A New King in
Morocco and a New Opportunity
By JONATHAN
POWER
July 26, 1999
RABAT, MOROCCO - Unlike the late King Hussein of Jordan,
the late King Hassan of Morocco who died on Friday has
seemingly bequeathed his son, King Mohammed VI, a weak hand.
A weak hand that is, if you judge power by autocratic reach.
Hussein had dabbled with democracy, but his prime ministers
and their governments came and went with alacrity and no one
doubted who called the shots. With Hassan it was, until
fairly recently, a similar, "l'etat, c'est moi", even if he
didn't change his prime ministers so regularly. But a little
over a year ago in a remarkable development, Hassan
voluntarily handed over a good slice of power to a former
political prisoner, once sentenced to death, the socialist
parliamentarian Abderrahman Youssoufi, ending 40 years of
conservative rule.
Most royal functionaries were sidelined, apart from the
king's powerful, but much reviled, minister of the interior,
Driss Basri. Democracy not only has had a chance to flap its
wings but to alter the direction of government policy
towards the poor who have been largely bypassed by Morocco's
volatile, but steadily upward, economic growth. This great
political somersault came on the heels of the king's
decision in the early 1990s to release most political
prisoners, relax censorship and rein in the security
services. The Morocco of the late 1990s bears little
resemblance to the Morocco of most of King Hassan's 38 years
of iron rule.
In a short period of time Mr Youssoufi has managed to
carve out a distinct identity. Funding for health, education
and housing has risen. The turgid bureaucracy is being
reformed. A minister of justice has been appointed who once
headed the country's largest human rights organisation.
Needless to say, after so many years of neglect, it will
still take many years before either real democracy or
tangible social and economic distribution puts down
unshakeable roots. Basri can still call many of the shots on
law and order. Last October he sent the riot police in to
bang the heads of a rally of jobless university graduates.
An Amnesty International report just released records that
political prisoners are still held , although their numbers
are vastly diminished. Under permanent house arrest is
Sheikh Abdelsalam Yassine, leader of one of the more
militant Islamic groups.
For now it remains unclear how much official tolerance
will be extended to Islamic radicals. For the moment those
who choose a parliamentary path are given a wide degree of
latitude. In May Abdelilah Ben Kirane, a leader of the
Islamist youth movement, won a bi-election seat in
parliament, ousting one of Mr Youssoufi's socialists,
winning the votes of the poor who in the general election
had voted left. If the government doesn't deliver the
economic and social goods more rapidly then Mr Kirane's
appeal is sure to grow. Yet while Hassan always considered
that he had a royal monopoly on Islam, his son is likely to
have a more tolerant attitude and be happy to see the
Islamists given more political space as long as they abjure
violence. At a time when the forces of militant Islam are on
the wane in countries as diverse as Algeria, Egypt and Iran,
this would be a good time to take the high ground and free
Sheikh Yassine.
On the foreign affairs front -always the king's
prerogative- there is the need for immediate attention to be
given to the vexed issue of the Western Sahara, once a
separate Spanish colony, but since 1975 a country at war,
either hot or, since the UN engineeered cease-fire, brokered
in 1994, cold.
The local people, the Saharawis, want independence. Rabat
believes this phosphate-rich chunk of the Sahara is an
integral part of Morocco.
A referendum has been repeatedly promised to decide the
question. Again the poll has been scheduled for this
December. Again it could well be that Morocco will sabotage
the opportunity to decide the issue by ballot one more
time.
The death of Hassan offers the chance for Morocco to turn
a fresh page and consign this financially and militarily
draining battle to history. The new king may not have the
autocratic reach of his father, but on this issue it will be
his word that counts.
If Morocco can allow an honest referendum then it can
devote its political energies to its many problems at home.
Making its new democracy work and mature will tax every
muscle and brain cell of the new king. If he succeeds the
reward will be immense: Morocco could well become the beacon
that guides the rest of the Islamic world to making the long
overdue transition to open and effective government. That,
by any measure, is a strong hand to play. It remains to be
seen whether the new king, widely considered to be a
reformer by temperament, is brave and wise enough to take
the opportunity.
Copyright © 1999 By JONATHAN POWER
I can be reached by phone +44 385 351172 and e-mail:
JonatPower@aol.com
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