Morocco Leadership and Governance by Dylan Brake

Author:Dylan Brake [Brake, Dylan]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Manuscript Template
Publisher: Lulu.com
Published: 2016-12-28T16:00:00+00:00

Is Democracy still a dream in Morocco?

Five years after the democratic upheaval Morocco is closing down spaces for civic and human rights.

“My big dreams in 2011, as for all the youth that went to streets with the 20th February Movement, was to concretize the big slogans of the movement: having a country respecting its population, having dignity, having equality between all citizens, and above all, start living in a true democracy”.

Living in a true democracy five years after the mass demonstrations in Morocco culminated on the 20th of February 2011: Has the dream that Hosni Almoukhlis, artistic director of the “Theater of the Oppressed, Casablanca”, shared with so many Moroccans, become true?

Morocco was one of the countries affected by the regional cataclysms of the “spring” 2011. After the escape of Tunisian President Ben Ali on January 14th and the occupation of Tahrir Square by protesters in Cairo, within weeks the dissatisfaction expressed earlier in the social media matured to public protests in Morocco as well. In more than 50 towns and villages, hundreds of thousands of citizens took to the streets to demand individual freedoms, as well as socio-economic justice, and true political participation:

“They [dreams and vision as by 2011, the authors] were very basic. I mean, also we should not exaggerate. At the time we were thinking just better healthcare, better education for everyone, and also a better political system”, Kenza Yousfi, one of the witnesses of the so-called 20th February Movement, remembers.

Ambivalent change

In early 2011, the constitutional monarchy Morocco is a country marked by societal change and full of ambivalences. The economic challenges such as the stagnation of the export oriented economy, the negative balance of trade, and the relatively high unemployment among young parts of the population as well as several urgently pending reforms such as pensions and subsidies, leave the governing bodies with very little space for maneuver. Within only two generations a formerly mainly rural population has changed to a population with more than 60% of its citizens living in urban spaces; a fast urbanization process that created new social conflicts and challenges, deep cultural and ideological clashes, and urgent economic needs and demands, in both the abandoned villages and the growing centers.

The opening space for press freedom and civic rights that marked the transition period since 1999 from the former King Hassan II (after 38 years of an authoritarian, brutal, and oppressive regime) to his son, King Mohammed VI had created a vivid layer of societal actors, demanding relatively openly their rights. However, this space is slowly but progressively closing down with an increasing pressure towards critical media, which is exemplified in the closure of “Le Journal hebdomadaire” in January 2010.

While since its independence (1956) the country witnesses various revolutionary attempts and popular uprisings, what is unique in 2011 is the multi-partisan alliance between left wing human rights activists and Islamic movements, such as Al Adl Wal Ihsan (Justice and Benevolence). According to the political activist, historian and former director of the Centre Ibn

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