Taipei, June 28 (CNA) A Tunisian activist suggested in Taipei on Thursday that Taiwan build a global network of civil society organizations that would aid their growth and help build vulnerable young democracies.

A great nation like Taiwan should take the lead in creating such a network, which would strengthen opinion leaders in civil society all over the world in their work against democratic backsliding and authoritarianism, Najet Zammouri, vice president of the Tunisian Human Rights League (LTDH), told CNA.

"It would be a very good step to find solutions (to challenges facing democracies)," said Zammouri, who visited Taiwan to attend two international forums hosted earlier this week by the Taiwan Foundation for Democracy.

Zammouri, along with other attendees of the forums from more than 10 countries, met with President Tsai Tsai-ing Tuesday.

During the meeting, Zammouri said, she told the president that she was looking forward to greater cooperation between her country and Taiwan.

Zammouri said she will make a suggestion to the Tunisian foreign minister about the mutual establishment of representative offices by Taiwan and her country.

"I will ask him why we haven't thought about this," she said in the interview.

On the topic of the 2015 Nobel Peace Prize awarded to the National Dialogue Quartet in Tunisia, Zammouri said the main impact was probably the government's willingness to work with the four non-governmental organizations that comprise the quartet.

Recently, she said, the government has been seeking the help of the National Dialogue Quartet to find solutions to the nation's problems as they did in 2013.

The National Dialogue Quartet won the Nobel Prize for its contribution to the building of a pluralistic democracy in Tunisia in the wake of the Arab Spring movement in 2011.

At a time when the north African country was on the brink of civil war, the Nobel committee said, the prize was intended as encouragement to the Tunisian people, who despite major challenges had laid the groundwork for a national fraternity that it hoped would serve as an example for other countries.

The quartet, formed in 2013, initiated the dialogue that resolved the political crisis over the drafting of a new Constitution, which had deepened after the murder of two political leaders, and paved the way for the Constitution to be adopted in 2014.

Zammouri said that since the 2011 Tunisian revolution that ousted then President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali and ended 55 years of dictatorship, Tunisia has seen an explosion of political parties and freedom of expression.

For example, she said, she can now openly criticize the government, something she could not have done years ago.

"If I did that 10 years ago, I'd be put to prison, or stopped at the airport or made to disappear," Zammouri said.

Furthermore, she said, her organization has signed several conventions with the government ministries in charge of justice, education, social affairs, and interior affairs, which allows the group to visit institutions at any time to monitor any allegations of human rights abuses.

Nonetheless, democracy in Tunisia remains under threat, mainly because of the economic and social problems, she said.

When the Tunisian people are asked about democracy, "a majority of them say, 'We no longer want your democracy. We want to eat, we want to work, we want access to medical treatment, medicine, and education,'" Zammouri said.

"When people say that democracy is for you, for the elites, this is very dangerous," she said. "When people no longer want democracy, that is when it is really threatened."

Zammouri said the government of her country should be more conscious of such problems, which are often associated with weak governance, lack of political will, corruption, tax evasion practices by the wealthy, and austerity measures imposed by the International Monetary Fund when it grants loans.

Despite a growing concern that the sole success story of the Arab Spring uprisings is in danger of being crippled by economic hardships, Zammouri said, she remains optimistic because history has shown that the "establishment of democracy takes time."

"It's not like a dictatorship," she said. "It's a process. We make mistakes, but we do have some good achievements. Eventually, we can arrive at a good democracy."

Zammouri expressed the hope that the European Union and the international community would continue to support civic organizations in Tunisia as they did in 2011 and 2012.

"They are not as enthusiastic as they were before," she said. "Maybe they think that Tunisia cannot become a democratic country. Maybe they think that Tunisia has tried and failed, but that's not true. There is a good achievement now."