HOW DOES MOROCCO FARE?

      (PHOTO BY CANDACE FEIT) 

An Article in the Washington Post reported today that Susan E. Rice, a senior fellow from the Brookings Institution and a former assistant secretary of state for African affairs from 1997 to 2001, and Stewart Patrick, a research fellow at the Center for Global Development, published the “Index of State Weakness in the Developing World.” The index is described as an empirical tool that will provide U.S. policymakers with a user-friendly interface to identify the specific sources of weakness that stymie the progress of third world countries. The tool will enable policymakers to concentrate their efforts and investments more effectively by highlighting the country’s strengths and weaknesses. It is designed to rank and assess 141 developing countries, each suffering from a unique combination of pathologies, on their performance in fulfilling their functions of statehood. Those functions are divided into four core responsibilities:

·          providing security

·          maintaining legitimate political institutions

·          fostering equitable economic growth

·          meeting their people’s human needs

The effort is aimed at preventing failed and failing states from falling prey to terrorism, despots, neocolonialist regimes, and international criminals, and from being a burden on regional economies. There are ways for Morocco to ace the four requirements the index uses as a measuring standard.

1.       The Moroccan government needs to conduct periodic performance analysis at all levels of the government. It is thus that gaps will be identified and adequate corrective measures could be implemented to enhance performance.

2.       Alleviating poverty should be a priority. To do so, the government needs to cease using poverty as a political tool to coerce the citizenry into compliance. A serious effort needs to be exerted to eradicate the causes of poverty in Morocco: illiteracy, limited access to adequate lodging, the inexistence of local funds for community projects, the unavailability of productive tools the citizens could use to better their situation. The government needs to spearhead social initiatives and encourage them.

3.       Respect human, civil, and political rights as outlined in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the Arab Charter on Human Rights. The welfare of your constituents should be the driving force behind any political policy, be it internal or external. A true token of democracy is that the government serves the citizen and not vice versa.

4.       Be open to constitutional and institutional democratic reforms and provide political, economic, social, and religious forums through which critical issues could be debated and impediments to progress could be uncovered without fear of retribution. It is only by enacting such reforms that social tensions could be defused.

Morocco needs to take the initiative and lay the groundwork for a prosperous future for its citizens. The way I see it, the individual Moroccan today is ill-equipped to engage in an effort to democratize the political institutions and positively affect the economy. It is the government’s responsibility to equip its constituents with the ability to be a causative force toward the development of Morocco.

Ahmed T. B. Copyright © 2008