No one can confute the premise that before arguers present and elaborate their political view, they need to organize their argument, taking into account the potential doubt and criticism that they have to face up to.
Data Collection
The speeches which comprise our corpus were taken from one official site of Mr. Benkirane or were found on YouTube. The speeches gleaned from YouTube were rendered either in Arabic or Moroccan Arabic and were translated into English.
Data Selection Criteria
The main criterion for text selections hinges on context; the texts analyzed are deliberately chosen, for they reflect the social, economic and political environment of the country at the time.
Once more I would like to stress that the linguistic forms used in Mr. Benkirane’s speeches are not arbitrary and that they do have specific functions to fulfill.
This work focuses on a critical discourse analysis of the political discourse in Morocco. Before we delve into the analysis of Benkirane’s speeches, it would be appropriate to shed light on the political, economic and social environment that conditioned political argumentation. As I said, before chiseling away at the speeches at hand, it would be convenient to shed light on the historical and social context in which the speeches were produced. Therefore, establishing the context of a political speech is of paramount importance.
The following speech reflects the head of government’s response to the opposition’s criticisms leveled at Mr. Benkirane’s policies; it is worth noting that the opposition within the confines of the Moroccan parliament plays a watchdog function that consists in monitoring and controlling the work of the Moroccan government through the monthly oral questions directed to the Prime Minister.
The minutes of the forty-ninth session
August 13th, 2012
Speech n°:1
“Although we increased the price of gasoline by 2 dirhams and diesel by 1 dirham, Praise Be to Allah, citizens still find fuels available and with a reasonable price. And Praise Be to Allah, people accepted this. But let me just remind the brother from the National Rally of Independents: how many times was this question of increasing the price of fuel raised in the government as an economic necessity? This never happened, for there was fear and reservation. As far as we are concerned, we are not afraid and have no reservations. We relied on people’s trust in us and addressed them plainly.
However, some ill-intentioned and malignant individuals tried to urge people to demonstrate against fuel price increases. These attempts fell through, though. If what we did was done a year ago, things might have taken a different turn. Therefore, dear respectable representatives, we took over to cope with difficult but not impossible tasks, and If Allah- the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful- Wills, we will make it. We are not over the moon, as some claim. We lied to no one. People voted for us not because of the statistics but because of other things.
Yet, the figures we provided are not deceptive; the figures we talked about we will try to achieve gradually at the end of our term. However, we encountered a circumstantial crisis that was bigger than we had expected. It was me who asked the Minister of Finance and Economy to talk to citizens frankly and to tell it like it is. Actually, there are hurdles which we will overcome Thanks God, the situation is under control. We took the necessary precautions. I’ m still amazed to find that there are some individuals who still criticize the move we made with regard to fuel price increase. I increased fuel price and society accepted the decision; therefore, we can save the government budget 5.7 billion dirham. (…)
We have to realize that we are in the same boat and those who dream of reverting to the old methods of cunning and deception, political control, giving orders to ministers via phone calls and cursing officials must realize that these days are gone; it is no longer possible, no longer possible, do you understand? (…) I’m not one of those who believe that government is created by Allah to live in an ivory tower and send down revelations to believers, I strongly believe in sharing and partnership; we are partners with everyone. (…) let me tell members of parliament that if the Prime Minister makes a mistake, give him away and do so in a useful way that will help the government move forward because a moment ago I laughed in that I’m a human being, this is it …because a woman said to me “how I wish you would make it, but you won’t.” Wewill make it, God willing. Wewill succeed.
Those who are attempting to derail us, using all tools available are afraid of the successful experience of consensual alternation headed by former Prime Minister, Abderrahmane Youssoufi. (…) With regard to fighting corruption, we haven’t returned the sword in its sheath. But let me confess that fighting corruption is no easy task. You know what? The difficult thing is the day you find us engaged in corruption. That would be the gloomiest day. When you come to fight corruption, you broach the subject and the resurrection day comes about, so to speak, you start saying “where am I?” (…) It is our duty to preserve the stability of the country and uphold democracy; we don’t want to drop back and leave the field clear for gatekeepers, who are lying and given over to accusing us of inflaming the street.
On the contrary, we are striving to perpetuate stability in this nation. Do you remember the tale of two women who appealed to the sound judgment of Solomon, Peace Be Upon Him, each saying that the child was hers. Solomon ordered them to bring him a knife to cut the child into two halves. Upon hearing this, one of the ladies said, “Oh, sir, this is not my son.” Then the judge realized that the child was hers. This is how we reason. (…) We are not the ones who brought about the crisis; it is the crisis that brought us to power. We came to stand in the face of crisis. We are not geniuses. We are simply attempting. When you talk to us, Mr. Ahmed or anyone else, and say a good word, we really appreciate that and take it as a gift; even if the word is tough, we build upon it because we believe that national interests should come first. (…) I just want to make Moroccans understand that any Moroccan can be head of government, and after Allah, we have only one king, who is the symbol of our stability and unity.
