Morocco News Board
Mustapha Azayi
The Lonely HWY Cold Hiker Afraid of wolves & his own Shadow
Jim Morrison
Neither Ramadan nor Eid L’Fitr was a suitable time for criticizing anything let alone a person’s silly political conduct or policies. So all I was able to do was to compliantly watch and brood on a blasting stream of videos in which the Prime Minister Abdelilah Benkirane hallucinated boldly, building deceptive castles for his followers in the polluted air while ruthlessly crushing others in the dirt of truth.
It was truly not a good time watching all those videos, but it was good enough for the sake of the welfare of the mother country to brood about their contents, to dwell on their negative messages and the silly statements issued by this statesman called Abdelilah (The slave of God). So for a news junkie who is hooked on following the course of his country’s political matters it was worth seeing all those foolish videos even at the expense of running a risk of turning into a nail-biter or a hair-puller from rage.
How can you not turn into a hair-puller, when you see the well-surrounded Abdul Benkirane jabbering about in a rude and talkative style, and in an indeterminate street language about his conviction of political guilt on one hand, and the difficulties he is facing to govern, as well as about his difficulties at fighting corruption on the other hand? How can you not turn into a furious nail-biting citizen, when you see your prime minister worrying too much about bad rumors and talking about dangerous shady conspiracies aimed at destroying him? How can you not turn into a bitter nail-biting critic when you hear your cabinet minister grumbling about the existence of alligators within the government’s shallow system and the devils of the invisible world strategizing to thwart the course of his good-faithed policies and endeavors?
It is crazy! And perhaps for that reason Mr. Benkirane always struck me like a double-forked-silver-tongued, second-rate, shoe-salesman, the one capable of selling you a shoe without heels. Yet I admit the fact that way back in time, when his party had the loser status, I somewhat admired the strong opinions of what I was led to believe then were his, for he knew so well how to sell them though illusive in nature they were. I appreciated most of the things he stood for: The strong slogan of his party to Fight Corruption was a killer, Establishment of Justice in society was a kick-ass goal, and the optimistic political desire to contribute to the development of the country surely was all what a party suffering from an underdog status needed so as to win over his awful opponents. The slogans, which appealed nicely to the populace then, sowed seeds of high hope and spread high expectations with it. But all that was before unpredictably winning the elections.
So as a party leader who emerged a winner at times when political shit hit the shaky crackling fan Abdelilah Benkirane was supposed to lead in calm fashion against all odds, especially when the going started to get rough. We expected him to be a solidarity builder and a mobilizer of the Moroccan masses through intelligent speeches and through the medium of his party’s agenda the PJD that won the majority of seats in the parliament. We expected him to use his party as a vehicle through which social change, social mobilization, and political adaptation necessary for the gradual political development were to be implemented. And though we almost thought he was on the right track when his minister of justice Mr. Ramid promised to change the ill-practices of the justice department, and through his Minister of Transportation who said he was going to prosecute the lagreamas hoarders and those who abuse and exploit fishing and mining licenses for their own benefits etc. But the truth of the matter is that the man and his party members turned out to never present neither an honest strategy nor a realistic roadmap for the work he promised to do with a genuine faith. And this without taking into consideration the fact that most of the economical predictions of their minister of finance for the country’s GNP- with their numbers and percentages- all ended up incorrect. Add to that the massive borrowing of already well-tailored policies for social welfare such as Sondouk Makasa from other parties like Istiklal through the aid of Nizar Barka, the now minister of economy and finance, and others like him and you got a leader who basically had no strategy for governing whatsoever.
Thus when one looks at what Abdul Benkirane was doing so far in terms of an attempt to bring serious justice and development to the Moroccan society it was nothing but beating blindly around the bush. And to compensate for his lack of clues to the Moroccan social and economic ills Benkirane, when trying to tackle these serious problems, had to rely on some fancy illogical and religious lexicon that has nothing to do neither with politics nor with religion itself.
When he was asked for instance about how he would tackle the ill-deeds of comfortable crooks who evaded taxes, and coldhearted politicians who plundered the coffers of the government for their own enrichment, the law abiding prime minister said he would rather let bygones be bygones instead, “ Afaa Laho Ama Salaf”(Allah forgives what has been past) was his precise crazy answer.
And when he was asked about his policy towards fixing soaring unemployment in the country his answer was Allah is the Provider and not The Government of the Country “ Arazak Lah” he said in darija.
So what does this mean in the context of the current political affairs in Morocco?
It means that this party leader instead of playing the role of the leader he instead turned himself into a political recitalist, if not a political whore. Everything has changed about him including where he used to stand on wearing a tie. Or could it be that the tie-wearer that he has become was the secret behind this mean change in principles? Everything in the world of politics is possible including the fact that political neckties can fashion magical powers (bad news for me who likes bowties).
So we admit by all reasons that Benkirane is no saint, and we admit that some people who love him despite his alien necktie may even think that we should stop dwelling on every gaffe and lapse that shoots from his double-forked-tongue. But what if some folks go as far as believing every error of his judgment and try to carve his words on tablets of stone as if they were words of wisdom, as if they were the right answer to our Moroccan social, economic and judicial issues in this crucial time of the 21st century Morocco.
In America a political figure that tends to have a knack for talking in ridiculous ways such as Benkirane’s, that is making self-conscious gaffes as big as his head in front of the public, is simply called a man born with a foot in his mouth (American Example: Joe Biden). And that is why I am afraid that this sort of chronic-foot-disease that has befallen our prime Minister is going to be behind the mere cause of his fading straight into obscurity after all that overtime he sacrificed in public conferences and international media interviews, trying to justify and fend-off his self-accusations as well as those of his opponents in the PAM party. Because in the history of politics the man who becomes excessively self-justifying, or who tries to defend himself against political rumors, or even falls in the trap of explaining his errors at length always end up in the losers bin.
And at crucial times of emergency when people need guaranteed promises and serious solutions to their social plights it is not wise to keep lying at them and misleading them with cheap suggestions. And that is why I decided to finish my article with what Mr. Ban ki-Moon, the Secretary General Of The United Nations has said in the Press Conference that aimed to mark the World Reaching a 7 Billion Population in 31 October 2011: “The world’s people want answers from their leaders. They expect solutions, not half-measures or excuses.”
However, it seems that until now what Moroccans have gotten from Abdelilah Benkirane so far is nothing but excuses and half-measures. Mr. Moon’s advisability was certainly a bright sunny wisdom that should no doubt help tackle the question of what Moroccans need, and in plain language I hope that Abdelilah reads this article and learns from Mr. Ki-Moon’s sunny wisdom.
