[Tribune libre] Chronicle of a political winter: the fall of the unconscious?

Credits: Fadel Senna/AFP

There is a sort of winter feel to this spring prelude, it must be said. The wind blows on the Legislative Body. The scandals pile up in layers. Arrests are raining down in all directionscrossing both the political spectrum and the three major powers of the State: commissioners, justice officials, but above all parliamentarians from all sides, some of whom are particularly well known to public opinion.

A priori, these arrests are deployed in indifference to party or institutional affiliationexcluding the thesis of an intra- or inter-partisan proxy war. The modus operandi of the arrests suggests that the will of the State is indeed at work.

Naturally, laudable is the state enterprise which goes on a crusade against the illegality – and in this case the immorality – of the “without conscience”. Nevertheless, such actions inevitably raise the question of timing, or the temporality during which the arrests took place. Because it is an open secret that the illicit acts targeted do not date from yesterday. They are anchored in the workings of the state apparatus and the outbreak of recent scandals is indeed proof of this. The question eventually emerges by itself: has the state suddenly woken up or has it finally decided to stop turning a blind eye?

History can, in this case, shed light on our present. Because these arrests are reminiscent of the famous sanitation campaign of 1996. Taking a closer look, this campaign obeyed two distinct logics which, all nuances kept, clarify the issues of the current operations.

Transposed to current operations, these two logics make sense, at least one could plausibly argue so. On the one hand, the State must act against those “without conscience” who have invested the state apparatus, all in all, faced with the risk of emergence of “parallel structures » ; “this danger which awaits the State[i]» to quote the eminent Hassan Aourid. On the other hand, the State needs to alleviate the pressure on the Treasury in a context marked by the launch of projects as vital as they are strategic: universal health coverage, water stress which calls for a rethinking of the agricultural model and the modalities transporting drinking water, organizing large-scale sporting events, etc.

Politics thus combines with taxation to resurrect “the campaign” for a political moment. But to clean up through campaigns, to purify according to the circumstances, to ward off by the effect of announcement, are mechanisms that only occur in the past. Maybe in the present. Not at all about the future, worthy of the Morocco to which we all aspire.

This idea which calls for the responsibility of the State is legitimate. Naturally. But to place the moralization of political life solely on the State is to throw a wrench into the water. Because a State is, among other things, a population. A population made up of citizens, a civil society, and above all political parties.

However, with a few exceptions, what do the latter offer if not a disparate identity – if there is an identity – which borders on the grotesque? if not a outfit of people, not missing the opportunity to prove that they were woven from odds and ends, in a hurrywhen they debate by throwing plates, or demonstrate their probity by money laundering, drug trafficking or making defamatory remarks?

While waiting for better omens for our parties, Morocco is in 97th place in the ranking of the perception of corruption[ii]. More than 29 parliamentarians have been implicated in corruption cases. Internal party scandals follow one another. But King Mohammed VI’s call to adopt a legally binding code of ethics for the legislative institution could accelerate the process of moralizing political life.

More than ever. An anti-corruption legal corpus to deal with illicit enrichment, conflict of interest and the probity of our parliamentarians is essential. Otherwise, the moralization of public affairs will remain wishful thinking. And the other Morocco, a chimera.

Taha Bekhtiar

[1] Sanitation campaign in Morocco (immunization of politics and contamination of justice), Michel Laurent and Guilain Denoeux

[i] From the parallel structure, Hassan Aourid, March 19, 2024, Zamane

[ii]