by

introducing E-governance as a concept and its phases.

The information provided in the first two sections will pave the way to the third

section that will be dealing with the Tunisian Ministries over the web by describing

their main sections, categorizing them and providing some case study.

Eventually both section two and three will lead to section four that is devoted to E-

Governance in social media calling attention of Tunisian ministries on Facebook

which may open the way to major changes not only in the approach to E-

Governance but also in the language(s) used.

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I. THE STATE OF LANGUAGES IN TUNISIA.

The recent controversy about the language(s) used in the discussions of the

Tunisian constituent assembly, reflects the various backgrounds and hence the

variations in languages between Tunisians. The majority of the Constituent assembly

used naturally standard Arabic during the discussions, while others would sometimes

use the Tunisian dialect. A member of the Constituent Assembly however had to

face challenges when she used French words to inquire about a matter during official

debates. Many members objected the use of French arguing that it is opposed to the

“Arab and Muslim identity” of Tunisians (Samti).

1. Tunisian Dialect

According to Dawn Marley, the distinction between “ classical Arabic “ and

“ dialectic Arabic “ is important. He defines the classical Arabic as “ the written,

standardized form “ as it is used for “religion, education, and all official written

functions “ for instance in books, in governmental papers such as the official gazette

of the republic of Tunisia, the constitution …. It is also the main language of culture

and media (1488). He considers the dialectic Arabic as “the non-standardized form “

as it is used for informal and spoken contexts. Something else should be taken into

account is the specificity of the spontaneous speech and the spoken dialect .The

Tunisian dialect is characterized by short utterances, there’s a well calculated

number of words. Another characteristic of dialect is the use of foreign words.

Marwa Graja states that in Tunisian Dialect “the most important keywords are

borrowings from French language “ (24-25).

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The Arabic language in Tunisia which would rather be called the Tunisia Language is

a combination of a number of languages with Arabic as base. In the Tunisian dialect

a lot of French, English, Italian, and German words may be heard. Concerning

foreign languages present in Tunisia, several linguists documented the existence of

French, Italian, and Spanish, which date back to the colonial period (Payne) .

Such a mixture is due to different reasons that are geographical, historical… etc.

Tore Kjeilen affirms that “In terms of languages, Tunisia has the most uniform culture

of all North African countries. Close to each and every one speak Tunisian Arabic , a

great majority have good to excellent conduct of French, which remain an important

culture language, and all across the country, the young learn English too’’ (Kjeilen).

He explains the uniformity that took place over the years through geography. Another

important reason for the language mixture is the absence of geographical boundaries

as in mountains and in desert so the language mixture between cultures and

people living there is high. Another major reason is a historical one.

2. A Special Status for French

For a long time, as being a colony for several civilizations and centuries the

Tunisian culture was opened to a variety of cultural and linguistic influences. “ During

the creation of the French protectorate in 1881, language was a powerful weapon in

the colonial arsenal and a method of oppression as effective and physical force “says

Krista Moore (Moore).What is clear is that Tunisian people are greatly influenced by

the French colonizer more than the Ottomans or the Turkish one. John Battenburg

claims in an article that “after independence in the 1950s and early 1960s, countries

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of the Maghreb especially Tunisia continued to use French as a tool for

modernization and development’’(Battenburg).As we can see from the time of the

French protectorate French was used only by the elite of the society and as a

prestigious communication means for the social upper class. Some researches affirm

that from the second form on, Tunisian children learn the French language

compulsory, so each Tunisian will, at least in theory, speak French, and almost all

official documents, signs, etc., are written in French, in addition to Arabic as well.

According to John Battenburg, “French remains a spoken language among both

expatriates and some of the indigenous elite”. “About half of Tunisia's newspapers

are in French; the French have higher quality content, the Arabic newspapers fall

more into the category of sport and gossip news’’. Although French has been

preserved as a second language, it is in a number of domains such as commerce,

science and technology, media, education and administration. French now is seen

as seen in morocco for instance the language of social and professional success .

