Being a Moroccan, one would tell himself that any questioning of the sovereignty of Morocco over the Sahara is ultimately a high treason act.
Well, I am a Moroccan and I totally advocate for a clear, transparent and critical approach in dealing with our national policy’s’ top priority.
What pushed us to lose any support for our position worldwide and an international eagerness to sympathize with the Polisario front is definitely the rigid narrow minded foreign and national policies the lawmakers in the Kingdom have been pursuing for so many years.
The essence of any conquest of the hearts and minds is either truth or compassion, and Morocco is way far from having any of these tools in his possession. The Polisario officials have been clever in making the best out of the several resources in their possession, from rare cases of torture and arbitrary arrest, to hunger striking Sahrawis in the camps, all broadcasted worldwide and displaying Morocco as the merciless invader and the Human Rights violator (which sometimes turns to be true!).
I have been brainwashed enough to believe in this concept of total obedience to the authority, and the fear of revising the official statements over the issue has been implemented in our subconscious in a way we started fooling ourselves by claiming we are aware of the historical, political religious and economic history of the Sahara, while we don’t know even the basics of the Western Sahara problem.
I am not here to defend the Polisario front ideology, but rather to question what we have been told and to what extent are we defending wrong causes using false excuses and made up arguments. The authority in Arab countries has long lost its legitimacy in ruling people, and whatever comes from a corrupted administration cannot be considered as relevant under the current circumstances.
The truth, even if it is relative and no one can claim to be right, is nonetheless limited to specific boundaries and scales where the general consensus lay, in order to make this world a livable place where amid confusion one can still perceive the wrong and the right and make upon it decisions and actions.
In the case of the Sahara, the truth is yet to be revealed, but where are the people seeking it? We have been accustomed to the general trend of blind acceptance, and the critical thinking necessary to unveil the details of the issue has been abandoned for the sake of a so called allegiance, allegiance to the throne, to the administration or to corruption itself.
As a Moroccan, it is time for me to throw up my pre-arranged ideas, it is time to say no to stereotypes and clichés, it is time to go by myself find out about my other half of the country, and make up my mind to model my own perception of the conflict, based on first hand data rather than what is channeled every day to us.
I am going to Tindouf and Southern Morocco to revisit history, to analyze the policies in place and to conclude what is the truth, what is the conflict about and what is my stand as part of it.
Here begins the quest, a quest not only for personal satisfaction and self-interest fulfillment, but an adventure to chase the truth in its hometown and open my mind to what’s real instead of what’s supposed to be according to someone or something.
