Reports

Working for transparency in Morocco

By Georg Neumann

Rabat Airport. Somehow just another airport, a very small one maybe. I am missing the time when you were travelling and arriving slowly, when you had time to prepare yourself while travelling. Now: Some shimmering lights in the dark. I walk from the plane to the immigration building. I arrive in Rabat, Morocco to put my feet on African soil for the first time in my life.

Working
On Transparency International’s 2008 Corruption Perceptions Index Morocco scores 3.5 out of 10 (Germany scores 7.9), indicating that corruption influences basically all aspects of public, political and economic life. Other surveys such as the Bribe Payers Index, measuring corporate bribery and launched during my stay, confirm this in more detail. I was curious: Will I be asked a bribe?

For about six weeks, I worked for Transparency International’s national chapter Transparency Maroc in Rabat, Morocco. Transparency International is an international non-governmental organisation fighting against corruption. While being associated with the international secretariat of Transparency International, national chapters form autonomous entities, with different structures and sometimes different priorities, according to the challenges of fighting corruption on a national level. This political environment can be extremely difficult and is especially in Arab countries sometimes full of obstacles for civil society organisations to work free and independently.

God, the King and the Nation, these three, are not to be touched in Morocco. Fortunately, corruption is an issue that nowadays can be discussed in public – unless of course, it involves the King and his family, or Morocco’s sovereignty, an issue that is relevant with regards to the Western Saharan territories.

My main tasks have been mostly related to the Observatoire, but also included preparations for the upcoming launch of a national Advocacy and Legal Advice Centre (ALAC), a concept developed by Transparency International for a centre providing assistance to witnesses and victims of corruption and provide valuable information about corruption hotspots to drive the advocacy efforts of the anti-corruption movement.

Work was usually most fun when I could do it together with the staff at the Observatoire, talking about world and work while simply packing folders and rolling posters to be given to journalists. And getting a couple of mint teas delivered to the office, to warm up and take a break. Tea or coffee is by the way present in many meetings I had. But it is not made by a coffee machine in an office’s kitchen in Germany, but ordered from the street, brought and served to the bureau.

I knew that work in the national chapter was very different from the work on international level. But to understand, one of my key interests was to actually live and work with these challenges faced by organisations in a country like Morocco, political as well as organisational one’s. Besides the political environment mentioned in the beginning, for example project workflows are different and sometimes take longer due to the unusual structure of Transparency Maroc, as the strategic work is done by an Executive Team who engages on a voluntary basis besides their normal jobs.

On a Saturday after about two weeks, I participated in a presentation for a group of young students which, despite being held almost completely in Arabic, turned out to be a very rewarding experience. During the discussion on corruption, the following example was given by one of the students and makes clear how corruption affects everyone. After crossing a red traffic light, you are stopped by the police. You pay 20 Dirham (about two Euros) and get away with it. There seems to be nothing bad about it, you save money, the police officer can boost up his poor salary a bit. The next time you cross a red light, as you know it’s just a matter of two Euros, you accidently hit a person who is injured badly and dies on the way to the hospital. You maybe didn’t even stop. Clearly a consequence of every day corruption. How much is the life of a person worth? Two Euros?

I joined in with a couple of questions to the group and one of my questions was: “Do you think that corruption is inevitable?” The responses were, somewhat surprisingly, positive. They felt it is and that something can be done. For me, it was great to see that these students are willing to take responsibility. The group didn’t stop discussing. Interestingly, whether being of fundamentalist views or Marxist ones, while not agreeing on the means, both agreed that corruption needs to be stopped and is dangerous for society.

Corruption is an issue that concerns everyone in Morocco. You can’t be without an opinion. When talking to people, in the train, or when bringing my cloth to the laundry, people start commenting on the corruption they have experienced and they live in their daily lives.
"You are fighting against corruption? Good luck! There is much to do." But the work of the chapter is recognised and valued all over, even if by some people there may be the feeling that not much can be done.

Sometimes, when working on the international issues of advocating for the fight against corruption from my nice and new office in an office building in Berlin, looking over the (while I am writing) snowed roofs of Berlin, I ask myself, why am I doing this and what am I working for, really? When having the contact to the people, the one’s most suffering under corrupt behaviour, from being forced to pay bribes to suffering under bad services, you are reminded of it. I feel a deep appreciation for the volunteers and engaged members of the chapter who dedicate nights and weekends to the cause, for over ten years now, because they want to ensure a fairer life for the people, because corruption undermines the human rights of the people.

Living
One of my expectations for living and working in Morocco was being prepared for a very different style of working, such as dealing with meetings delayed by hours, or a stronger presence of religion in the daily life of people. Interestingly, this was not so much the case. Maybe due to the nature of working in a civil society organisation that orientates itself very much on international concepts of human rights, religion, for example, was seen very much as an individual issue, and did not impact on the work environment or interactions with colleagues. To get a seat at my favourite lunch place, I only had to make sure that on Friday’s I would leave for lunch before the prayer was over. And as for the meetings, they were always on time. 