3. The Trend Towards Arabization

In the past, preserving the Arabic language was affirmed and declared by “ the

leaders of Arab independence movements “ in order to take back their “ people’s

Arab Islamic cultural identity and to preserve their national unity as a community

speaking one language “ which is Arabic rather than French or English (Daoud10-

11). The political leaders who shared this view encouraged classical Arabic to spread

"out of the mosques and schools into the street" (Maamouri, 57), which increased its

use and enhanced its social function. An absence of Arabic infrastructure, especially

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in education, stunted Arabization in Tunisia, reflecting the government’s lack of

enthusiasm for the process. The government and elite were nearly all French-

educated and the majority of Tunisians lived close to the most francophone areas of

the country, including the northern coasts and especially the capital of Tunis” added

Krista Moore (Languages and Loyalties). So that Tunisia as any Arab country

especially in the Maghreb, adopted the process of Arabization which means tried to

push back French and to replace it by Arabic. Daoud adds that “The chronological

survey reveals that the decision makers have been rather in consistent in promoting

Arabization in Tunisian schools. While it is true that there was a consistent effort to

implement the Arabization process during the 1970s and up to 1982”. “On June 25,

1958, former President Bourguiba declared in a speech at al-Sadiqiyya High School :

Education in the secondary schools will be oriented toward Arabization and the use

of Arabic so that it can serve to teach all the subjects unless necessity and

circumstances force us ,for a limited period, to use French to take advantage of the

possibilities that are available to us until the teacher-training schools provide us with

the necessary staff who will ensure the teaching of all subjects in Arabic. (l'Action,

June26, 1958; Dawed translation from the French)” (Daoud15).

According to Mohamed Daoud Arabization also requires the massive introduction

of a new vocabulary so that Arabic could replace French as a means of expression in

the modern world. However, creating a modern Arabic lexicon proved to be a difficult

and slow process.” Moving to administration in Tunisia, that has not been very rapidly

arabized. According to Daoud, the Arabization of ministries was a “slow process

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since 1989”.the beginning was difficult and in two years, “only three have been totally

arabized” (Daoud) .

This language landscape shows that there is a clear distinction between the

official language and the dialect as well as French, the second language. With the

advent of ICT and their integration in the communication tools of public services,

French appeared as the dominant language, but gradually and with the trend towards

Arabization of both education and administration, standard Arabic became the norm.

In December 1999, the Government hasted the pace by issuing a circular in line

with a law dating back to 1993 according to which foreign language use is banned in

all correspondences with the citizens and the administration was expected to arabize

all its documents before the end of the century (Kuna).

Quite obviously, this forced Arabization of the administration also concerned their

websites, though fortunately foreign languages were not banned. As for Tunisian

dialect, though it has been better integrated in the last decade especially in consumer

related communication, such as advertising, it is deemed to remain an informal way

of communication, and is still banned from any official publication or other form of

communication.

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II. EGOVERNANCE IN TUNISIA

The Evolution of the Information and communications technologies (ICTs) has

paved the way for the emergence of Globalization .Such a phenomena has

increasingly overspread and became one of world’s growing issues and started to put

pressure over governments that had to be responsive to this social change ,

address public concerns and manage public issue efficiently by reestablishing

their use of ICTs and adopting new technological solutions especially the internet .

Therefore, governments adopted new strategies to enhance the delivery of public

goods, services and information to citizens by using the internet, this policy turned

the administration into electronic governance, E-Governance.

UNESCO defines e-governance as the use of the ICT especially the internet by

the different public sectors in order to “improve the Quality of information,

effectiveness, efficiency and service delivery.” (“E-Governance”) The notion of E-

Governance is also associated with a similar notion which is E-Government. E-

Governance and E-Government are considered as two very close terms but the

difference between them lies in the fact that ‘’ e-Government is actually a narrower

discipline dealing with the development of online services to the citizen, more the e

on any particular government service - such as e-tax, e- transportation or E-health’’.

