By Mohamed El-Khawas
Guyana Journal, October 2009
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Morocco is the oldest and only monarchy in northern Africa. It has been ruled by a single dynasty for nearly four centuries. Kings claim to be direct descendants of Prophet Muhammad. This lineage provides legitimacy to rule and a source of power amongst traditional citizens. In the late 1980s and the 1990s, the Moroccan absolute monarchy had to face the fact the world was changing around them after the collapse of the Berlin Wall and the demise of the Soviet Union. It was a matter of time before the tidal wave of democracy that swept Central and Eastern Europe would come crashing upon the North African shores.
King Hassan II, who had ruled the country with an iron fist for several decades, saw the handwriting on the wall. In 1992, he began to reform the political system and to reach out to the opposition, which had been oppressed and brutalized for years under his rule. His plan was to create enough political openings to lure the opposition into working within the system. In the following four years, he introduced a series of constitutional reforms, which culminated in granting greater oversight powers to the parliament and the prime minister. His boldest move was in 1998 when he nominated a leading opposition leader, Abderrahmane Youssoufi, as a prime minister. Other reforms included relaxing restrictions on the press and expanding freedom of association, which led to the rise of civil society. When he died in 1999, Morocco was still an absolute monarchy, leaving it up to his son to decide whether to continue the process of democratization.
The new King Mohammed VI, in his first televised speech, announced his commitment to promote democracy, women's rights, and social liberalization. He continued the reform but without undermining the power of the throne or shaking the foundations of the Islamic tradition. The king still holds absolute authority under the constitution, which Mohamed VI has used to push his reform agenda without upsetting the apple cart. He, for example, has shared some of the monarchy's power with parliament in order to enable him to push his reform agenda and enact new laws. The country now has diverse political parties, including the Party of Justice and Development, the only legalized Islamic party in North Africa. Women are guaranteed a role to play in the political process. They are allotted 30 seats in parliament and elected on a nationwide basis. Since 2002, parliamentary elections have been held regularly and judged to be free and fair. The authorities however have continued to suppress religious extremists and have refused to allow radical Islamist groups to form political parties or to organize public rallies to protest public policy. The king still holds the power to dissolve parliament and appoint and dismiss the prime minister.
King Mohammed VI knew that he could not move forward with his modernizing agenda without acknowledging the crimes committed during his father's reign and doing something about it. During his first year, he took the first step by removing the longtime Interior Minister Driss Basri who was allegedly responsible for human rights abuses. In 2004, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, modeled after South Africa, was created to investigate crimes committed by the state during the reign of his predecessor. The Commission, headed by a 17-year political prisoner Driss Bin Zekri, was given access to the government's secret files and held televised hearings with 16,000 victims of arrests, kidnappings, forced-exiles and families of individuals who had disappeared between the 1960s and the 1980s. The Commission paid compensation to the victims or their families, which ranged between $350,000 and $10,000 and provided them universal health care at no cost. The Commission closed all cases except 100 missing persons. The whole process was peaceful. None of the people who committed these abuses were charged or tried. It was a step in the right direction to heal the wounds of the past and to start anew.
The young king wants to modernize the country to meet the challenges of the twenty-first century, while maintaining the Islamic nature of the society. He has used his position as "commander of the faithful" to protect not only the Muslim majority but also Christian and Jewish minorities. Morocco has been known by its religious tolerance and having thriving non-Muslim communities for centuries. For example, when Spain's Ferdinand and Isabella expelled the Jews, along with Moors, they found refuge in Morocco. With the recent rise of fundamentalism in the region, the king has found it necessary to crackdown on religious extremism and to promote religious tolerance. For this reason, the Ministry of Islamic Affairs has been given the responsibility to promote religious tolerance and moderation. Women are now able to teach Islam and serve as religious counselors in mosques, schools and prisons. Generally speaking, there are more cultural and linguistic freedoms than before.
King Mohammed VI has done more than any of his predecessors to enhance the status of women in a society that is still traditional. His promotion of women's rights has been opposed by some traditionalists who have remained silent because they do not dare criticize the king publicly. Their opposition did not stop him from promoting women's rights. He often cites Quranic verses to support his campaign and uses his role as the commander of the faithful to convince the skeptics. The first giant reform took place in 2004 when parliament unanimously reformed the Family Law. The new law recognizes the wife and husband as equal heads of family and grants women greater rights in divorce, children custody, property, and inheritance. Both feminist and traditional women organizations have worked closely with the government to ensure that the new Family Law is put in effect and is properly administered. Although the king did not outlaw polygamy, women are granted the right to approve a husband's request for more wives. The king himself has only one wife who is educated, a computer specialist, and accompanies him in public. He does not keep harem in the palace and moved out the ones that his father had at the time of his death. All in all, he has proceeded carefully in granting more rights to women in order to avoid antagonizing clerics and traditional groups who have been loyal supporters to the monarchy over the decades. Consequently, feminist groups are still trying to get more rights in a society that is in transition toward modernity.
Unfortunately, political reforms have not yet resulted in any significant shift toward democracy. In appearance, Morocco has all the trappings of democracy, including a multiparty party system and free elections. In practice, there is no separation of powers as the king is still the mover and the shaker. His advisers, for example, draw the legislative agenda, the parliament rubber-stamps it and the prime minister carries it out. The palace has resisted legislative attempts to increase the power of parliament and to reduce royal authority. In 2007, the majority of the eligible voters (63 percent) did not cast vote in parliamentary elections because political parties are often manipulated by the royal court. They do not dare to criticize the king and have not tried to exercise their oversight power to expose government corruption. There is more disturbing news. A new party, the Party for Authenticity and Modernity (PAM), was formed by a close friend of the King. Fouad Ali El Himma, former deputy Interior Ministry, heads the new party and, in the 2009, won the local elections and is poised to win big in the next parliamentary elections. If this happens, it will mark a return to the partis administratifs (loyal, co-opted parties), which dominated Moroccan elections between 1970s and 1990s.
Furthermore, freedom of the press is still being curtailed in its coverage of the king who controls many facets of life. Criticizing the king is a crime punishable by a jail, fine, or closure. For example, Morocco's newspaper Tel Quel and Nichane issues were banned in August 2009 because they included an opinion poll about the monarchy. As Khalid Naciri, the government spokesman, put it, "the monarchy cannot be the object of debate, even through a poll." The poll found that 91% of the Moroccans thought well of the king's 10 years in power but had reservations on his fight against poverty and the promotion of women's rights.
Reform has been slow, leading observers to wonder whether the transformation process will continue. So far, Morocco has made some progress on advancing women's rights and social liberalization, but not much has been accomplished in dealing with the chronic unemployment among youth. The king has not yet completed the democratization of the political system. At best, the transformation to modernity is still a work in progress.
Washington, D.C.
July 07, 2009
Dr. Mohamed El-Khawas is a professor in the Department of Urban Affairs, Social Sciences, and Social Work at the University of the District of Columbia, Washington, D.C.
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