Settling in Rabat went pretty quickly. I have been lucky to stay with a volunteer working for Transparency Maroc, Saâd, who had a spare room to rent and who became my friend. Getting a cold did also happen quite fast, as nights and the office are cold and even during sunny days, temperature went up to only about 18 degrees. Something I didn’t expect.

An interesting experience for me was how language is used in Morocco at work. While Arabic is the official language, I was able to communicate in French and most of the population speaks French. However, for work presentations, such as for journalists or in seminars, were usually held in French to be more precise and the discussion itself in Arabic. In the field of communications, knowledge of the language is a key factor for work. Without knowledge of Arabic, unfortunately some jobs I just couldn’t do, some documents I just couldn’t read. Surprisingly, when I was travelling to the northern part of the country, I realised that some Moroccans speak better Spanish than French due to the closeness of Spain.

While I didn’t really manage to learn the language, I did learn a couple of words in Arabic, such as greetings, numbers and, not surprisingly, the word for corruption (in English pronounced “Rashwa”).

Of course, there are many anecdotal stories I could tell. Let me pick two that I feel give you some idea of daily life in Morocco. It was about time that I needed a haircut and so I went to a hair dresser that my room mate recommended. Interestingly, for every thing I planned to do, my room mate had a contact person: cutting my hair, getting the flat cleaned, ordering a taxi, anything. It’s the way you start building up your personal networks, a way of anchoring yourself in the community of neighbours. After a couple of weeks, I myself knew most of the persons on my way to work, the waiter, the person who sells me my mix of nuts, the laundry man, my cell phone sales guy actually speaking German, the concierge.

But back to one of these one-man businesses, as there are many in Morocco, the coiffeur. I arrived at half past eight in the evening and there were still two other clients waiting, watching one of the main Moroccan TV channels. I took out my magazine until it was my turn. The place is run by a very nice guy who did a great job in cutting my hair, quick and effective, the sound of the fast, nearly rhythmic scissors in my ear. The only surprise, or let me say, I somewhat expected it, came at the end, when he dried my hair finalising it that it looked a little bit like these classic 50’s Hollywood cuts. James Dean style. Like from the image of the guy on the logo of his business. Seems to be his trade mark. Fortunately, my curls were all back into place the next day…

The other story is about being invited to a Moroccan marriage. It was really just the last weekend before I left when the director of the Observatoire invited me to join him at his brother’s wedding. Inviting me to such a familiar event was an example of this Moroccan amiability that I lived. A Moroccan wedding is a night-long spectacle and a show for everyone (but the one’s who get married). Colourful, full of music, pastry and symbolic gestures. But nothing to engage yourself, everything is to watch. When I arrived, my host just left to pick up the couple. I had some difficulties joining the festivities (thankfully, I remembered the director’s last name), which was compensated by being presented to the whole family and a special seat at the table of the parents of the groom. Then the couple arrived, with glory and music, carried on a sedan, the bride in her first dress. She was to change her dress about five times this night, leaving and joining the festivities again. Video cameras covered each moment and projected them on big plasma screens in the wedding hall that was decorated with pink seats and at the tables, the women sat in their best dresses. I finally understood the purpose of these beautiful dresses sold in the medinas of the cities. The marriage lasted the whole night. When I arrived at eleven at night, I thought I was late. But I was just in time.

Before closing, let me add a couple of random thoughts I wrote in my electronic diary (www.twitter.com/georg_neu) illustrating a little bit my time and days:

Evaluating
Sometimes I am tempted to say that the most important part of this “internship” is now over, now that I have returned. I could carry on and live and do things just as I did before. But in reality, I have to face that I need to look at all these experiences over the last weeks and look at what the little and the big moments I’ve lived mean for my work and my life. Some comments I’ve made on this blog already, some more may follow while I am caught up back in my day-to-day activities. Some observations may strike me the next time I will be in the region, working or travelling, or the next time I will be discussing issues related to the region with my colleagues or friends - and some will become clear to me only in a couple of years… or maybe never.
Will I change my life now, compared to how I lived it before? Maybe not. Maybe yes. But I am definitely more conscious again of HOW I am living it, and how it could be different, if I wanted it to be, or if I were born under a different star.

And, in more than six weeks, I wasn’t asked a bribe. 
I leave early in the morning. The sun rises behind the old Roman castle of Rabat, greeting me one last time before I fly back to Berlin.

Transparency International
Alt Moabit 96
10559 Berlin
www.transparency.org

Observatoire de la Corruption
36, Bd Al abtal
Angle Oum Rbih Agdal
Rabat
www.transparencymaroc.ma