(Sheridean and Riley). For the purpose of this research, the term “e-Government” will

be used to describe the services and information available on the internet, while “e-

Governance” will cover the wider scope of policies and strategies adopted by

governments to enhance the use of ICT in involving citizens in decision making …

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1. Assessing E-Governance:

To assess the performance of governments in terms of e-governance and the

evolution of the official strategy in the field, several phases were described (Backus

4). An international e-business research consultancy firm has defined a model

according to which e-governance goes through 4 stages all of which can be

summarized in the following types of interaction:

-G2C: Government to Citizens

-G2B: Government to Businesses;

-G2E: Government to Employees;

-G2G: Government to Governments;

-C2G: Citizens to Governments. (Gartner)

2. E-Governance Phases

As governments all over the world have been making commitments to E-

Governance, Jeffrey W. Seifert in his Report to Congress has developed that E-

Governance in deed reflects the stages of evolution made up of 4 main phases

(Seifert 9) :

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-Phase 1: Presence

This first stage of E-Government development is characterized by the existence

of a presence over the web. During this first phase, the Internet sites are rather

static in nature and are only meant to provide general information.

-Phase 2: Interaction

This second stage of E-Government development is defined by Internet sites

that provide search capabilities, host forms to download, and provide links to

other related sites. In most instances, this stage enables the public to access to

critical information online, but requires a visit to a government office in order to

complete the task.

-Phase 3: Transaction

The third stage is based on empowering the public to conduct and complete

entire tasks online. The focus of this stage is to build self-service applications

for the public to access online. This is the stage where Oakland County is

currently.

-Phase 4: Transformation or Integration

The fourth is about redefining the delivery of governmental information and

services. This phase relies on robust customer relationship management (CRM)

tools, wireless access devices and new methods of alternative service delivery

capabilities that reshape relationships between citizens, businesses, employees

and governments.

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However, Conforming to the Presidency of the Government Portal (“L’Administration

Electronique en Tunisie”) was made up of five main phases:

- The Preliminary phase ((1980-1999)

The evolution of e-government in Tunisia has led to the emergence premises

since the early eighties, the first projects for the computerization of

administrative processes, and this through the introduction of IT in

administration public. This automation results in the creation of several

applications, such as the applications for:

*Management of administrative affairs of state personnel (INSAF)

*The Budgetary Process of Decision (ADEB)

*Tracking and order management missions abroad (RACHED).

-The first generation of public websites: The Presence phase (2000-2002)

The government openness on the Internet: the information phase is the first

step of development of e-government. The purpose of this phase is to have an

online presence on the internet to exploit this new channel of communication.

The website is in addition to all other channels of information and dissemination

of official information including brochures, telephone call centers, service

centers and fax machines.

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-The second generation of public websites: The interaction phase (2003-2005)

At this stage the organization offers a more personal line of communication with

citizens by implementing an electronic delivery service that uses e-mail, search

engines, downloading forms and specifications online. This is the beginning of a

two-way electronic communication with citizens. We can say that this phase

lays the foundation for the establishment of one-stop service "virtual"

information more personalized.

-Referral to the online services: the transaction phase (2006-2009)

This phase is the extension of the interaction phase. It adds remote procedures

that allow electronic submission of documents and payment online to complete

a transaction and integrates potential of the communication to the processing

information. We can manage the full cycle of a transaction from data collection

through processing until it is archived. (Online registration, paying bills online,

starting a business online, Madania 2 …)

-The integrated administrative services in 2009 “The integration phase”:

Projects of the integration phase are related to the implementation of an

organizational network structure and the strategic use of information

technology. Service integration is full integration of its electronic services in

various service organizations on a single portal. The citizen may then benefit

from a single point of entry to a service request that requires the collaboration of

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several organizations. (The project of connected government framework, the

single bundle, electronic filing tax ...).

