This is a guest post by my friend Doga, in which he responds to the controversy surrounding a recent editorial by Ahmed Reda Benchemsi, which was critical of a speech by King Mohammed VI of Morocco.

As a young Moroccan, I believe that what Benchemsi said in his article is important, because he calls for constitutional reforms that all Moroccans hope to see realized as soon as possible, in order to achieve a balance of power. I don’t see why there are people who attribute to him the worst motivations. Perhaps they are paid to do it, or perhaps they are upset that they have neither the ability, nor the courage to speak as he did.

Even the tone of his article appeals to me, because the majority of young people in Morocco talk like that, and at the university I’ve heard plenty of students say the same thing, in the same way. You would need an international military force to round up all the young Moroccans who think like Benchemsi, because there are so many who share his ideas.

The King himself, when he came to power, did away with the obligation to kiss his hand, because he understood that there are plenty of people who don’t like doing it, even if there are others who take pleasure in it. And there is also a third group, who kiss the King’s hand because their spirit is carried away with hypocrisy.

The essence of democracy is that we should be able to speak out like Benchemsi did without the slightest fear of reprisal. Yet perhaps freedom of expression and democracy, which Morocco proclaims endlessly and without shame, are merely a way to numb our thoughts, as if our future were really quite narrow, and limited to the voice of one man. Even to speak we need the authorization of the State! Maybe we should remind the State that freedom of expression is our natural right, given to us by God along with use of our brains, not a privilege handed out by the Minister of the Interior to suit the hypocrisy of those in power!

It is ridiculous for Morocco to believe that this type of evolution of ideas can weaken the unity of the nation. Have they forgotten that evolution is a force in itself? It is what lets us determine which road we should take, and by what means. I want to remind all those who sincerely love Morocco that it isn’t enough to distance ourselves from the abuses we see, we must do whatever it takes to cure them. Otherwise, we can no longer hope that Truth will prevail. Nor is it wise for us to wait until our own turn comes to have our mouths shut by censure.

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“I was hoping to join you in prison, because it is a prison of liberty.”
—Aboubakr Jamaï to Ahmed Reda Benchemsi, August 11 in Casablanca, quoted in Almasae (quote not online).

Doga is a 21-year-old Moroccan who graduated near the top of his high school class, went on to study computer networking and law, and is now trying to find a job to support himself and his family, like millions of others his age. He told me that the king’s recent throne speech had discouraged him from voting in the upcoming elections, because now more than ever he is convinced that voting won’t result in the kind of change he wants to see, namely constitutional reform. Because his ideas are similar to Benchemsi’s, I encouraged him to write a defense in his own words, and the above post is the result.

As a reminder, in Benchemsi’s recent editorial “Your Majesty… What Are You Saying?” he criticizes King Mohammed VI for contradicting himself by claiming absolute political authority while at the same time dismissing as “nihilists” those who say the upcoming elections are a farce. He addresses the king a familiar tone that some would consider disrespectful, and which he himself refers to as “insolence” (dssara). The response by the Moroccan authorities was to confiscate all copies of the editorial, and charge Benchemsi with “disrespect of the king” for which he now faces a penalty of up to five years in prison.

Doga has posted here three times before (Young Moroccans: A Neglected Future, Political Paralysis in Morocco, and If Not Now, When?) and participated in online conversations I’ve transcribed (What Is Truth? about Holocaust denial, and Debriefing Doga about political reform in Morocco). If you want to reply to him, feel free to write your comments in either French or English. He doesn’t read English (his text was written in French) but I will be happy to translate.

My French-speaking readers may be interested in this audio interview in which Benchemsi himself discusses the recent events.

UPDATE: Yahia has published a French version of Doga’s text on his famous Antiblog.

