“We did it together, the four of us”

Telephone interview with Ouided Bouchamaoui

Telephone interview with Ouided Bouchamaoui, President of The Tunisian Confederation of Industry, Trade and Handicrafts (UTICA), on the award of the Nobel Peace Prize to the Tunisian National Dialogue Quartet, 9 October 2015. The interviewer is Adam Smith, Chief Scientific Officer of Nobel Media.

[Adam Smith] Hello?

[Ouided Bouchamaoui] Hello yes.

[AS] Hello.

[OB] How are you?

[AS] Very well indeed, thank you very much.

[OB] Fine, thank you.

[AS] First of all congratulations to the National Dialogue.

[OB] Thanks, thank you very much.

[AS] What does it mean for the work of the National Dialogue to be awarded the Nobel Prize?

[OB] I represent the bosses not the workers … [unclear] … but because we participated with the union and with the lawyers and the organisation for human rights. I mean together we participate for this dialogue. We are very glad, of course, to do this and we are very glad to have this Prize.

[AS] Is there any one official spokesperson for the National Dialogue or is it a collaboration of many?

[OB] No, it’s a collaboration. We did it together, four of us.

[AS] So what do you think the award of the Prize should mean to the world?

[OB] It means a lot of things because first, the Tunisian experience is very important. We succeed with dialogue, with together, and this is for, I think it’s something which should not have no prize, and we did what others failed and I think we are proud as Tunisians, and we are proud as several organisations to do this work.

[AS] And do you think the award of the Prize will help your continuing work?

[OB] You know, we do our work. Of course, when others recognise what we did it will be a good thing for us, but we’ll continue our work. We are here to help our country. We are here to boost our investments. We are here to give the hope to young people in Tunisia that if we believe in our country we can succeed.

[AS] Thank you very much indeed.

[OB] You are welcome, you are welcome, thank you very much.

[AS] Thank you, bye bye.

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