According to the results from the 2010 survey conducted by the United Nations

(UN) (“Tunisie : Leader africain de la e-governance”) Tunisia has been ranked , by

the index of the United Nations on the "E-Government", the first in Africa and 66th

in the world out of 192 countries listed gaining 58 places compared to 2009 where it

ranked 124th .

Entitled "2010 UN Global E-Government readiness survey" this index assesses

the degree of application of information technology and communication (ICT) by

government in order to improve their services.

The UN index is based on several criteria related primarily to the extent of use of

the Internet, telecommunications infrastructure and human resources. In Africa,

Tunisia is better than South Africa (97th), Mauritius (77th) and Zambia (143 th). In the

Arab and Maghreb, it ahead of several countries such as Oman (82nd), Egypt (86th),

Lebanon (93 th), Libya (114th), Morocco (126 th), the Algeria (131 th) Syria (133 th),

Mauritania (157 th) and Yemen (164th).Another performance on the assets of

Tunisia, the same index shows that Tunisia is ranked better than China (72 th).

The development of e-government services in Tunisia, in the era of the Information

Society, is a strategic issue in that it aims to improve the functioning of public

services and their interactions with citizens.

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Thus Tunisia citizens benefit of many services via internet, according to the

Tunisia government portal (‘’ Services for citizens”) these services are categorized

into:

-Social Services:

Paying Social insurance and loans.

-Employment services:

Looking for Jobs abroad, online registration for employment services.

-Health services:

Paying Public hospitals charges, and health insurance.

-Transport services:

Buying Tickets online.

-Judicial services:

Follow-up of court cases, Follow-up of complaints and Certificates extraction.

Making an on-line declaration of welfare costs.

-Municipal affairs:

To establish the legal status of one’s company.

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III. TUNISIAN MINISTRIES OVER THE WEB

The number of ministries in Tunisia has been changing rapidly under the newly

elected government. However, the official “Tunisian government portal” still counts 27

Ministries only 23 of which have official websites. (“Ministries”) An overview of the

Ministries official websites shows that they have a nearly common layout.

1. Main sections in official websites:

The surveyed official websites seem to follow some given standard according to

which they all include seven main parts.

a- The Home page:

The home guideline serves as welcome page which tells the user about the latest

news, recent articles about the ministry activities and services .It includes also the

other main guidelines and sub-sections.

b- The office :

It gives the users information about the organization of the ministry, its history, and

how its office is composed and run.

c- Projects and programs:

This section provides information about the projects and the programs such as the

main events organized the trainings offered, recruitment opportunities. The programs

and projects differ from one another according to their activities.

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d- Customized Guidelines:

These guidelines differ from a ministry to another. They might be about international

relations (especially for the ministry of Tourism and the ministry and the ministry of

foreign affairs), legal framework, studies and statistics and forums.

e- Documentation:

Documentations provide users with printed online documents and articles for

download. The documents are usually in relation with the training or the recruitment

applications.

f- Citizens’ Relations Office:

Where the users can find information about the geographical location, email and

work schedule.

g- Useful links:

These are generally the Ministries official pages on social Medias and links to the

other ministries and national offices websites.

Far from the information available and the layouts that are very close between those

official websites, major differences appear in terms of languages used.

2. Monolingual, Bilingual or Multilingual?

The languages generally used in these websites are Arabic, French and English

.However, not all of the websites are available in the three languages.

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The websites could be classified according to the language used into three

categories. The Monolingual websites are the websites available in only one

language. The bilingual websites are available in two languages which are Arabic

and French. The multilingual websites are the websites available in more than 2

languages.

The Following tables show the lists of Ministries’ official websites according to the

languages they are available in.

