Cry the Beloved Morocco. Noureddine Boutahar

I don't think I have much longer to live but I have never wanted so badly to live in a free western country, the USA particularly, as I do today. This is so because I am fifty five years old now but I feel I have lived only a few months. These are the months I spent in the USA and Europe, where I had the opportunity to taste the sweetness of life, to breathe the fresh clean air of freedom, and to savor real democracy.
Today, I am hoping for a chance to spend the final years of my life back there where the law is implemented and enforced on everyone, equally, regardless of social background or financial status. I am longing for a chance to live my final days where those who work harder are rewarded, respected, and encouraged; and those who cheat and corrupt get their due punishment and correction by the common law of the country. I am dying for a chance to finish my life where it is not too much to ask for the rule of law and protection of human rights.
Yes, my last dream today is to live in a place where my kids and the kids of my kids can speak their minds more freely and perfectly and give free rein to their imagination fearless of calumny, reproach, or threat and without anyone imposing their perceptions, ideologies, and beliefs on them. My greatest dream is to live in a place where my daughters, in particular, can wear the clothes, colors, and sizes they want and feel comfortable in without being incriminated or cast as libertines or debauchees or villains. My most cherished dream today is to live in a place where my kids and I would be happy, and enjoy life without interference from any self-appointed brainwashing guardian.
This country is dear to me but dear also are democracy, freedom, equality, justice, and dignity. These rights have blatantly turned into privileges since the ascendance of the present JDP Islamist party. Its government is so pathologically mendacious that it has ridden roughshod over its election promises and has done a complete about-face on its mottoes and slogans in order to please the “Makhzen” political and economic elite. It is the first party in the history of Morocco to lay its compliance to the elite on thick by digging deep into the pockets of the population and setting an all-time record in raising the prices of all goods and services despite the people’s complaints, protests, and sufferings.
This country is dear to me but its Islamist government scares me to the core. This government’s measures have opened the gateway wide open to the return of the “Years of Lead” by trying to shut people’s mouths, close different political opinion newspapers, and beat and track down demonstrators and protesters. Its amateurish reforms brought the Matthew effect policy to the fore to exacerbate the condition and vulnerability of the poor, create a treasure trove for the wealthy, and eliminate the middle class so as to prevent economic reform and political change and any possible ‘unrest’. Its repeated about-faces are exposed by its plan and intention to reduce to naught all previous gains so as to take Moroccan people back to square one and keep them busy fighting for survival instead of fighting for real democracy. Obviously, a hungry stomach will not think of principles or values or ideologies.
This country is dear to me but dear also are order, rule of law and respect of human rights. We have been waiting, voting, and shouting for half a century for real democracy and transparency only to be frustrated by an Islamist nightmare government which is obsessed with tormenting the people sadistically, continuously and relentlessly. Those in positions of influence (government officials, MPs, union leaders and others) usually use their time in office to maximize their own gains, to make money off the backs of others, and to secure the future of their children, grandchildren, and political cronies. In clear and flagrant violation of the principles of transparency and integrity, they endeavor to bend the rules and sneak family and friends into well-paid, top jobs.
This country is dear to me but its education no longer creates brilliant thinkers, or great philosophers, or outstanding scientists. It is, instead, an education that often produces cardboard Muftis who have only negative words in their vocabulary like ‘haram’ and ‘kafir’, and nothing else like logical or illogical, legal or illegal, reasonable or unreasonable, rational or irrational. These are the false preachers and religious leaders who appropriate the universal God for their own profit to deceive, defraud, and threaten people in the name of religion. These are the self-appointed holier-than-thou clerics who want us follow the “Monkey see, monkey do” idiom blindly and without logic or reason.
This country is dear to me but its policies scare me to death: whistleblowers and activists are often subjected to threats, harassment, and reprisals for their attempts to uncover corruption cases; zealous good citizens and anyone who thinks outside the box are subjected to intimidation and violence for asking for the enforcement of the law, for equal and fair treatment, for transparency, for accountability, and for good governance; the application of law is oftentimes eclectic, selective, arbitrary, and temperamental; and corruption has become smart, systematized and legalized.
This country is dear to me but its streets, neighborhoods, and sidewalks scare the life out of me. Our neighborhoods are ruled by anarchy and chaos with sword-wielding thugs, street vendors, and gangs of urchins laying down the rules. Our streets are filled with selfishness, greed, jealousy, and hatred caused by the pressures of life and exacerbated by unpopular measures taken by an obstinate, deaf and blind government. Our cities and villages’ moral standards have hit rock bottom; foul language and swear words fill the air because our schools, families, and governments have abandoned their true purpose and renounced their responsibilities.
I have reached the conviction that all the Moroccan political parties have hatched from the same egg and they expect change to come from the same old mentalities, the same incompetent people, the same rotten education, and the same boring speech: Both the liberals and the conservatives who had ruled this country for more than half a century had kept it ping-ponging back and forth between reform and a return to the past until they felt forced to hand it over to the Islamists in 2011. Unfortunately, the latter piggybacked on people’s thirst for change to win the elections only to put a kibosh on all hopes of reform by its unpopular and retrogressive austerity measures intended to satisfy the Makhzen elite and the creditors.

