A statistical study which we published a week ago has revealed the fact that the urban population represents about one sixth of the total population of Morocco. This amounts to saying that those who live in the rural area are the inhabitants of this country and that we represent no more than a very weak minority by comparison. Therefore public services must be conceived as a function of the need of the rural population not the urban one. All our focus must be drawn to their needs. Their well-being in life is minimal and their suffering is much too big. But despite this, the Moroccan peasant braves all sorts of difficulties, overcomes all crises and is resolved to lead a life of privation by accepting what provisions the earth and sky provide him. If the earth is miserly and the rains cease to fall, he does not fall into despair, on the contrary he arms himself with perseverance, settles his hopes on the next year and works once again his fields in anticipation of harvesting the fruits of his labor later on.
The wealth of Morocco lies in the hands of this modest peasant, symbol of sacrifice and patience, to whom we unfortunately do not grant the proper consideration he deserves and whose interests are totally neglected by a government that is the source of all his misfortune. His resources are surrendered to the plunder of the representatives of the protectorate administration. Moreover the peasant sees his energies failing him under the weight of the exorbitant taxes he bears on his shoulders. His situation is intolerable and offending. It can be improved only at the cost of sustained efforts and only on the condition that the government in power makes a firm commitment to act, with the support of the people, towards the reforms which we have not ceased to demand so as to ameliorate the living standards in rural areas. This is not the place to enter into the details of the efforts that must be made to offer the peasant aid and the necessary support to encourage him to settle and farm. Those efforts must be part of studies and research which are beyond the available space offered by a newspaper. Nevertheless we wish through this article to bring to the attention of the government certain anomalies that accentuate the distress and misery of the peasant, especially during this suffocating crisis.
By making an effort to protect the peasants' assets, the government will preserve the country's wealth. This would not be a difficult thing to accomplish because it would cost no more than simply sending firm instructions to the administrative services in charge of rural matters, to edict appropriate regulations and to oblige its civil servants to conform to these regulations and to execute them in the spirit of justice and fairness.
Tyranny has taken on grave proportions in this country and it has especially been waged against the rural areas where the life of a human being is valued no more than any animal. Justice is almost nonexistent and it is at the least difficult to imagine how the authorities could develop a sense of fairness for peasants whose crushing majority are illiterate, when the former's only source of income comes from the withholding of property taxes paid by the rural society.
In addition to this so called "Tertib" tax, the peasant is forced to pay bribes to caids, to sheiks and their acolytes for what little strand of authority the latter claim as their right for payment for each and every occasion and sometimes payments even in the absence of any occasion. Therefore when we look closely at the peasant's assets, we can ascertain that two thirds of these resources go into the pockets of representatives of the public authority who should in principle show due respect to their providers.
Other special occasions with considerable costs for the rural society, occur when the peasant is obliged to participant in various festivals however little their merit and to present himself with his horse bedecked with golden embroidery. Even though he does not have the means to tie to the two ends together, the authorities command him to attend, dressed in new clothes, the ceremony for a low lever civil servant taking office, or to go to a moussem or some other gathering, forcing on him expenses beyond his means.
We believe that is our duty to bring to the Protectorate Administration's attention the plight of the Moroccan peasant which has become even more intolerable with the economic crisis so rife in current times. A radical change in administrative regulations is imperative and must be accompanied with a dispensation for the peasant to spare him needless expenses incurred in events as sterile as those in which he has been obliged to take part. A rural policy that is thought through better will contribute, if not to attenuate the impacts of the economic crisis, to at least give back to the Moroccan peasant his dignity which has been not only scorned but literally confiscated by low level bureaucrats.