Table 1

Monolingual websites

The Ministry The Language used
Ministry of Religious Affairs Arabic

Table 2

Bilingual websites

The Ministry The Languages used
Ministry of Justice Arabic, French
Ministry of Transport Arabic, French
Ministry of Finance Arabic, French
Ministry of State Arabic, French
Domains and Land Affairs
Ministry of Equipment Arabic, French
Ministry of Trade and Arabic, French
Handicrafts
Ministry of Youth and Sports Arabic, French

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Table 3

Multilingual websites:

The Ministry The Languages used
Prime Ministry Arabic, French and
English
Ministry of Foreign Affairs Arabic, French and
English
Ministry of Defense Arabic, French and
English
Ministry of Industry and Arabic, French and
Technology English
Ministry of Regional Arabic, French and
Development and Planning English
Ministry of Agriculture Arabic, French and
English
Ministry of Environment Arabic, French and
English
Ministry of Tourism Arabic, French and
English
Ministry of information and Arabic, French and
communication technologies English
Ministry of Public Health Arabic, French and
English
Ministry of Social Affairs Arabic, French and
English
Ministry of Education Arabic, French and
English
Ministry of Higher Education Arabic, French and
English
Ministry of Employment and Arabic, French and
vocational training English

As seen in Table 3 the majority of the websites are available in at least two

languages, and more than half provide an English version.

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2.1. Religion is Monolingual

Out of the 24 official websites, only one website is monolingual which is the

website of the Ministry of Religious Affairs. This means that the website presents

information exclusively in Standard Arabic. In other words it is addressed exclusively

to those who can read and understand Arabic. Such a site “runs the risk of alienating

those people” (Ishida). Considering the similarities between Tunisia and its North

African neighbors, it would be interesting to compare this exception to the situation in

Algeria and morocco. These countries share a common recent history of colonization,

and therefore of openness to other languages and primarily to French. In comparison

with the Algerian Religious Affairs Ministry, the two websites are similar; they are

both monolingual, although Algeria is a former colony of France and the French

language is part of the everyday speech (Moore). Concerning morocco, its website

provides Arabic and French versions which are absolutely identical. This choice can

have different explanations, ranging from an audience that can be different and

originating from different countries to a less tense attitude towards Arabization, but

this remains to be further explored.

However Algeria is not the only country that is similar to Tunisia in providing a

monolingual version of the website. Oman, Egypt and Syria have made similar

choices. Other examples can provide more insight through this choice. Strangely,

Saudi Arabia for instance has a bilingual website available in French and English

versions, but it does not provide an Arabic version which normally should be

available as Saudi Arabia is land of pilgrimage, Mecca and a symbol of Islam in

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general. Kuwait and UAE religious affairs ministries websites are also bilingual. They

have Arabic and an English version. They obviously chose English as a second

language for the website because firstly English is the second official language in

many countries and secondly it is the worldwide understood language.

As far as Tunisia is concerned, the problem that is raised here by such a choice is

the prevention of some minorities from accessing the information provided in the

official website of the religious affairs ministry. First, as far as the official religion is

concerned, that is Islam, there are non-Arabic speakers Muslims, who became

Tunisians by marriage or by birth. Second, there might be a misunderstanding

stemming from the name of the ministry itself. The “Religious Affairs” label seems to

include only Muslims and therefore excludes other minorities that do exist and live in

Tunisia as Tunisian citizens. There are also Tunisian Jewish and Christian minorities.

They are Tunisian and they have the full right of knowing what is happening in each

sector and field in the government especially in what concerns their religion

especially if they can not speak and read Arabic language. Djerba for instance

represents every year a pilgrimage destination for thousands of Tunisian and foreign

Jews. Also as a tourism destination, tourists might be interested in finding out about

religious celebrations and events in the country, but the Religious Affairs Ministry

does not seem to be taken them or the previously mentioned minorities into account.

