What Will Happen if Moroccans Take to the Streets?

By Jamal Elabiad

What will happen if Moroccans take to the streets to call for political change? I asked myself this question while watching on Al Jazeera and other TV channels what is happening in Egypt and what happened in Tunisia two weeks ago.

The Tunisians managed to overthrow the twenty-three-year-rule of their president, and the Egyptians are on the verge of doing the same after more than 30 years of dictatorship. It’s beyond doubt that the reasons both nations decided to revolt against their rulers do exist in Morocco. Poverty, unemployment, nepotism, and high food prices are just examples in point.

Protests in Morocco, however, will not lead to the removal of the monarchy for several reasons. One is that most Moroccans know quite well that today’s monarchy is much better than what it was in the past when it comes to human rights, freedom of the press, corruption and so on. Add to this that Moroccans are well aware of the fact that the fall of the monarchy will surely lead to bloody tribal conflicts. Think of Iraq! In brief, the monarchy is not to blame for the social maladies Moroccans have been suffering from for too long.

It’s the government that will fall if the revolution comes to Morocco simply because most of its ministers have done almost nothing to solve Moroccans’ serious problems. Take unemployment as an example. The government did not take any action to fix this problem though several jobless graduates set themselves on fire last year in Rabat. And it’s only when Zine El-Abidine Ben Ali fled his country that our government started to address the joblessness of graduates in Morocco.

It’s also the ruling Istiqlal party that Moroccans will overthrow due to that fact that it only serves the interests of the Fasi families (wealthy families mostly from the city of Fez who are close to the power) and those closest to them around Morocco. To know how many people of high social and political rank belong to the Fasi families, read what a young Moroccan blogger wrote recently:

The Fasi family is a vivid example to see how crucial the familial belonging is to the social and political ascension. The current government consists of three ministers from the Fasi family: Abbas Elfasi, the Prime Minister; who is Alal Elfasi's son-in-law. Tayb Elfasi Alfihri, the minister of Foreign Affairs, who is also Abass Elfasi's nephew and Yassmina Baddou, the minister of Health, whose father Abd Rahmane Badou, was a minister in the 70s.

The other jammy Fasis occupy no less sensitive positions. Yassmina Badou's husband, Ali Elfasi Elfihri, is both the General Director of the “Office National de l'Eau Potable“, "Office Nationale de l'Electricité" and the President of the “Fédération Royale Marocaine de Football“; he is also the brother of Tayb Elfasi Elfihri and Othman Fasi Elfihri, the General Director of the “Société Nationale des Autoroutes du Maroc“ . And all the three lucky men are Abass Elfasi's nephews.

“The people want to overthrow the Fasi government!” This is one of the slogans Moroccans will chant when the uprising knocks their doors.

This article first appeared on Al Jazeera Talk English.