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### Viewing cable 08RABAT154, MR. EL-HIMMA GOES TO PARLIAMENT: AMBASSADOR'S

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Reference ID | Created | Released | Classification | Origin
--- | --- | --- | --- | ---
08RABAT154 | 2008-02-19 17:05 | 2010-12-11 21:09 | CONFIDENTIAL | Embassy Rabat

`

    VZCZCXYZ0008
    PP RUEHWEB

    DE RUEHRB #0154/01 0501719
    ZNY CCCCC ZZH
    P 191719Z FEB 08
    FM AMEMBASSY RABAT
    TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 8155
    INFO RUEHAS/AMEMBASSY ALGIERS 4674
    RUEHMD/AMEMBASSY MADRID 5909
    RUEHNK/AMEMBASSY NOUAKCHOTT 3659
    RUEHFR/AMEMBASSY PARIS 4930
    RUEHTU/AMEMBASSY TUNIS 9509
    RUEHCL/AMCONSUL CASABLANCA 3893

` `

    C O N F I D E N T I A L RABAT 000154

    SIPDIS

    SIPDIS

    STATE FOR NEA/MAG AND DRL/NESCA

    E.O. 12958: DECL: 02/19/2018
    TAGS: PGOV PHUM KDEM PINR MO
    SUBJECT: MR. EL-HIMMA GOES TO PARLIAMENT: AMBASSADOR'S
    CALL ON CHAMBER FOREIGN AFFAIRS COMMITTEE HEAD FOUAD ALI
    EL-HIMMA

    Classified By: Ambassador Thomas T. Riley for reasons 1.4 (b) and (d).

    ¶1. (C) Summary: In a February 13 meeting, prominent
    parliamentarian and royal confidante Fouad Ali El-Himma
    discussed with the Ambassador his efforts to better
    coordinate local, regional and national governance in the
    poor constituency he represents. El-Himma asserted that
    Morocco's legislature has "all the legal authority it needs"
    and complained bitterly about mismanagement of resources and
    lack of vision among the parliamentary leadership.
    Interestingly, El-Himma declined to engage on issues like
    Western Sahara (in which he was intimately engaged as Deputy
    Interior Minister) and did not even mention his "All
    Democrats Movement," an initiative which has prompted
    clamorous speculation in the domestic media about his
    political ambitions. End summary.

    ¶2. (C) The Ambassador met on February 13 with Fouad Ali
    El-Himma, Chairman of Parliament's Foreign Affairs, Islamic
    Affairs, and Defense Committee. El Himma is also leader of
    the parliamentary bloc with provides lynch-pin support to
    Prime Minister El-Fassi's minority government. The former
    Deputy Interior Minister and childhood friend and confidante
    of King Mohammed VI, is still commonly viewed as perhaps the
    most influential person in Morocco, after the monarch. In a
    90-minute, one-on-one meeting, El-Himma talked at length
    about his efforts to help Skhour Rhamna, the poor
    constituency north of Marrakech he was elected to represent
    in September 2007. El-Himma said he had been leading a
    continuing dialogue between local officials, NGOs, and
    private sector leaders to discuss ways to attract investment,
    generate employment, and upgrade economic development
    activities in the district.

    ¶3. (C) El-Himma claimed that Skhour Rhamna was the poorest
    district in Morocco and lamented that it had not been
    selected as a beneficiary for Millennium Challenge Account
    projects, the first of which are being launched in early
    ¶2008. El-Himma urged that the USG look closely at Skhour
    Rhamna as it planned future assistance activities, pledging
    that he would make sure the USG received the full cooperation
    of all levels of the GOM in such an endeavor. If you invest
    in Skhour Rhamna, "we will give you your success story," he
    asserted. One potential asset he mentioned was the air base
    at Ben Guerir, the former NASA alternate landing site.

    ¶4. (C) Asked about his perspective as a new parliamentarian,
    El-Himma complained bitterly about the mismanagement of staff
    resources at the institution. Upon arrival, El-Himma
    discovered, to his dismay, that he could not hire even one
    staff member of his own choosing. Parliament's entire human
    resources budget was already tapped out, with 600 persons on
    the staff payroll, of whom "maybe 30 or 40 actually do
    something," he complained. He directly criticized former
    lower house speaker Abdelouahed Radi (now Minister of
    Justice) for having allocated jobs as political party favors
    and paybacks rather than on merit. El-Himma also clearly
    implied that his relations with Radi's successor, speaker
    Mustapha Mansouri, were chilly. (Comment: We had heard this
    from independent sources.)

    ¶5. (C) El-Himma challenged the widely held view that
    parliament was a weak institution because its powers were
    circumscribed by the constitution. The existing legal
    framework provides all the power it needs to effect change,
    he argued. The problem has been the myopic vision of the
    political parties in the parliament, he contended. If
    parliament got together and presented effective legislation
    based on strong consensus, the GOM could not and would not
    say no, he argued.

    ¶6. (C) Returning to the theme of helping his district,
    El-Himma told the Ambassador he had decided to step down from
    his post as Minister-Delegate for the Interior (i.e. Deputy
    Minister) to go back to a quieter life in his home town and
    focus on his family and his community. Once there, he
    decided he needed not to rest but to work hard to improve his
    community, concluding that he could best do so by
    representing his district in parliament.

    ¶7. (C) Comment: As Deputy Minister of the Interior from
    2002 to the summer of 2007, he overshadowed the actual
    Minister (Chakib Benmoussa) and was widely considered, mainly

    because of his proximity to the King, to be the second most
    influential man in Morocco. Many still believe this is the
    case. It is hard not to think him disingenuous in claiming
    that he stepped down from his ministerial post in the summer
    of 2007, not to enter parliament but to return to his dusty
    and rural hometown to spend time with his family.

    ¶8. (C) Comment continued: Perhaps most significant in the
    conversation was what El-Himma did not say. He ignored the
    Ambassador's question on Western Sahara, an issue on which he
    worked in the Interior Ministry and as a leader of numerous
    diplomatic missions to press Morocco's case in world capitals
    and the first Manhasset meeting. El-Himma also declined to
    say anything about his leadership of the "All Democrats
    Movement" (reftel), an initiative which has provoked
    clamorous speculation in the domestic media about his
    possible plans to form a new political party that would seem
    well placed to steamroll its rivals and transform the
    political landscape. Instead, with the Ambassador, El-Himma
    clung to his pose as a newly minted parliamentarian who has
    come to the capital determined to do something good for his
    district.

    ¶9. (C) Comment continued: This is doubtful, at least in
    part. El-Himma's proximity to the King has apparently not
    been diminished. In fact, we have heard that he was called
    to join the King on his early February skiing vacation in
    France. We think more plausible the commonly held view that
    El-Himma has been tasked by the King with going into
    parliament, seeing why it doesn't work well, and ultimately
    fixing it. Perhaps by forming a dominant new party, or
    perhaps through more indirect approaches. We are reminded of
    the 1980 Robert Redford film "Brubaker," in which the newly
    appointed warden enters a corrupt and brutal prison disguised
    as an inmate, to see for himself what the problems are from
    the ground level. El-Himma watching will continue to be a
    major sport for observers of Morocco's domestic political
    scene and will likely yield interesting results in the months
    to come. End comment.

    *****************************************
    Visit Embassy Rabat's Classified Website;
    http://www.state.sgov.gov/p/nea/rabat
    *****************************************

    Riley

`