2.2. Foreign Affairs Foreign Tourists and Foreign Languages

One of the interesting ministries websites in Tunisia is the official website of the

Ministry of Foreign Affairs which is multilingual one, providing information in Arabic,

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French and English. However, this is not the case with its counterparts in Algeria and

Morocco which are the official website of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Algeria and

the official website of the ministry of foreign affairs and cooperation in Morocco. The

major common points between those three websites are the fact that they provide

information about the ministry (office, organization and embassies), the diplomacy of

each country (Agreements and Treaties) and the vision/ goals set by each

government.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Algeria and the Moroccan Ministry of Foreign

Affairs and cooperation offer internet users online documents for download

Besides they focus through their official website on publishing information about

embassies and foreign countries, providing updated news foreign affairs besides

plus giving extensive updated interviews with foreign people (ambassadors ,

investors and tourists ) which explain the approach they are adopting towards

international affairs and building foreign connections . Yet the Ministry of Foreign

Affairs in Tunisia, instead of providing documents online, provides external links for

details and further information also detailed information including the ministry‘s

activities along with national affairs.

In terms of the languages used in these websites it is obvious that the Algerian

and Moroccan websites focus on the French language rather than Arabic the reason

might be the fact that these two countries were colonized by the French .Moreover,

the documents provided by these two websites are in French even if the users are on

the Arabic version all the documents they can download are French. The news and

information provided by the two websites whether in the Arabic or French version are

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highly updated. As far as the Tunisian website is concerned the news found in the

Arabic and French versions are daily updated whereas it is not the case with the

English one because the content of this version is updated but with slight daily news

compared to the others.

Another interesting official website that belongs to the group of multilingual

websites is the site of The Ministry of Tourism. In comparison with the Algerian and

the Moroccan ones which are called respectively the Ministry of Tourism And

Handicraft and the Administration of Tourism, all of them provide Arabic, French and

an English version. Concerning the downloadable information, the Tunisian website

does not provide any of it neither in Arabic nor in French. In comparison to its

counterparts the Algerian and the Moroccan website, the first does provide

downloadable forms but in the three versions Arabic, French and English the forms

are in French language .but the second one like the Tunisian does not provide any.

Information about the links provided in the website of the Tunisian Ministry Of

Tourism, are links to “Institutions under supervision, tourism real estate agency,

national office of the Tunisian tourism”. The “Administration of Tourism” in Morocco

provides also to the user links to “Ministries, touristic websites, offices, press”,

whereas the Algerian “Ministry Of Tourism And Handicraft” useful links page is under

construction.

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An important Remarque is that though the three countries Tunisia, Algeria and

morocco were French colonies, they do provide an Arabic language version because

Arabic is the official language of the countries. In what concerns updates the

Tunisian Ministry of Tourism three versions are daily updated especially because the

website is newly created, not like the Moroccan one which was created since 2005

and updates are very rare. The website of the ministry of Tourism And Handicraft in

Tunisia seems to be of poorer quality as there are only icons which are not active and

lead to no information.

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IV. E-GOVERNANCE IN SOCIAL MEDIA

Over the past years Governments around the world, come to realize the power of

Internet in reaching out people and bringing them together. Among the features of

such a process are Social Media, including networking websites such as

Facebook and Google+ ,micro blogging services such as Twitter, blogs, wikis, and

media sharing sites such as YouTube and daily motion . These different Social Media

play the role of facilitating communication between internet users into an interactive

dialogue. As far as Tunisia is concerned, Social Media and especially Facebook have

played a key role throughout the Revolution. The previous government in the months

before the revolution even attempted to cut Facebook down, in vain. Today, the

newly elected government has realized the power and influence of Facebook

nowadays on Tunisian citizens. That is why the Tunisian ministries arrived one at a

time on this social network.

1. Ministries on Facebook

A brief overview to the Facebook pages shows that ministries especially those

which do not have official website have Facebook pages. It has often been said that

Facebook makes the contribution of citizens in the governmental field more important

even by making a simple comment.