Doga is back! It’s been a while, but I’ve managed to get my friend from Fez to write about how he sees the current political situation in Morocco. I told him that many Moroccan bloggers are uneasy with the thought of a PJD victory in this year’s elections because they are afraid it will limit their freedoms. Some, such as BO18 in this post, have gone so far as to wonder whether Morocco is ready for democracy at all. Doga responds that the political atmosphere is so stifling in Morocco that the first priority is to force open the debate. He sees a PJD victory as the best way to do that. For him, this is not so much an endorsement of the PJD, as an indictment of politics as usual. In this article he avoids any discussion of political parties, instead taking the broad view to answer those who say “Morocco isn’t ready” or “We need to go slow.” His title is borrowed from the Jewish moral philosopher Hillel.

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It’s clear that everyone already understands the need to initiate real change in Morocco, including those in power. So why is it that every time someone calls for change, there is always the question of whether it is the right time? Is that the question that is really blocking us?

Whenever a society feels the need for change, it’s because that society has arrived in a situation where it can no longer continue in the same direction, or where a course correction is needed. Yet we need to ask, what type of change interests those already in power? It’s clear that profiteers who seek their own interests and not those of the community have arrived in power as a result of numerous errors, including our own, namely our absence from the decision-making process that determines the future of our country. This absence, which we have permitted too easily, has greatly aided the profiteers to entrench themselves in power. It’s obvious that they and their supporters are the same people who claim that this isn’t the right time to make a change, because the only sort of change that interests them is one that will reinforce their mastery over the political, economic and social order, a mastery that will further increase their profits. They are always quick to marginalize our country’s true patriots who sincerely want to start the process of change. In the eyes of the corrupt and powerful, those patriots are like a clarion call to justice that will eventually demand a judge to bring an end to their abuses. Unfortunately we have gotten used to sitting on our hands as we watch the exclusion of these patriots, and one of the best examples is Aboubakr Jamaï who endured numerous pressures designed to smother his voice, until he was finally forced to leave Morocco.

The real question is not one of choosing the right time, because “when” is always now. Rather, the real question we should be asking is “how.” How to change? How to say no to things as they are, and impose our own ideas? How to begin? How to plant the seeds of confidence among our people? This question of confidence is important so long as people continue to fear being the victims of police repression. How can we change things without ending up in a cycle of violence?

If we ask these questions with reality in front of us, we will surely find ourselves confronted with the obstacle of ignorance, because as long as people have no understanding of the role oppression plays in their lives, and the ways in which their consent is manufactured in order to better exploit them and profit from them, no attempt at change can be useful. To start with, we need to find ways to stimulate people’s consciousness in order to better engage them in the process of change.

This is the second article by Doga, a young Moroccan from Fez. His first post about the marginalization of Moroccan youth can be found here.

Clandestine immigration, poverty, the political indifference of the young, illiteracy, unemployment, exclusion, marginalization, and so on…it’s obvious that all these theories and negative images point to a society with a serious social fragility, which they ponder with question marks and exclamation points. The question concerning us here is to what extent Morocco’s political parties are responsible for these consequences, since they are the representatives of the Moroccan people?

I see that it is important to provide a short summary of the history of Moroccan politics. As you know, Morocco was under a French protectorate, and during that decisive period in our history, there was the National Movement that fought against the colonialists, and this movement gave birth to two political parties during the 1940s, namely:

• the Independence Party (Istaqlal)
• the Moroccan Communist Party

The role of these two parties was to defend the country against imperialism, and to demand independence. All the forces of the nation rallied around the two parties, but after our false independence (1956 and 1960) there were conflicts over power in both parties, especially in the Independence Party which represented the popular majority. The left wing of this party broke away to form a new party called the National Union of Popular Forces (UNFP).

The UNFP was the strongest party, because it represented workers and farmers along with merchants. Also belonging to this party were numerous members of the resistance and the Liberation Army who had refused to join the national army and police. But the merchant class leading the party set aside its objectives, which can be summarized as resistance to authoritarian government in Morocco. As a result, resistance to the governing system was finally taken up by high school and college students, who revolted on March 23, 1965. The repressive system responded to their revolt with force, firing bullets at the demonstrators [and killing up to 1000 of them].