Discourse Analysis n° 1
To better understand and analyze the following speech, first and foremost a specific emphasis should be laid on the situational context that governs the following political discourse. No doubt, the head of government’s speech comes as a response to the protest of citizens in the Moroccan capital against Benkirane’s government and the high cost of living after price rises of staple goods. Regardless of the pressure that would be felt by ordinary Moroccans struggling to make a living, Benkirane’s government started implementing a fuel price indexation system aimed at controlling oil subsidies and plugging a budget deficit.
Now that we have unfolded the backdrop against which this speech unfolds, it’s necessary to provide sketchy information on the producer of the speech.
Abdelilah Benkirane (Arabic: عبد الإله بنكيران, born 8 April 1954, Rabat) has been Head of Government of Morocco since 2011. He is the leader of the Justice and Development Party.[1][2][3] Having won a plurality of seats in the November 2011 parliamentary election, his party formed a coalition with three parties that had been part of previous governments, and he was appointed as Head of Government on 29 November 2011.[4][5]
During the 1970s, Benkirane was a leftist political activist.[6] He has represented Salé in the Moroccan parliament since 14 November 1997.[7] He was elected leader of the Justice and Development Party in July 2008, taking over fromSaadeddine Othmani.[8]
Benkirane's politics are democratic and Islamist.[need quotation to verify] In a 2011 interview he said: "If I get into government, it won't be so I can tell young women how many centimeters of skirt they should wear to cover their legs. That's none of my business. It is not possible, in any case, for anyone to threaten the cause of civil liberties in Morocco".[9] However, he has in the past described secularism as "a dangerous concept for Morocco", and in 2010 he campaigned, unsuccessfully, to ban a performance in Rabat by Elton John because it "promoted homosexuality".[10]
Source :https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abdelilah_Benkirane
As a third step in our analysis, it is important to identify the medium in which the speech appeared. This first speech is taken from the official site of the Moroccan parliament and more particularly from a section allotted to the monthly meetings of the Moroccan parliament. This comes from an online source:http://www.chambredesrepresentants.ma/ar/مراقبة-العمل-الحكومي/الأسـئلة-الشفوية-الشهرية.
The main themes (discourse strands) that underlie the discourse at issue are as follows: audacity, frankness, trust, good and evil, divine providence, time (now and then). After having coded the discourse strands, it’s time to look at the structural features of the text; we will attempt to identify how the argument that Mr. Benkirane is making is structured. In fact, the head of government goes through several issues, one by one. He first makes a counter-factual case, stating that his government, unlike the previous ones, for the first time, has the audacity to grapple with thorny issues;
He goes on to explain that he is not going to deceive Moroccans and sell them illusions; he starts with making his own argument, namely the fact that his government took a daring decision that consisted in increasing the price of gasoline and diesel, which sparked off a wave of protest in Rabat in which demonstrators asked Mr. Benkirane and his government to step down. We sense a sort of discrepancy between the actual argumentation of Mr. Benkirane, when he mentions the fact that “people accepted the increase in the price of fuels” and the demonstrations staged by ordinary citizens to protest against this decision taken by the government without seeking the opinion of the masses.
To absorb public anger, Mr. Benkirane first attempts to convince the audience through the use of coercion (force or threat), making his listeners accept the fait accompli on the grounds that it was an economic necessity to raise the price of gasoline and diesel. To further woo the hearts of the audience, M. Benkirane, being acutely aware of the overriding importance of religion in the grass roots’ way of thinking, he avails himself of religion to cause the audience accept his false statements as true postulates and support this decision, though it is at loggerheads with their interests. Thanks to this force brute approach, Mr. Benkirane assumes that he has the hierarchical jurisdiction to act as the sovereign ruler and as the sole savior that is in charge. Hence, his listeners (his subordinates) had better know that he is the only one who is capable of extricating them from the jaws of misery.
The exploitation of religion as a manipulative tool in discourse is all too obvious in Benkirane’s argumentation; indeed, he has managed to achieve the consent of the people by creating the illusion that what the government is doing is the right thing to do and have them willingly accept- overtime- the policies and decisions made by the government as their own. So, according to this line of reasoning followed by the head of government, he succeeds in striking a really sensitive chord in mainstream Morocco, namely the frequent invocation of “Allah”; he cites the name of Allah 7 times to give credibility and legitimacy to the policies adopted by the government and as a justification for the decision taken.