The Ministry Of Interior is an example of the ministries which do not have an

official website but does have an official Facebook page. This page has been visible

on the Internet since 10/02/2011 (‘’Tunisie: le ministère del'intérieur’’), and has

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intended to facilitate communication between citizens and media representatives on

the one hand and the services of the Ministry on the other. Several components are

included in this page about the activities of the different structures of the Ministry,

audio-visual, recruitments and provided an interactive section that allows visitors to

ask questions and present topics of debate.

When looking at the page, the number of Likes is 290. This small number of fans

can be explained by the image of this Ministry in the country and its violence during

the demonstration of December 2010 and January 2011. However, the Ministry of

Interior played an important role particularly in the post-revolutionary period when

people were afraid for their safety and in this regard, people who wanted to be

posted regularly with news about security problems would become “Fans”. The

Facebook page of the Ministry of Interior has already passed the symbolic threshold

of 100,000 fans to arrive now 110,195 members.

Very few other Ministries reached this record. For example, the page of the

Ministry of Higher Education, posts no more than 24,000 fans. After the initiative of

the Ministry of Interior which undoubtedly appealed to Tunisians (J Ghaith) , it was

the turn for two new departments to join the squad, namely the Ministry of Defense

and the Ministry of Industry and Technology with 2332 and 5401 fans respectively.

(Wednesday, February 16, 2011 at 21:20).

Both ministries joined this social network to show their will of being closer to

people with the ultimate goal of establishing a new form of effective communication

and paving the way for an effective debate and dialogue between national the

government and its citizens. The Facebook pages of both departments are used to

26 | P a g e

present press releases, current recruitments and to give official information in order

to avoid or rather counter the rumors that continue to multiply on the Tunisian

blogosphere.

As part of its desire to maintain contact with citizens (B Youssef), the Ministry of

Public Health has created a new page on the Facebook social network, announced

the Communication Services Department. With 20,582 fans this page contains the

official releases and allows the Ministry’s services to keep in contact with the public

and discuss matters of common concerns. The same sources indicated that this

interactive page ensured greater visibility of the department while serving as a space

of expression for the general public.

The Ministry of Transport has created a special page on the social network

"Facebook" (Kamel), dedicated to electronic communication between the government

and its citizens. It includes an interactive discussion forum, enabling them to voice

their concerns, opinions and aspirations. A special section is devoted to recruitment

campaigns and an electronic link with various national companies and transport

services.

The Ministry of Transport is followed by the Ministry of Ministry of Tourism who

created a special page on Facebook (‘’Tunisie : Le Ministère du Commerce et du

Tourisme-Tunisiesur Facebook’’) , dedicated to electronic communication between

the department and citizens. Apart from updating the latest information and news

related to the Tunisian economy, the Facebook page includes, news, interviews and

also a review of national and international press, an interactive discussion forum to

make known to internet users their concerns, opinions and aspirations.

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The aim of having official Facebook pages for the ministries is to control information

about the Ministries on the internet by being the main broadcaster (Lamloum), then it

was the TAP news agency, who undertook this mission. Below is the list of existing

pages of ministries on Facebook:

-Prime Ministry

-Ministry of Interior

-Ministry of Transport

-Ministry of Foreign Affairs

- Ministry of Trade and Handicrafts

-Ministry of Tourism

-Ministry of Education

- Ministry of Public Health

-Ministry of Defense

-Ministry of Industry and Technology

Obviously the Ministries’ pages on Facebook were launched few weeks after the

Tunisian revolution took place which explains the policy the Tunisian Government,

that is driving E-governance towards Social Media. This new step is part of the

G2C G2B G2E and C2G phases explained previously, phases where government

agencies ensure mutual interaction between the Government and the internet users

which are the citizens ( employees and businessmen etc. ) through Facebook .

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2. Language(s) Used

As far as The Ministry of Interior is concerned, the Arabic language is the language

used in all the publication of this governmental organization. The titles and subtitles

of the Facebook page are also in classical Arabic .Another comment could be added

is that the comments on the news and on the publications are in Tunisian dialect and

people who are commenting belong to different groups of the society .