Even the Communist Party retreated from its objectives, namely to unite the working class and the farmers, by transforming itself into a party that knew little of its supposed inspiration, Marxism. They even changed their name to become the Party of Liberation and Socialism (PLS). As a result of the failure of the two leftist parties to tackle the politics of dependency head-on, new leftist factions emerged. A Marxist movement developed at the end of the 1960s and the beginning of the 1970s that later spawned underground organizations.

Because of ongoing conflicts within the political parties, there were always new parties forming. The UNFP gave birth to a party called the Socialist Union of Popular Forces (USFP), which in turn spawned three new parties, one in 1983 and two more in 2001. The PLS changed its name to the Party of Development and Socialism (PDS). Because of this splintering of forces, and the emergence of organizations that demonstrated against the authoritarian system, Morocco in the 1970s (the “Years of Lead“) had no stability, only repression, secret prisons, concentration camps and arrests. The Makhzen [power structure] used every available means to kill off the struggle. Unfortunately the Makhzen got the system it wanted, a cruel system of course.

Since as we have seen, Morocco’s political parties have known nothing but division and infighting, they have never managed to unite their forces. Indeed, if we were to remove their masks, Moroccan politics would be nothing but the protection of moneyed interests, with the political parties racing toward the central authority, held by the king. The Makhzen penetrates the parties in order to manipulate them. To guarantee their participation in power, the party leaders become a second authoritarian force in Morocco that reflects the first. They open their doors to rich men who want to run for office and have seats in parliament, so they can get the baraka [perks] of political power, make money and protect their ill-gotten gains.

It can be deduced from this that the main thing the political parties have accomplished for the Moroccan people is betrayal, causing the people to lose confidence in their parties, and in their country. It is enough to see and hear what goes on in the streets, to understand that the concept of politics, parties and power is connected to the concept of profit, corruption and climbing the political ladder, with the aim of building villas and palaces on the dreams of the poor. The political culture is simply a culture of interests, rather than a culture of patriotism.

The question we come to now is how, with these worthless parties, can we hope to achieve human development?

To understand the political situation in Morocco, we need to understand that the political parties that were in the thick of the fight for democracy in the past, are the same parties that currently have a total lack of democracy. Therefore, it is necessary to begin by regaining popular trust in the party agendas. For the moment, these mean nothing to anyone. Indeed, one of the worst things we can say about the parties is that they are willing to work with a constitution that doesn’t allow them to participate in political decision making. For example, the constitution doesn’t give a clear right to the parliamentary majority to name the prime minister. Article 24 of the Moroccan Constitution says plainly that “the king names the prime minister.”

Of course there are corrupt people who want the situation to remain as it is. No one who rose to power through corruption will be protected later by the people. He’ll need another means of support! And no matter what the outcome of elections, it won’t bring about a strong government, because strong government doesn’t exist in the constitution!

Plato said that “every people gets the government it deserves,” but we need to give the Moroccan people the chance to make the changes they seek. We need to put in place a democratic constitution, as an authentic opening for real change. We can’t speak of reforms without speaking of political and constitutional reforms. The problem in Morocco, as you can see, is that the questions are clear, but no one wants to answer them. Even the constitutional framework the government is currently using doesn’t justify the ongoing political paralysis. The problem is that we have always had a politics of arbitrary authority, of dependency. There is no logic to the legal system, no legitimacy.

Another question that I see as essential and obvious is this. Can we realize human development without freeing the media? The media are tools that play an important role in developing human thought and civilization. Insofar as their goal is to provoke greater transparency, they are an important source of inspiration for liberty and independence, which are things that humanity needs to feel. These tools can always be found in a democratic environment.

We can use these tools as a reference standard, to measure the extent to which our country has succeeded in gaining its independence, and has been able to achieve its human development. We can use this same standard to say whether our country is open and independent, or secretive and dependent. Sadly, the majority of Moroccan journalists use their pens to cover up the dirty secrets of politics.