Get out of the Kitchen, Mr Prime Minister. Noureddine Boutahar

When we reflect back on 2015 in Morocco and the news that topped front pages and dominated airwaves, the Prime Minister Benkirane’s policy emerges as one of the most notorious and contentious. It had been another year of distinction for the Islamist Justice and Development Party (JDP) boss who has taken unpopular and unfair decisions that squeezed the middle class and crippled the poor.
Benkirane’s stubbornness and dismissive attitude towards any opinions contrary to his own earned him the antipathy and disapproval of the people whose living standards have been deteriorated by his harmful so-called reforms. Each of these reform measures is another turn of the screw. Common examples of these uplifts include food staples price increases, Compensation Fund amateurish reform, and the retirement age hike.
People dislike this government because it has failed to fulfill its election promises. It promised the moon but gave them misery instead. For example, the prices reached unprecedented high levels; unemployment and under-employment worsened and reached troubling levels (9.9% versus 9.2% in 2013); corruption is still seeping into every crevice of society; the system of education is still wallowing in mediocrity; healthcare system continues to rank among the lowest in quality and efficiency. And the government just looks on.
Another reason for people’s constant condemnation of this government stems from the fact that it is led by a party with an Islamic reference point presumed to abstain from worldly pleasures, goods, and possessions. However, nothing has been done to abolish parliamentary salaries and pensions, stop rentier economy privileges, reduce exorbitant salaries, allowances, and perks (cars, gas, accommodation, toll-free highway tickets…).
Here are two glaring instances that illustrate the government’s lack of commitment to lead by example: The “Two Francs scandal”, and “22 hours-a-day-work claim”. The ministers’ declarations, in both cases, show the obstinacy and aggressive refusal of government officials themselves to give up their illegal and illogical exorbitant perks, pensions, and pay let alone enacting reforms and laws binding upon everyone. Harry Truman once said that "No man can get rich in politics unless he's a crook. It cannot be done." Unfortunately, getting elected to parliament and getting nominated minister is a surefire way of getting rich in Morocco. Our Ministers and MPs get astronomically high salaries and end up with - usually early - fat and generous pensions. They are oblivious, or perhaps do not care, of the fact that real reform begins with the self. As Harry Truman, 33rd president of the United States, once again, said, “In reading the lives of great men, I found that the first victory they won was over themselves... self-discipline with all of them came first.” How long will it take official and senior position seekers in this country to understand that the office of a MP and Minister is a responsibility, not an honor or a high-paying job, which requires them to be selfless, and self-sacrificing?
This is not the government we voted for in 2011. The JDP has made a complete about-face and changed its ideals and goals. We voted for the ruling party because we wanted to spare our dear country instability and chaos and because its slogans were our dreams. Unfortunately, our dreams turned into a nightmare of continuous price hikes and unpopular decisions and ‘reforms’. We also discovered, too late, that the party had used religious rhetoric to win the sympathy of the general public so as to advance its agenda, which is no more than pleasing the deep state and staying in office for as long as possible. Were the JDP election promises mere Orwellian doublespeak?
I am steadfast in my belief that we will end up in the gutter if the party continues in office for a second term. If its unjust measures go on as planned by this government, we will work more and get paid less; we will pay more taxes, more fees, and higher bills; we will continue to get defective education and second rate healthcare; we will get poorer while the wealthy get wealthier. Even worse, the government will dig into our pockets every now and then to fix what the ‘untouchables’ messed up. Certainly, this government has reached a point where it does not care how the Moroccan people will find money to survive and pay their numerous bills as long as the elite bank accounts get fatter and their perks keep coming.
It seems to me that our political parties are mere proverbial “mouths” for the elite to eat garlic with. Meaning, our policy is engineered by people who view the citizens as nothing more than pieces on a board who must be controlled and manipulated; ergo, they should not eat their fill or live in comfort so as not to want more. This policy is in keeping with the proverbial “give them an inch and they'll take a mile”. The moneyed elite, who call the shots in this country, want the population to be poor and less educated so that they can better control and exploit it. The increase in the number of the poor and the underclass serves their interests at various levels.
In brief, this government is a far cry from our dreams and aspirations. It has cruelly disappointed us because, as Al Akhbar newspaper rightly said lately, it has fallen prey to the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund structural adjustment ploys, and run roughshod over its election promises. So, I would like to give the Prime Minister an advice using Harry Truman’s words, “If you can’t stand the heat, gets out of the kitchen” because these so-called reforms do not augur well for the future wellbeing of the Moroccan poor and middle class.