The Second Arab Awakening by Marwan Muasher

Author:Marwan Muasher
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Yale University Press
Published: 2014-03-08T16:00:00+00:00

MOROCCO: REFORM FROM ABOVE

As I write this, Morocco’s monarchy has succeeded in staying ahead of the street by acting quickly to address at lEast some of the basic demands of its protesters, who have sometimes numbered in the hundreds of thousands. For now it has de-fused the protests.

Morocco’s political culture includes paradoxical elements. The country boasts one of the oldest traditions of partybased parliaments in the Arab world. Yet it has a monarch with broad powers and extensive business interests, and its parliament has historically been ineffective in wielding power independent of the king. Morocco’s Islamist political party, the Party for Justice and Development (PJD), has always acted as loyal opposition, working within the system and acknowledging the king as “commander of the faithful.” Al Adl Wal Ihsan, a rival and probably the larger Islamist group, does not acknowledge the king’s legitimacy and refuses to participate in elections. Morocco had a record of serious human rights abuses under King Hassan II, yet the same monarch moved in the 1990s to open up the system, including appointing an opposition party to lead the government.

King Muhammad VI acceded to the throne in 2000, and early in his tenure made a number of significant reforms— although none that would significantly affect his powers. He established an Equity and Reconciliation Committee in 2004 to uncover human rights abuses committed under his father, rehabilitate the victims, and compensate them for the abuses they suffered at the hands of the state (though the commit-tee’s work did not extend to his own rule). In addition, the 2004 Family Code, Al-Mudawanna, passed by parliament with the approval of the PJD, went far in improving the status of women in the country. In another first in the Arab world, and a rare triumph for diversity, the king started to improve the legal status of the Amazigh (previously known as Berbers) until their rights and language could be fully recognized in the new 2011 constitution.9

Muhammad VI moved more swiftly than any other Arab leader to try to stay ahead of the street after mass protests began in early 2011. Supported by al-makhzan, a coterie of political and business elites close to the crown, the king appointed a committee to amend the constitution, put it to a referendum, and held elections in November of 2011. He then appointed as prime minister the secretary-general of the PJD, which had won the plurality in the elections. Even though the king gave away very little actual power—other than permitting the party that wins a plurality of votes to form the government—the symbolism was powerful enough to dissipate the protest movement. This reduction in tension perhaps shows how reasonable Arab publics can be even when faced with limited reforms, if they believe there is a political will to make further progress.

The process of amending the constitution was hardly inclusive. Although it sometimes consulted with political parties and civil society, the committee was formed from proregime figures appointed by the king, and the draft was put to an up-or-down popular vote, with no room for discussion or public input.

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