King Mohammed VI: A Speech Unlike Any Other

By Majid Morceli

San Francisco- Today’s speech is truly a speech for the ages. The king was honest with Moroccans and their enemies alike. He laid everything on the table, without any ambiguity. Everything that needed to be said was said. He has not left out anyone from Algeria and the Polisario to the UN and the US.

There is, however, a question that needs to be answered: what will Moroccans do to make sure that what was said by the king is not just ink on paper? The king cannot do it alone unless all Moroccans start feeling the urgency of what‘s at stake.

He said that we have no oil or gas, but we do have a cause that we all believe in. Simply believing is not sufficient to counter deep-pocketed, relentless enemy. The reason many outsiders feel sympathy for our enemies is because they work harder and they never slack off.

You find them in all corners of the globe defending their “cause” as far away as Australia or New Zealand. It is shameful that an estimated 4.5 million Moroccans live abroad and only an extreme minority cares about the National Cause, whereas Morocco’s foes can be counted in the hundreds.

While Algeria has the money to spend in order to defeat Moroccans, we should be able to counter their spending with our number and our commitment to the cause. Morocco’s adversaries are being fired up when they see that Morocco’s diaspora and civil society are dormant.

Moroccans are champions when it comes to protesting about nothing and everything, but when was the last time we have seen a two or three million man march to denounce Algeria’s adamant will to bring Moroccans to the knees?

The least Moroccans could do is to demonstrate to the world that the so-called Western Sahara is national and sacred cause and not a monarchy cause as Algeria would want the world to believe.

Tomorrow, we will witness the media in Morocco all pumped up by the speech, while the Algerian media will go all out to discredit the speech. Moroccans should not get excited for a day or two and then forget about the whole issue until the next anniversary of the Green March. The work must continue and if we need to keep working defending the cause until the end of time, then so be it.

Let’s hope that after this speech, Moroccans will finally realize that their future and the future of the next generations is under constant threats. Or better yet, let’s hope that our neighbors will realize that the Sahara will remain Moroccan until the end of time.