The Nine Percent Nation

Iran isn't the only Islamic country where dissent is blooming online. The Online Journalism Review just published an interesting story about Morocco's Twitter and Facebook dissidents, called the Nine Percenters.

No, they don't have anything to do with the Five Percenters. They got their name this way:

[O]n August 1, the Ministry of Communication seized 100,000 copies of the provocative French-language magazine TelQuel and its Arabic sister-pub Nichane because they contained a poll on King Mohammed VI's popularity. Conducted on the tenth anniversary of the king's ascension, the survey, it has since been revealed, showed a 91% approval rating for the king (known as le Roi Cool, or simply M6, by the more affectionate of his subjects.)

Hisham's hashtag, "#9pcMaroc," refers to the remaining 9%.

It might seem baffling that a monarch would suppress a poll that swung so overwhelmingly in his favor; not so in Morocco, where, along with the disputed territory of the Western Sahara, the person of the king is a subject strictly off-limits to journalists. "Even if the poll had shown 100 per cent favorable, the response would have been the same," communications minister Khalid Naciri told The National. "The monarchy is not the center of a public debate."

[Hat tip: Mike Riggs.]

Comments

[Jeff P]

This should be back-pocketed as used a s a reminder anytime a freedom loving pundit, left or right, thinks a political figure is above reproach while maintaing that the US is the greatest nation ever.

Also, le Roi Cool and M6 are clearly hip-hop handles.

[Jesse Walker]

I thought M6 had something to do with the money supply...

[Tomcat1066]

Can't it be both?

[Pro Libertate]

Is this like the seven-percent solution?

[Mad Max]

'"Even if the poll had shown 100 per cent favorable, the response would have been the same," communications minister Khalid Naciri told The National. "The monarchy is not the center of a public debate."'

This seems fully consistent with the purest principles of divine-right monarchy - if the ruler bases his claim to legitimacy on some non-popular principle, then allowing discussion, even positive discussion, of his popularity, would undermine the basis of the regime. If the king boasts of his popularity, then if he later becomes less popular he will be hoist by his own populist petard. Even if his poll numbers stay high, he will be seen as responsible to the people, not to the gods or his ancestors.

[Tulpa]

I've always had just as hard a time dealing with praise as with criticism. It's the same idea. Once you accept the fact that other people have standing to evaluate you, you have to take the good with the bad. And that's a terrifying prospect for some people.

[jkp]

Jesse:

This is an M6:

http://www.bmwusa.com/standard/content/vehicles/2010/m/m6convertible/default.aspx

[NeonCat]

Now if we could just get a picture of M6 driving an M6 while discussing M6, that would be so meta the world would explode into a fountain of unicorns and donuts.

[Scammington]

I'd like to see what would happen if the Five Percenters faced off against the One Percenters: http://is.gd/2fqyF.

[max hats]

It's pretty amazing how twitter, most often used here to update friends such relevant matters as 'hvn chicken wings at Jos not bad Lol' is in repressed countries apparently a major conduit for dissent.

[jkp]

@NeonCat: That would be awesome.

There has to be a picture or two of him in an M6 SOMEWHERE. He's a friggin' king, and he's a youthful 46! The dude has to have like a fleet of M6's chauffered by bikini models or something.