Rabat- Once upon a time, in the faraway kingdom of Morocco, an Islamist Party leader named Benkirane won the elections of 2011 and formed a coalition government in which he appointed a minister for Administrative Reform named Abdeladim Guerrouj and who was thought to be the youngest minister in Moroccan history.
The story has it that this young and promising minister, on the eve of the reshuffle of the government, sensed that he was going to be in charge of another department (i.e. education) and made a big purchase of chocolate to offer to guests on the occasion of the baptism of his first child and made his ministry pay for it on his last day in this department.
Abdeladim (meaning the great in Arabic) maybe thought this would go unseen, but unfortunately for him, the minister who came followed him wanted to start his term with a clean slate. Though from the same party he ordered an inquiry on his predecessor’s financial statement and discovered this gross misconduct. He informed his party leader who conducted an investigation and came to the conclusion that it is indeed a case of embezzlement of public funds. He, in turn, informed his party and threw the hot potato in the lap of the poor Islamist Head of Government Benkirane.
In the meantime, the great little minister Abdeladim, with the sweet tooth, has recognized his misconduct but sadly has not resigned, as is the case in many democracies. On the contrary, he is clinging to his seat and the many perks it offers without any shame whatsoever.
Oh! I forgot to say that in Morocco, ministers never resign, they are made to resign and this is a very important difference in the cultural ethics of this country.
Candy for bitter reality
Incidentally, another minister, the socialist Habib El Malki who was in charge of the Ministry of Education some time ago, was known for his daily veracious appetite for expensive chocolate. This minister, without any shame whatsoever had the chocolate delivered to his ministry every morning and the taxpayer paid the bill.
It so seems that the Ministry of Education that they are in charge of is so bitter in substance that they have to take some good quality chocolate to sweeten the state of affairs there.
Indeed, they are right, after over half a century of independence, Morocco has failed to come up with an acceptable educational system. The Ministry of Education is the most budgetivore (in the sense of carnivore, if you please), as it swallows over 25% of the national budget with very little return.
In higher education, over thirteen public universities generate thousands of graduates every year, most of whom end up unemployed. These graduates can be spotted fruitlessly demonstrating near Parliament on an almost daily basis.
The great Abdeladim, realizing that he will be in charge of this troublesome ministry, decided to take some chocolate for a good start, maybe taking an example from the socialist minister who made it a rule to start his day with expensive chocolate in order to face the elements. Sadly, the socialist minister achieved nothing with his daily intake of this candy because education, during his tenure, went from bad to worse.
As for this poor young minister, great in chocolate intake and small in righteousness, he might face, in the weeks to come, the sack from both his ministerial post and his party position. For he has embarrassed, beyond belief, both his party boss Al Ansar and the Head of Government Benkirane, who has promised over and over to fight corruption.
Baha! Please hand Benkirane a bar of chocolate
Will Benkirane sack this young minister to set an example for the rest of his unruly, plethoric team (see my article entitled “Morocco: too much government kills government” published by MWN on 24 January 2014) or will he procrastinate in order to avoid the fall of his coalition. Either decision is bitter for Benkirane. I trust his sidekick Minister of State Baha ought to offer him some chocolate to get on with his bitter tenure.
Poor Benkirane. He is receiving a blow after a blow and the last thing he would have wanted is a corrupt minister in his ranks.
One of the salient points of his electoral platform was to fight corruption, money embezzlement, and illegal transfer of funds to foreign banks. So far, however, he has shied away from fulfilling any of his promises and, as time goes on, his popularity sinks further and further. By the end of his term he will probably drown completely, the poor soul.
Corruption in Morocco is sadly endemic. Many officials consider corruption money as a perk that goes with their office and the same is true of misuse of public funds and embezzlement. Officials use public money at will, with no qualms, because the state is very lax with them if they don’t get caught. Those that are caught face a variety of sentences. Some are punished by imprisonment while others are, at worst, only fired. Furthermore the state rarely asks them to repay the stolen money, unless it is a truly large sum.
In the Moroccan vernacular, language corruption is referred to by the cover term hlawa meaning “a candy or a sweet”. So, if an individual wants something achieved quickly bypass all laws possible, he has to give hlawa money to the official in charge.
The chocolate the two honorable ministers paid for with public money is, for them, undoubtedly a perk of their office, no more. They might even think that they did nothing wrong and that is very bad because it means that corruption is deeply ingrained in the Moroccan officials’ psyche, and that is unfortunate.
The great Abdeladim Guerrouj, prior to his chocolate episode when he started his ministerial tenure, spoke of transparency and efficiency in practice, now I wonder what he meant and why he used these terms if he was not going to stand by their message. That will remain a ministerial mystery; maybe we will never know what he meant in the first place.
The other chocolate minister Habib El Malki, the great socialist in discourse only, of course, was very straightforward in his attitude towards the philistines. Apparently, the first thing he did on becoming Minister of Education, he ordered the employees to use a back door so that he can have the stately front entrance for his exclusive use. He also ordered an elevator built for his own personal use; it cost the ministry millions of centimes.
The socialist minister wanted to prove, by all this, that he is special and thus deserves to have chocolate delivered to his office on a daily basis, not paying any attention to possible criticism from the press because of his palace umbrella, bearing in mind that he was always the preferred socialist of the late King Hassan II and his sole interlocutor in the party he belongs to.
By not sacking the chocolate minister and not acting on corruption and illegal money transfers abroad, Benkirane is proving to the people who gave him their votes to undertake important changes within the Moroccan political scene that he is, in the end, no different from his predecessors he criticized when he was in the opposition. Benkirane’s various promises to put an end to all forms of corruption and to set up good governance prove to be merely empty promises and hot air, no more.
In two years, he will have to face the electorate again in the upcoming legislative elections and the voters will certainly square up against him and his Islamist government will go down history as a government of “much ado about nothing,” that will ultimately go down the drain.
The moral of the story
If you have a sweet tooth in Morocco, better consume Moroccan almond cookies ka’b ghzal “gazelle corns,” with mint tea, they are delicious and safe and by all means stay away from foreign expensive chocolate! It only brings misfortune and bad luck to you and your surroundings. Be warned.
The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Morocco World News’ editorial policy
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