I'm afraid I'm about to do a real narcistic thing: This is a post about me (and that of others: namely Lamiaa, Hajjar, Kareem, Abdelilah and Jane) having a chat on today's Moroccan legislative elections with Hicham Ben Abdallah Al Alaoui, the cousin of Mohamed VI (the king of Morocco), on the BBC's phone-in program, World Have Your Say.Call me egoistic, self-centered, self-loving, stuck-up, vain, vainglorious (these are all the synonyms of the word narcistic I could found on Dictionary.com). Notwithstanding, I invite anyone reading this, to listen to this conversation (Thanks to Abdelilah, from the blog of whom, I got this audio player stuff ):
Moroccan Legislative Elections 2007 by Hisham Almiraat
(the picture is a patchwork of both the images of the King and his cousin, taken from "casafree.com")
What I Think:
Only an inclusive system accepting Muslim-Democratic parties can appease the conservatives in the wider Muslim world, provided that those parties play within the democratic framework as it is internationally recognized, alongside parties who may not have religious reference, and provided, of course that genuine, fair and transparent rules are applied on everybody. That's definitely not the case in Morocco where -as I previously wrote- the constitution provides considerable preeminence to the king and his lieutenants. Prince Hisham himself in the aforementioned conversation (and I was agreeably surprised by that), referred to the Moroccan monarchy, at one point, as an absolute monarchy if we stick to the text of the constitution and the many articles who help the King's claim for absolute supremacy. He also added that in his view, the elections will be more a continuity of the previous experience than a real rupture with the past.
To understand what is going on in the Cherifian Kingdom of Morocco, one should first admit that there is a large consensus for the monarchic system as a guarantor of the stability of the country. A support that could be partly explained by the History of the institution itself which is 12 centuries old, hence deeply rooted in Moroccan psyche. The second aspect that one should be aware of, is that there are three players in the Moroccan political scene:
I'm afraid, the biggest winner in these elections will be the party of abstention; it would be interesting to check out the turnout figures.
The central power still is oblivious to the basic urgent needs of the country. Morocco is like a very ill patient who needs intensive care, but who is being given an aspirin tablet every five years.
To understand what is going on in the Cherifian Kingdom of Morocco, one should first admit that there is a large consensus for the monarchic system as a guarantor of the stability of the country. A support that could be partly explained by the History of the institution itself which is 12 centuries old, hence deeply rooted in Moroccan psyche. The second aspect that one should be aware of, is that there are three players in the Moroccan political scene:
- The King and the economic and military establishment around him (referred to in Morocco as, the Makhzen)
- The Islamists or conservatives, whether radical or 'moderate' (whatever that term may mean)
- and the secularists and supporters of liberal and progressive politics
I'm afraid, the biggest winner in these elections will be the party of abstention; it would be interesting to check out the turnout figures.
The central power still is oblivious to the basic urgent needs of the country. Morocco is like a very ill patient who needs intensive care, but who is being given an aspirin tablet every five years.