On the King’s Recent Speech

By Jamal Elabiad

One of the latest articles I have written was about the changes that would take place after Moroccans took to the streets to call for deep political reforms.

The recent speech of king Mohamed VI not only confirmed the conclusions I came to in the article, but it also put the lie to all the accusations that were directed against the February 20 movement, such as the movement wants to overthrow the monarchy and its leaders are agents of the Polizario Front and seeking to serve Algeria and Spain’s agenda in Morocco.

There are many Moroccan political parties that refused to take part in the movement’s peaceful protests organized on Feb. 20 because of those accusations and others. Think, for instance, of the attitude of the ruling Istiqlal party towards the movement. There are also a large number of Moroccan columnists who devoted many articles only to discredit the movement leaders and tarnish their image through spreading rumors about them. Regrettably, the director of the Moroccan daily Al Massae is one example in point.

It is plain clear from the speech king Mohamed VI delivered recently that the monarchy responded favorably to the demands of the February 20 movement promising to bring about most of the changes the movement has asked for, including a constitutional reform. Add to this that the king’s speech came as a shock to the Moroccan politicians and journalists who expressed strong opposition to the February 20 movement simply because they thought that the monarchy’s position on the movement was similar to theirs.

Nobody knows for sure why those politicians and journalists did not apologize to the movement’s leaders and supporters for the baseless accusations they leveled against them, but everyone knows that those politicians and journalists are among the lobbies whose interests will be in jeopardy if Morocco becomes a real place of democracy, human rights, and equality before the law.