[www.moroccoboard.com] HASSAN MASIKY he job of a government is to govern, fair enough! As the strike of the transportation sector in Morocco has exposed that the government of Moroccan Prime Minister (PM) Abbas El Fassi is unable to perform. Abuses and acts of violence were perpetrated by the strikers and the government handling of the situations that ensued was a fiasco.
The number of death and injured in traffic accidents in Morocco is a national tragedy that costs the country dearly in treasure and blood. Ending the “war of the roads”, as Moroccan like to call this epidemic, has been a central issue for consecutive governments. However, it was up to the current young and energetic Minister of Transportation Karim Ghalab, from the Party of “Al-Istiqlal” (PI), to tackle this issue heads on. Mr. Ghalab drafted a legislation that was supposed to make the roads safer by toughening the rules to get a driver license, adopting a points based driver license to keep bad drivers off the road, and increasing fines including jail time for traffic infractions. The professionals of the transportation sector did not like this new law and decided to go on strike to show their displeasure.
For nine days a large number of taxi, bus, and truck operators stopped working in an act of defiance toward MP El Fassi and his Minister of Transportation. Obviously, the drivers have the right to strike, however, few of the strikers decided to take matters further by physically and verbally attacking individuals who crossed the picket line, destroying property and blocking major intersection in cities around the country. Hiding behind the right to strike, protestors violated the rights of their colleagues to work as they pleased. These acts of violence are unacceptable and give union struggles (nidal annakabi) a bad name. By bring into play other social demands outside the scope of the new transportation bill and manipulating some of the strikers, The Unions have used the strike to hold the country hostage inflicting heavy loses on innocent individuals and companies and harming the national economy.
The intensity and violence of the strike took PM El Fassi’s by surprise underscoring the gap between the government and the average citizen. Instead of working with professionals and the unions who are familiar with the issues related to transportation and infrastructure, Minister Ghallab relied on a closed circle of advisers to write his legislation underestimating the backlash against the new law. More alarming is the speed in which the first chamber of Representatives adopted the proposed law without much of a Parliamentarian debate. The representatives of the people are clearly representing no body but their own interest, if that!! Similarly, the majority elected government neglected to gauge the people’s pulse before implementing a controversial law. No wonder Moroccans feel under represented by El Fassi government and unrepresented by the Parliament.
Hiding on the surface of this work stoppage are political and electoral calculations unrelated to the issues in the new transportation bill. Several political parties seized the moment to score political points by coming out pretending to either: support the strikers as did the Socialist USFP through its Union (CDT), protect the citizens from bad drivers as did PI, criticize the government performance as did the Islamists of the PJD, or play a mediator as did the newly formed PAM. While the country was in a stand still and the average Moroccan was reeling from sky rocketing food prices and scarce necessities due to the strike, political parties were selfishly jockeying for future electorate positions before the June 2009 ballots; politics as usual á la marocain.
Without question, Morocco is in dire need for a new transportation bill that would address the current crisis facing the Moroccan driver and the industries concerned. However, the newly proposed laws that were proposed by Minister Ghallab and are currently frozen as a result of the strike have serious flows and do not take in consideration local realties. Improving road conditions, increasing salaries of the security forces personnel and clamping down on corrupt police officers and judicial officials are as important as in new legislations. A fair law is useless of not implemented fairly and democratically.
In all, the recent strike was a good, if not perfect, exercise in democracy for Moroccans. It is part of growing pains for a nascent democracy. Let’s hope that the behavior of some elements will not deter more young people from voting this year. Apathy is dangerous for democracy and the enemies of the people know it. Young people must get involved to let their frustration out and take charge of their destiny. One must not get discouraged.
the point system is a very good decision by the governement it is implemented in all over the world , our neighbours the tunisians applied this system 5 years ago and it is working less accidents there , taxi drivers before speeding or misdbehaving they need to think twice because it will mean 3 points on their driving licence if they carry on their negligeance and gambling with people s lives they will loose their driving licence strikes are citizens rights but in this one , enough is enough , ther are mothers , kids , fathers dying daily on moroccans roads most accidents are caused by taxis (grand taxis) it s time to do something otherwise more innocent people will loose their lives and more famillies will be destroyed also there are taxis very ancient (road unworthy ) over 30 years olds , killing machines the next step will be to clean morocco from these old mercedes , in egypt they started implementing this system exchanging all old taxis with new ones which give the clients a receipt too people are worried from change but it is not a choice it s became an obligation a necessity to save lives
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/22/2009 11:47 by spring2009.
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