Because the news and information in the Facebook page of the Ministry of Interior

are up to date, hundreds of comments are posted. Concerning the ministry of

education, the main language used in the page is Arabic. Answers and comments

are in Tunisian dialect and some of them are in classical Arabic for certain people

teachers for instance. As for the Ministry of Public Health, the whole page is in

Arabic language but there are some passages that are written in French.

Comments are written in French, in classical Arabic, and in Tunisian dialect, the

questions and comments are written in dialectic Arabic .there are a lot of people’s

comments especially those who belong to the field of health . The major fact that is

the most important one and that is shown by this social media is that the “Tunisian

Arabic” as it is called , plays a huge role in making people’s contribution more

effective by giving their comments freely and with no pressure .

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As seen in Chapter One, Arabization was an imposed process on both

Administration and citizens. The advent of Facebook, not being yet submitted to

regulations as is the case of the official websites, gave more freedom to Ministries to

address the citizen in either languages that is standard Arabic or French. What is all

the more interesting is that the Tunisian dialect rapidly took profit from this freedom,

to enter the official sphere, even if a non-official language, it is submitted to no

syntactic nor even transcription rules.

30 | P a g e

CONCLUSION

An important feature of the Tunisian population is the frequent use of the modern

communication technologies and especially the internet which has become part of

the daily life. Internet is used is not only used at homes and for business, but it has

also become part of the political life and of political activism. This memoir has sought

to give a picture of government communication strategies over the web, not only in

terms of content but also in terms of the languages used. Such a presence is

manifest in the publication of governmental administration websites on the web which

are the ministries.

The important feature that was examined is the languages used in these websites

when posting the information by the ministry. The conducted research concluded that

though E-Governance is a new phenomenon, most ministries have their official

websites. One other finding is that with the exception of one ministry, the Ministry of

Religious Affairs, all websites publish information in at least two languages: Arabic

and French. The exclusive use of classical Arabic raises not only the problem of the

exclusion of some minorities and namely religious minorities who do not understand

Arabic but also those who can not read classical Arabic.

Apart from this exception it can be conclude that in spite of the Arabization trend

that characterized Tunisian administration, the official Tunisian websites did not give

up using the second non official language that is French sometimes along with a third

31 | P a g e

language: English. In this research, multilingualism was not only considered from a

perspective of official languages, but also from that of dialect.

While language use varies according to social classes and communities, the main

common feature of all Tunisians is their use of the Tunisian dialect. The use of the

latter is banned not only in official documents and other administrative exchanges,

but also from all written media, whether private or public.

The advent of social media and more particularly Facebook surprisingly filled this

language gap. Since January 2011, Ministries, with official websites or not, started

creating Facebook pages to be closer to citizens. Facebook has hence played a

huge role in gathering citizen’s comments about satisfaction or dissatisfaction as

citizens consider Facebook as a wide space for expressing themselves. Ministries

found more freedom in terms of languages and content, as these pages are not yet

submitted to the usual official standards of content and form. Most importantly,

Tunisian internet users in this space were not submitted to the legal obligation of

using classical Arabic. Therefore, users’ contributions would appear sometimes in

French but also in Tunisian dialect transcribed in Latin or Arabic letters.

E-governance in this research was studied not only in terms of communication

channels with citizens, but particularly in terms of languages used. For a

communication to be interactive, the language used has to be the closest to the

targeted users. While this research is not making a pledge for the use of Tunisian

dialect in official communication, it simply revealed that language use is related to

openness to the user, and to some extent to freedom.

32 | P a g e

Other aspects remain to be further explored such as language use in the political

sphere as the problem was raised lately about the use of French in the constituent

assembly. From a linguistic perspective, the status of Tunisian dialect deserves

special attention too, as in most Arab countries, where the language spoken in the

street is not the same as the written one, and political decision makers would rarely

address their peoples in this ‘language’ whether in democracies or under despotic

regimes.

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