2023-04-18 13:06:00
Every nation has, in its history, founding dates and essential chronological landmarks that allow its citizens to find themselves and revitalize the sacred bonds that make them a people. And the centuries-old history of Morocco is abundantly set with these landmarks, including the wonderful time of the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022.
Indeed, the formidable football career of the national team has given the Moroccan people immeasurable joy and pride and has made them forget, during the competition, a daily life that is far from pleasant for the majority of citizens.
But the most important lesson that springs from the glorious march of the Atlas Lions concerns, in my opinion, the role of the niyya in the achievement of any exploit. It is not a question here of intention in its religious sense but of the active will to act collectively and individually for the common interest. This is what the band showed to Walid Regragui who captivated the whole world by the symbiosis that unites his group, the respect of the ascendants, the love of the flag, in a word the pride of representing his country with the most beautiful ways.
This magnificent epic should not, however, make us forget the flaws and feelings of injustice that exhaust many citizens. The main cause of this situation lies in the absence of niyya, sincere and civic intention. This often voluntary deficiency continues to handicap the progress of the country. Successive political leaders often pretend to ignore the orientations of HM King Mohammed VI in his speech to the nation, on the occasion of the 18th anniversary of the Feast of the Throne, in which the Sovereign made a frank appeal to the implementation of the constitutional principle which establishes a correlation between responsibility and accountability, the only guarantee for the achievement of optimal governance.
Several examples illustrate the gap between this modern Royal will concerned with the well-being of citizens and a sclerotic political class, alas, too preoccupied with its own interests.
The high cost of living and galloping inflation which are hitting citizens hard are a good example to illustrate these assertions. It is inadmissible, in fact, that a country rich in arable land, in dams and whose majority of the population lives in the countryside finds itself with a food basket as expensive as in Europe.
The Sovereign launched a frank appeal for the implementation of the constitutional principle which establishes a correlation between responsibility and accountability, the only guarantee for the achievement of optimal governance.
Some would justify this situation by the drought, the Covid, the Russian-Ukrainian war or even by the impact of the cost of energy. Relying on these explanations is an attempt to drown out the truth. The disastrous situation from which millions of families are suffering terribly is, in short, the legitimate child of the famous “Al-Maghrib al-Akhdar” plan, intentionally or not deviated from its initial goal. It is obvious that the business side has taken precedence over the fundamental objective of this plan which is, let us remember, to guarantee food security for an entire people. To support this, the following observations can be made:
– The “Green Morocco” plan should have taken into account, in the first place, the guarantee of drinking water supplies for the citizens before thinking of producing avocados or other crops that consume water resources. The summer water restrictions or cuts in the cities and the horrifying images of families in the countryside desperately looking for something to quench their thirst are the irrefutable proofs of the narrowness of vision of the designers of the plan quoted above.
– The construction of dams was often preceded by purchases, at derisory prices, of collective land considered as grazing and transhumance areas by the populations. This “insider trading” which benefits large investors deprives, from the preliminary draft, the premises of the fruit of these works and transforms them into day laborers on their own land!
– This plan has a dramatic social impact in regions such as the south-east of the country where the settlement of populations in these outlying regions is closely dependent on the sustainability of natural resources. The populations there lived from food crops which allowed, year after year, food self-sufficiency. Several farmers in the oases and ksours of Darâa and the Guir valley, to name a few, were forced to abandon their plots of land, their vital food source, to become unskilled and cheap laborers in the complexes. industrialists in Tangier or as day laborers in strawberry and tomato farms in the north of the Kingdom.
This devastating imbalance and its harmful effects on the phenomenon of migration from the countryside to the city constitute, in my opinion, clear proof of the incompatibility of the “Green Morocco” plan with the vital needs of these regions.
This lack of sincere intention also concerns the management of the SAMIR file, one of the jewels of the country’s economic life.
The Mohammadia refinery was placed in compulsory liquidation in 2016 following a decision by the Casablanca commercial court, one year after ceasing its activities for accumulation of debts. The soap opera of this huge mess is too long and rich in mismanagement and tax cheating. It alone deserves an article in its own right. But what is shocking at first glance is the procrastination of the resolution of this major issue by successive governments. Who benefits from the situation? Why don’t we opt for a pure and simple renationalization of this highly strategic company?
However, the energy crisis accentuated by the Russian-Ukrainian war rightly challenges consumers who find themselves forced to pay exorbitant prices to fill up their vehicles. While SAMIR allowed the country to obtain crude oil at a preferential price from OPEC, in particular the Gulf countries, and to offer affordable fuel to consumers, Morocco found itself obliged to buy refined products, which considerably increases the energy bill and, by extension, the price per liter at the pump. And this is where distributors come into play to achieve unacceptable margins. This is particularly the case of this famous company which is in all languages and which dominates the market. The line of demarcation between business and the political mission of general interest is therefore, de facto, malleable and porous.
The two examples mentioned above illustrate the disarray of populations who feel unjustly exploited and forced to bleed themselves white to boil the pot.
Several examples illustrate the gap between this modern Royal will concerned with the well-being of citizens and a sclerotic political class, alas, too preoccupied with its own interests.
The Moroccan people are a proud, peaceful and mature people. He can, in the name of the supreme interests of the country, accept the heaviest of sacrifices. However, he cannot bear to be deprived of his right to a dignified life. It needs politicians who take their missions for a real lay priesthood and who are ready to put their hands in the spokes of the wheel of history, to paraphrase Max Weber.
The doors of abuse become wide open when the niyya fails. Without sincerity in political commitment, decisions are very likely to be marred by irregularities because, as Ibn Khaldoun asserts, justice, understood here in its broad sense, is the basis of all civilization.
#niyya #lacking