Moroccan journalist Ahmed Benchemsi sets out to expose the government of Morocco, which Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has commended for taking steps toward democracy, as a « subtle dictatorship. » He first presents three reasons to believe that Morocco is indeed democratic—the permission that has been given to political prisoners to speak of their abuse, the country’s system of free elections, and polls that have shown high levels of satisfaction with the king.
Benchemsi then returns to each of these points to reveal the truth—the
political prisoners cannot utter the names of the police officers who
mistreated them, freely elected politicians have little power in the
monarchical government, and the magazines containing the above-mentioned
polls were burned. Even though they recorded positive results,
authorities destroyed them, following the reasoning that the king is
sacred and above any sort of polling. These realities suggest a
dictatorship, not a democracy, but a dictatorship less vulgar than
others in the region. Yet the resistance is subtle, too, Benchemsi
notes. Protesters have convinced the king to create a commission that
will draft a new constitution, which will then be submitted for
democratic editing before being voted on by the public. Benchemsi hopes
that such « subtle shaking of subtle dictatorship » will continue and
that his country can bring about reform without unnecessary conflict and
casualties.
