Morocco: Coming Out Of Political Closet

AHMED TAIBI

08/23/12

Washington / Morocco News Board---Many see Abdelilah Benkirane’s moments of candor and transparency as a breath of fresh air in Morocco’s political governance today. In a clear departure from the false demagoguery proffered by previous prime ministers, he provides a glimpse of a pervasive and growing reality Moroccans have long been denied, but have always suspected.

The appointed heads of previous governments were either ideologically purified children of privilege and political scions, or obsequious civil servants and party leaders who, despite the prestige of their offices, were nothing more than unctuous clerks lacking the gumption and conviction of true leaders. They didn’t have to worry about governing well and honestly so long as they are executing the dictate of the King and his imperious votaries, a nexus of corruption and patronage.

Mr. Benkirane understands this very well. He may be an idealist who believes in a changing Morocco, but he is also a pragmatist who sees the system as a top down patriarchy of stunning efficiency. There is a clear indication of that when he implied by his infamous “aafa Allah aan ma salaf – let the bygones be bygones” that former high ranking officials will not be held accountable for their incompetent and possibly criminal leadership. Any intensified scrutiny into the etiology of the nation’s ills will lead to the King and his inner circle that, for decades, have privatized profits, but nationalized losses. No foreign or domestic policy, economic strategy, military initiative, or religious interpretation has ever been strategically conceived and implemented without the approbation of the King.

Sometimes, Mr. Benkirane, despite his political acumen, lets his truculence get the better of him and he trespasses on the patience of the King. He forgets his right and left limits and extends his line of fire to those who act under the aegis of the palace. Last month, when he accused Fouad Ali El himma and Mounir Majidi of filibustering his administration’s efforts to reform, he was forced to publicly apologize. He could have acknowledged his indiscretion privately, but there is a lesson to be learned in this public political coitus. Mr. Benkirane, a standard-bearer known for his political obduracy, needed his dignity wrung out. Schooling him on “makhzenian” sadomasochistic politics became necessary; the Moroccans needed to see with painful clarity who has true agency and realize there is no one on the scene yet with the spine to stand up to the elite. As long as he is pandering to the King and his cabal, Mr. Benkirane can attack anybody else and gin up any self-serving polemic.

I am one to believe that Mr. Benkirane’s probity is a tool to settle scores and abdicate his responsibility to fulfill campaign promises. Last Monday, in a statement before the parliament and to the media, he announced it will take time for his budget minister to devise a workable economic model for recovery and stability. He confessed the country is headed towards economic austerity; the deficit figures reported by Salaheddine Mezouar, the previous Minister of Finance did not add up. The situation is so dire that Morocco had to call on the International Monetary Fund earlier this month to request a precautionary credit line of $6.2 billion. That’s in addition to over $2 billion borrowed from the World Bank and the African Development Bank in the past two years to optimize farming irrigation systems, improve electricity production and public transportation, prop up educational reform and rural roads programs, develop the financial sector, reform public administration, support infrastructure projects, and finance the Ouarzazate solar power project.

Many of these projects have already failed, or are so flagrantly mismanaged by an unaccountable and grossly opaque and graft-ridden bureaucracy that their dismal flop is inevitable. Policies to improve living conditions in rural areas and combat illiteracy, to eradicate poverty and slums, to reduce unemployment, and to reform the health, judicial, and education sectors have all yielded derisory results. Three weeks ago, Mohamed El Ouafa, Minister of Education, officially admitted that the emergency program (2009 – 2012) designed to overhaul public education has failed. The program was introduced with a fanfaronade by Ahmed Akhchichine, El Ouafa’s predecessor, . Its budget exceeded $370 million. Is there a motion to hold Mr. Akhchichine accountable? Absolutely not! You see, Mr. Akhchichine is a protégé of Fouad Ali El Himma.

A study by Morocco’s recently reactivated Competition Council indicated that over 63% of business transactions are facilitated by bribes and 54% of businesses surveyed are driven by patronage. These are dejecting numbers. Mr. Benkirane was quick to point out that eradicating corruption, as he had promised during his campaign, will prove difficult. It is certainly a long-term project and success is not guaranteed.

For every promise made during his electoral campaign, Mr. Benkirane and his ministers have disclosed information to explain why it would be difficult to fulfill. In the coming months, Morocco’s deficit is projected to grow as it is posed to carry out the biggest grain import in thirty years; social woes are worsening; civil rights are declining, according to international human right organizations, as demonstrators are being violently suppressed and detained incommunicado. Mr. Benkirane’s government lacks the strategy that will protect the country from the vicissitudes of the global economy and advance it towards democracy. He is falling back on a familiar script when he said: “When I say that I am only the head of government, that is not to play down my importance. But it is the king who is our guarantor of stability and the key person with responsibility for constitutional implementation.” So, what took you so long to come out of this political closet and join the rest of the harem?
 

