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Topic Discussion III
Participation in
Democratic Decision-Making:
The Vital Voices of Women, Civil Society and
Pluralism
Room 5
(8 of 22 pages)
Driss Menoun: In the name of God, the merciful, the compassionate, my name
is Driss Menoun. I'm a parliament member from Morocco and I'm head of the Engineers and the Labor Union.
My first remark which I want to make and I mean to address it to my Arab colleagues, speaking of Arabic language,
I'm sorry that I noticed that many of the interventions made yesterday and today came from Arab colleagues made
in English or in a foreign language. I'm sorry, I thought that it is essential for us to use our native language
which is Arabic, because we can express ourselves better. I had to struggle a lot in order to learn Arabic, so
this is my first remark.
The second remark, when speaking of the civil society, I have an inquiry in mind, especially when it comes to the
NGOs, especially on the national level. Don't you think that there will be certain question marks for the institutions
which are mentioned in the constitutions? For example, in Morocco there are trade unions and there are syndicates
and it is all stated in the constitution to represent all groups and all sectors of the citizens, whether it has
to do with the vocational groups or other groups.
There is for example a syndicate for doctors, for economists, another syndicate for writers, so syndicates representing
the civil society and they are represented in the parliament and they have a word to say in front of the government
and they are allowed to have pressure inside the government and they can contribute to the success of the social
peace and strengthen it, as well.
When it comes to the organizations or to the societies, I think they can contribute strongly on the national level
-- on the local level, especially on the level of the municipalities where there is a need for resources, especially
financial resources for basic equipment and infrastructure for the cities and for the areas surrounding the cities.
In Morocco there are cities and towns and I think that the population of each of these cities is more than 200,000
inhabitants. These cities were equipped fully by electricity, roads and water, all financed by the citizens themselves,
through the help of the street societies or the organizations on the local level, where the local administration
played only the role of the supervisor and they didn't interfere at all when it comes to financing such projects,
infrastructure projects that is. The number of these societies exceeded 75 societies and they were on the federal
level, where they have offices comprising heads of the local societies, to provide the infrastructure for their
cities.
And the contribution of the population was voluntary and they were happy to take part in achieving this infrastructure
project and I can give you a figure here that the price of one meter of land was 200 dirham and it became 4,000
dirham in a very short time, which means that there was a value added for this project which enabled the people
to have houses that are in good locations and they have good environment around them and I should think that this
is a very important example for other countries and we are ready to give more information on our experience in
this regard.
The local group and the government had only one role, is to supervise the work of these NGOs or the work of these
societies when needed only. In Morocco there are also other district organizations where different parties, political
parties are represented. Some parties consider this as a mistaken or as a wrong thing to be done because they want
things to be clear, so the society is -- society after all, it's an organization, a people organization and the
pressure exerted on the government is always limited.
Before I came here, I had a meeting with the Minister of Finance within the framework of one of those organizations
and he told me that you are in an organization and you present some requirements. I'm sorry, I can't answer these
requirements, I can't meet them. So that was the answer of the Minister, because he thinks that this organization
is of no importance.
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