To further achieve the sympathy and acceptance of his audience, Mr. Benkirane makes use of another rhetorical device (allusion); in the course of this speech, he makes an indirect reference to a religious figure, namely Solomon to imbue his argumentation with credibility and legitimacy. In that allusion, Mr. Benkirane kind of likens himself to that religious figure in what concerns goodness of reason and judgment.
The next step in the analysis will be concerned with identifying linguistic and rhetorical mechanisms used by Mr. Benkirane in his speech. The first striking feature that characterizes language use is that the vocabulary is very simple and drawn directly from Moroccan Arabic, with a preponderant use of colloquialism. The head of government deploys Moroccan Arabic terms that are likely to be used primarily in casual conversation rather than in more formal speeches. The purpose behind the use of a language that is accessible to the grass roots that make up round 90% of the Moroccan population is not a randomly chosen linguistic device. Thus the distance between Mr. Benkirane and his audience is shortened. In as much as the speech that is at issue is rendered in English, it’s downright impossible to provide examples to illustrate this.
Another equally important figure of speech used by the speaker in this excerpt is simile whereby he equates the average Moroccan to a child and the government to a caring and responsible woman whose main concern is the well-being of the child. The main object of this technique is to persuade the hearers that redemption can only materialize under his party’s leadership; therefore, the man foregrounds his connection to that salvation that is only possible with him and not with others, for the latter are the ones who did draw the outline map of this deteriorating reality that the country is enmeshed in.
To warrant the audacious decision taken by his own government with regard to the increase in the prices of both staple goods and fuels, he explains, using the technique of repetition as a cohesive device; he keeps repeating some key words (stability/corruption), to mention only a few. Similarly, he strums on the same themes several times, namely the fact the public really approves of all the decisions and policies made by his own government, despite the enemies’ useless attempts to play the public off against them.
The use of direct discourse as part of the linguistic and rhetorical mechanisms is quite patent on two occasions: first, when the speaker smartly quotes what a woman told him to target women in general and to express the idea that the point expressed by that woman is indicative of what women want; to put it differently, he wants to drive home the idea that women approve of the present government for the bravery it has made proof when it has managed for the first time to raise an issue that previous government eschewed for fear of losing the support of the masses.
The second instance wherein we have the use of direct discourse is when the speaker indulges in laying down the stage directions of that religious story by performing the different roles: the role of the wise woman, who stands for the speaker and his own party, the child, who represents the average Moroccan, and the lunatic ruthless woman, who stands for the opposition that doesn’t care a hang about the fate of the child.
By using this story, Mr. Benkirane has certainly managed to touch his listeners in a far more holistic way than flat rhetoric. As a matter of fact, it is only through narrative that the subconscious and the conscious of the audience can be touched, for tales and stories affect both the emotional and rational side of listeners; the latter are enabled to see and feel what is being related. The audience thus becomes involved and part of the story; being cognizant of the efficient impact of this technique, he kind of invites the listeners to share the space with the speaker and imagine what it might have felt like to be in that honest and caring woman’s stead.
The great advantage of storytelling is that it has enabled Mr. Benkirane to touch the hearts as well as the minds of the listeners. Storytelling and cracking jokes to impart emotional closeness between him and the listener is undoubtedly Mr. Benkirane’s stuff, for the former has managed to make the latter feel that they both belong to the same social environment, away from the huge chasm that used to exist between the recipient and the world of politicians before the advent of the current government.
Another powerful tool of argumentation (Number Game) that Mr. Benkirane draws on is the use of rational discourse that rests on numbers and statistics (2 dirham/ 1 dirham/ 5.7 billion dirham) to appear credible and to throw dust in the eyes of ordinary illiterate people that make up mainstream Morocco. So this tool has a double function to fulfill. Recourse to rationalization in the presentation of floating statistics (vagueness) that bears no relation to reality is typical of Mr. Benkirane, who attempts to rely on it in the construction of a logical sequence.
Another linguistic element used by Mr. Benkirane is the preponderant use of “we” and “us” in the speech above. The first person plural subject pronoun “we” is repeated 35 times, and the object pronoun “us” is used 6 times. It stands to reason that through the overuse of “we” in this speech, Mr. Benkirane is deliberately attempting to blur the status of responsibility. Actually, “we” is an important pronoun in political speeches in the sense that it expresses party identity; Benkirane tries, by virtue of the use of “we” to speak as a representative of PJD and on behalf of the platform of his party. The use of “we” or “us” presupposes the existence of “they/ “some” (twice)/ “those” (3 times) or “them”. By establishing this polarization, Benkirane creates an image of the group he belongs to in a positive way and the other group in a negative way.
