Several weeks ago, corresponding with their thirteenth annual general meeting, Transparency Maroc – a Rabat-based anticorruption NGO affiliated with Transparency International – delivered a dismal review of Morocco’s bureaucracy. The group stated that, according to a survey it administered, 46% of Moroccan businessmen admitted to engaging in corrupt practices and/or using family and personal contacts to facilitate administrative procedures on a regular basis. Furthermore, 33% of respondents also use these contacts to influence decisions on state contracts. As such, the ubiquitous use of patronage is nothing new in Morocco. What is disturbing is that it has not even marginally decreased despite nearly a decade of alleged efforts, a point that Transparency Maroc’s survey focuses on. The group reports that 67% of those same business leaders rated the government’s actions in fighting corruption as completely ineffective, with 27% labeling it effective and a mere 3% very effective.
The Moroccan government is attempting to create new mechanisms in the fight against corruption, most recently the Central Authority for the Prevention of Corruption, which has been on legislative hiatus for over a year. Last August, King Mohammed VI appointed Abdesselam Boudrar, a founder of Transparency Maroc, as the body’s director; however, many are concerned about whether it will be able to exercise full independence from the government. Analogous pseudoautonomous organizations working on other governance dimensions, such as the Royal Advisory Council on Human Rights, have not always been able to achieve full cooperation from the state when sensitive issues (such as torture) arise. The prospects are even grimmer for the Central Authority, considering that Transparency Maroc rated the legal system as the most corrupt of state institutions, followed closely by the police.
Were corruption an anomaly in a country otherwise striding towards democracy, it would be more understandable; after all, most developing countries continue to struggle with corruption even as their political systems become more open and pluralistic. However, a great many of King Mohammed VI’s initial spate of reforms have stagnated in the last half decade. Since the 2006 Countries at the Crossroads report, Morocco’s political conditions have at best held steady and at worst declined further.
In terms of media freedom, Reporters Without Borders stated that in 2008 arrests of journalists and the closing of publications continued without any sign of abating, even though on the surface taboo subjects are fewer. The most recent victim of a prison sentence was Mostapha Hurmatallah, who wrote a piece on the Moroccan army, while nearly a hundred thousand copies of the Nichane and Tel Quel were destroyed due to their alleged disrespect of Mohammed VI. Accountability for detention-related abuses, meanwhile, has improved somewhat, but the state remains a serial violator of basic human rights in relation to arrest standards and treatment of detainees.
This general stagnation of the reforms that Mohammed VI initiated has had a grave effect on the political culture of the nation. Disillusionment with the state, political system, and the absurdly bloated bureaucracy is starkly manifestation in voter turnout. While in the 1997 parliamentary elections it was 58%, it fell to 51% in 2002 and reached just 37% by 2007. If the population’s expectations are not fulfilled, if nepotism remains a necessity for a successful business and for career advancement, and if the press continues to be muzzled, Mohammed VI’s efforts at reform will be at risk of disappearing into the overflowing ashbin of Middle Eastern political reform efforts and the nation could sink further into apathy.
Photo credit: Flickr user snarl
