“There is no crueler tyranny than that which is perpetrated under the shield of law.” Charles de Montesquieu.
Fouad Ali al Himma, the unofficial leader of the PAM party, which has just won most of contended rural and urban seats in the communal election held on Friday in Morocco, couldn’t contain his delight in front of frenzied supporters and bursting camera flashes.
Born in a modest family in the outskirts of Marrakesh, al Himma has been very early on in his life noticed by the head hunters of the ministry of education for his astute skills and sagacity at school (read Ali Amar’s Mohamed VI: the Big Misunderstanding – Calman Levy). For these purported talents he was catapulted classmate of the then crown prince Mohamed at the Royal College. Later on, he was appointed by late King Hassan II, chief of the crown prince’s personal cabinet. Al Himma quickly became the right hand man of freshly enthroned Mohamed VI and the king’s omnipotent head of the interior. A position that offered al Himma, with little if no accountability, a de facto second most influential and powerful position in the Moroccan state apparatus. One can easily foresee the next move: legislative elections on March 2011 when the Vice King as I suppose one might now call al Himma, is most likely to be -again- bolstered but this time as prime minister. Then even the so-called executive branch of the government may fall under the realm of sacrality. Not even the illusion of accountability will be left I’m afraid.
Hisham Almiraat 