The purpose behind creating this separation between “us” and “those/them” is to set Benkirane’s party apart from the opposition and their malignant maneuvers and to persuade the listeners not to be part of it. We sense an acute presence of elements of interaction and disconnection through creating, on the one hand, correlations between him and the symbols of goodness and positive change and ascribing to his foes, on the other hand, derogatory attributes. The use of “we” is also inclusive in this speech in that it refers to both the speaker “Benkirane” and the listeners whom he admits are by his side, “people accepted this” / We relied on people’s trust in us/ People voted for us/.
He reminds the audience that he is one of them and can put himself in their shoes and relate to their fears and hopes. This makes him amiable in the eyes of Moroccans and creates a feeling of togetherness. By using “we”, the speaker here is attempting to make others responsible for all the decisions taken by the government; however, at one point, he asserts that he alone -and not his party- is responsible for the price increase in fuels: “I increased fuel price and society accepted the decision.”
The use of modals by Mr. Benkirane to elicit favorable political support from the audience is another efficient discursive device that the man capitalizes on. We will try to pinpoint the ideological underpinnings of the modals used in the above speech. “a. We will make it.”/ b. The figures we talked about we will try to achieve gradually at the end of our term./ c. There are hurdles which we will overcome/d. We will make it/ e. We will succeed/.
The above examples taken from the speech show the use of “will” by the speaker; it undoubtedly reveals the speaker’s political will and commitment. By it, Mr. Benkirane wants to highlight the idea that his commitment towards the well-being and progress of the country. Mark that the use of “will” in b and c are flat promises and pledges made by the speaker; they also reflect a sense of responsibility he has towards Moroccans in terms of his reformatory program.
The modal auxiliary “could” is used once in the above extract. “I increased fuel price and society accepted the decision; therefore, we could save the government budget 5.7 billion dirham.” It is used by Mr. Benkirane to reveal his personal conviction on this issue and to appeal to the listeners’ awareness of his capability to change things for the better.
The use of modal auxiliaries “will” and “can” brings to mind the conditions that govern promises in political discourse and which Levinson, S.C. has laid down in Pragmatics. According to him, a promise (will) is likely to materialize if certain conditions are met; so let’s see if the conditions of those promises made by Mr. Benkirane are met when he vowed to extricate the country from the trammels of the deteriorating economic condition; Mr. Benkirane has the intention of doing so, which means that the first requirement is met. The ability (can) of the head of the government to achieve that purpose remains to be seen, though, for the speaker needs to have the resources to fulfill the pledge made.
The promise made by Mr. Benkirane falls short of the seventh condition set by Levinson in that the addressees, ordinary citizens, don’t want him to increase the price of staple goods in order to solve the economic situation of the country; thereby, the promise will not come true on account of not meeting the seventh condition. And when we try to apply Grice’s four maxims- expounded in the theoretical part of this book- to Mr. Benkirane’s speech, we can infer that as far as the first maxim (quantity) is concerned, the arguer’s verbal communication is more informative than required and this may backfire on the man, exposing him as a liar rather than a truth-teller.
This mendacity calls back to mind George Orwell’s rule, namely the first one that requires politicians, for the sake of transparent communication, to avoid using metaphors and similes. The speech under consideration shows clearly that Mr. Benkirane has violated that rule because he has made use of a simile in which he likens the addressee to a child and his own government to a caring mother.
Similarly, the benchmark of the maxim of (quality) is contingent on the first one, for verbosity in politicians is generally equated with mendacity, and the veracity of his promises is called into question. As to the third measure of (relation), we notice that there is no distance between Mr. Benkirane and ordinary citizens in as much he takes pleasure in addressing them using a very simple, easy to understand, and colloquial Moroccan Arabic. Therefore, we can see how close Mr. Benkirane is to mainstream Morocco. Last but not least, the criterion of (manner) is of paramount importance in as much as it helps us disclose the way the arguer uses diction. This criterion is an integral part of the previous one; to put it differently, the man avoids using ambiguous words that make the purport of his message abstruse and nebulous. Under this maxim of manner, we notice that Mr. Benkirane’s style contains a great and usually an excessive number of words.
When it comes to other modals, we notice that “must” is used only once in the above discourse. Here “must” expresses political obligation. (officials must realize that these days are gone.) In the above utterance, Mr. Benkirane uses “must” to take his opponents to task for their malignant maneuvers. So he calls them into a collective responsibility of moving the country forward; he asks them to stop sabotaging his political program and join hands with him for the welfare of Moroccans.
The modal auxiliary “should” is used once as well. “We believe that national interests should come first” is presented as a worthwhile moral obligation that every politician and public official should aspire to and actually needs to have as a strong and unshakable desire. It is used in an indirect way to criticize that selfish and egocentric attitude that has the upper hand on Moroccan politics.
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