Wednesday, June 11, 2014

A Government for … the Rich
Noureddine Boutahar

The price of staple foods and services are skyrocketing in Morocco and the reasons behind these hikes are twofold: the government’s decision to reduce the Compensation Fund's subsidies in an amateurish manner, and the failure of some of the most vital sectors due to a lack of qualified persons in positions of authority. In both cases, it is largely the lower and middle classes who pay the price while the wealthy and privileged continue to win as before, right under the nose of the government.
Moroccan people pinned too much hope on this government for bold and genuine political and economic reforms such as the improvement of living conditions, the creation of jobs, and the provision of quality education. However, optimism quickly turned to disappointment and frustration as these hopes failed to materialize. They have remained, instead, electoral slogans and promises shelved until the next elections. The severity of the disappointment makes “the last of the Mohicans” among Moroccans put the Islamist Party on the same line as all the rest of the political parties that have ruled the country since ‘independence’. That’s why there is, now, a general feeling that Morocco keeps changing its administration but not its habits and mentality.
This government, for example, used clever speeches to delude people into believing that a reduction in the Compensation Fund's subsidies would bring prosperity and improve the living standards of all. Conversely, what the rich have surrendered to the government, they have gained from the people because they did not wait long before raising prices in order to make up for the lost subsidies. The end result, unfortunately, is that the poor are compensating for the rich, who are always in a win-win situation.
It is true that the Compensation Fund's subsidies weigh heavily on the state budget, but resorting to simple, ordinary, and easy solutions hurts rather than helps. In spite of its many shortcomings, the system helped Morocco avoid social tensions and protect the purchasing power of the population for decades. So, addressing the issue by digging deep into the pockets of the underprivileged is not only bad politics, but bad policy: it simply relocates the problem rather than solves it.
Unfortunately, despite the growing public frustration, the government stubbornly refuses to listen to the voice of the people as spoken through the media and in the street, choosing, instead, to engage in empty and fierce polemical shouting matches with anyone who opposes its policy. The Prime Minister has let no opportunity pass without reminding us that he “will not abandon this reform... whatever the price to be paid". Sadly, it is the Moroccan poor, not he, who will pay and suffer from the price hikes in staple foods, petrol, education, and more. Also, his ministers almost never miss an opportunity to seek out “devils and alligators” with which they can distract the public instead of keeping their nose to the grindstone and creating viable and cost-effective solutions to the problems they mentioned in their election manifesto.
Regrettably, the call for people to go back to the old ways of making bread and, indirectly, to boycott expensive products reflects the government’s inability to carry out real reforms. It follows from this logic that anyone who cannot afford something expensive should a fortiori compensate for it with a primitive alternative: for example, a Barraka (shack) will do if you cannot afford a house.
The other issue which testifies to the government’s impotence in the face of powerful bigwigs is its failure to prosecute those responsible for the bankruptcy or defective state of many government services and ‘offices’. Ironically, the government has decided instead to cut corners and bail them out with consumers’ money. As is custom for this government, it has called upon the weakest link in the chain, demanding that it pay for the failures of others who get away without repercussion in accordance with this government’s infamous motto of “Let bygones be bygones” when it comes to the wealthy and powerful. It is no surprise, then, that the rich who still enjoy their privileges, perks, and benefits are completely unruffled by these so-called reforms.
I’ll level with you, the current government’s policy is untenable, absurd, and illogical: it is fanning the fears it has come to assuage because it threw itself into the arms of the wealthy and powerful and shook off the hoi polloi upon whom it had ridden piggyback to power. Even worse is that it is serving the agenda of the powerful Bilderberg Group by establishing a society of rulers and serfs with no middle class so as to win the favor of the group and those that orbit it.
I hope, though, that this patchwork government will stop its populist lingua that butters no parsnip, redeem itself, and seek a way to lift the Moroccan people out of the dungeon of despair and hopelessness; otherwise, as Oscar Arias Sanchez said, "Out of poverty sprout social instability and desperation, which delegitimize governments that declare themselves democratic." God forbid this were to happen.