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Comments (5)  

 

+2 #1 RE: Morocco: Coming Out Of Political Closet — Morcelli 2012-08-23 16:07

Great Article!
Here is how I see it, The PJD and everyone else was lusting for power thinking they will be able to “change” things. The King ingeniously handed some of his power to Benkirane and other mosquegoers. I say handed because it would naïve to conclude the PJD
actually won the election and therefore the king followed the constitution that he personally mocked. Some of you might ask what proof do I own to attest that the elections were rigged or not?
Good question> Do you really believe that the constitution was approved by 98.49% of voters?
Allow me to repeat the percentage one more time: NINETY EIGHT. FORTY NINE PERCENT. Really 98.49 %? If that is not a proof, I can’t provide you with a better one.
Everything about Morocco’s governance is flawed and fake from to top to bottom. The king is doing his bests to discredit this poor government. As I said in the past it is not in the kings favor for any government to succeed, the king spent every dirham in the
Coffers on subsidies to temper down the protest of the people, now Benkirane’s government is scrambling to find a way to pay for the subsidies ordered by the king and his elites/advisers , i.e. raising the fuel price by 20% which of course led the price to go up on food and others necessities.
Who is being blamed now? The poor prime minister. And the king? Well in Morocco, Kings are not to blame; they are sacred Omara’a al mouminin, they are god sent to look after us and save us from the enemies within us.

Now what do you get when you have a sanctified soul in the king and a prime minister who believes in the sacredness of kings and queens and therefore believes that mixing the Koran with governance is the way to get himself out of the elites sharp teeth. You get a prime minister who is very fearful to step over the red lines. The king.

Right when people thought that there were seeing a light at the edge of the horizon, they were quickly reminded that Morocco is no exception as many in the King’s surrounding would like you to believe.

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-2 #2 king — sahrane 2012-08-24 00:30

I confesse for a moment when I was reading the article,I was thinking .that Mr taibi was off the mark,but he got me at the end .what it says about both the king and the so no innocent prime sinister,first the king is not clever as some believe ,if he was, he will do everything for this government to succeed should you ask why? Well all the kings his father included thrives on the public perception they’re not aware of the problems and they’re surrounded by evil doers ,so giving the benkirane govern-ornement a layway ,to prove the myth,would play to his advantage,but he lives in a bubble all he hears is you’re the best, nothing wrong,and he knows that’s not true but ,you have to do what you have to do to keep the make believe going,for power sake

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-1 #3 student — Ed Talby 2012-08-24 19:16

The economic standstill in Morocco is caused by a political feud between the serving Prime Minister, Benkirane, and the Ministers in the former government, whom king Mohamed VI made political advisers after the November2011 Parliamentary elections.

During the campaigns, Benkirane run on a Corruption Eradication platform, which targeted the corrupt former Ministers, resulting in a win for the Party of Justice & Development to run the government.

To maintain his political grip on power and to keep Benkirane's Islamist government in check, king Mohamed VI took in the corrupt ex-Ministers in his entourage, a Royal screw up, same as putting Nikolay Sarkozy in charge of Morocco's foreign policy and Eric Gerets as the head of the Moroccan Federation of Sports.

Financial assistance from the U.S. or hefty loans from the IMF will do Morocco No good so long corruption is rampant in the Moroccan government. One cannot fill up a bathtub with water, with the drain open. Forty five (45) million Moroccans will go on suffering because of some hurtful words Benkirane said passionately during the campaigns of 2011.

Poor Benkirane will sit idle through the end of his mandate, like a ceremonial Prime Minister, for the king and his entourage stripped him of all financial & political capital.

At the end of the day, the king, his advisers and the Prime Minister will be OK, it's the Moroccan nation that will go on suffering politically, economically and socially. I reckon, the Moroccan Arab Spring is a ticking bomb.
4 minutes ago · Like

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-1 #4 RE: Morocco: Coming Out Of Political Closet — mbt 2012-08-27 06:33

The king has been truly well groomed by his dad, play the party politics, in this case many parties and they would not know what politics is for the "elected" parties to govern. In the end the king rules. Long live the king. Exit Benkirane.

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0 #5 The palace wins either way — Tijani 2012-08-28 09:46

The way I see it:
Under the new constitution If the socio-economic situation improves the palace wins. After all it was the king's vision and effective reforms that set the ground for success. Otherwise, it is the incompetence of Benkirane & Co that screwed things up. And of course, we will reminisce about how wonderful things were before, under the direct leadership of our passionate King of the Poor.

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