Protests against the king will harden unless he delivers, writes MICHAEL O'SULLIVANin Casablanca
MOROCCAN authorities fear that pro- democracy activists will use the three-day visit of Britain’s Prince Charles and Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, which began in Rabat yesterday, to highlight their demands for constitutional change.
Protesters in Casablanca on Sunday called for the abolition of King Mohammed VI’s caliphal status, which makes him the supreme religious authority in the land. This is an unusual development in a country where criticism of the king is not tolerated.
Protesters have vowed to keep up pressure on the king following his recent promise to initiate major constitutional reforms. The king’s announcement came after a wave of protests across Morocco led by the February 20th movement, which took its inspiration from the success of reform movements elsewhere in the Maghreb and the Arab world.
Emboldened by Moroccans’ positive reaction to the recent political demonstrations, vocational and interest groups have taken to the streets across the country.
The teachers’ union demonstrated in Casablanca a number of times recently and spirits have not been dampened by a robust response from the police. Tangier in the north received the brunt of the worst violence, with widespread rioting in the city’s main shopping street, Boulevard Pasteur.
“What young Moroccans want now is an end to the hegemony of the palace flunkies,” says Abdul Fassi (25), an IT specialist. “We want a democratically elected government with real power and it must have the will and determination to effect real change in people’s daily lives.”
Traditionally, young Moroccans have opted for the escape valve offered by emigration, but now that attitude has changed.
A new educated class has no desire to leave Morocco to seek employment in the cities of its nearest European neighbour, Spain. The short distance which separates north Africa from the European mainland has become a much greater distance in the eyes of those who would previously have crossed the Straits of Gibraltar in quest of what they saw as an employment Valhalla.
“The emigration route was all our fathers and grandfathers had,” says Hassan Talbi, a university student from southern Morocco. “We now see the recession gripping Spain and elsewhere in Europe and we hear of the horrors of unemployment in Europe from our friends who are returning to Morocco.
“We are more interested in staying here and making this a better place and that is why we are demanding reform.”
“Better to walk than to run but better still is to lie down” is an old Moroccan proverb. However, there has been no lethargy evident in Morocco’s major centres of population in recent weeks, with tens of thousands turning out to demand major reforms in the political establishment.
When it comes to a demonstration of people power, it appears that the impetus to press for reform will remain strong until there is real constitutional reform in place.
One of the king’s most outspoken critics has been his cousin, Prince Moulay Hicham, who was banished from the royal palace in Rabat and branded “the red prince” for his pro-democracy views. He dismisses the sacerdotal nature of the monarchy and says that if the old caliphal system does not evolve, it will destroy itself.
The king of Morocco is also commander of the faithful and claims descent from the prophet. This makes him a religious and, for many, moral arbiter and the conscience of the nation.
That sacred authority is rarely challenged but Islamist conservatives are not happy with some of the king’s reforms, including a new family code which gives greater freedom to women.
Until recently, the pro- democracy demonstrations avoided public criticism of the king. Many protesters carried banners saying “we love our king”. However, events in Casablanca on Sunday, with protesters calling openly for the removal of article 19 of the constitution which asserts that the king is the supreme religious authority in the land, will be seen as a worrying development by the mandarins in Rabat.
In private, there is also much criticism of the king’s lavish lifestyle, which costs the taxpayer in excess of the equivalent of €100 million a year – 18 times more than it costs to maintain the British monarchy.
There has been a high expectation for reform since Mohammed VI succeeded his father, Hassan II, in 1999, aged 36. With his accession came a feeling that the old despotic world of the Makhzen – the privileged few whose royal imprimatur gives them wealth and power – was at an end. The young king presented a progressive image to the world.
Now he has promised to act to fulfil the hopes of those who hailed his accession as a new age for Morocco. One of his first acts as king was to institute a tribunal of inquiry into human rights violations during the reign of his father. Since then, though, there has been little progress on the road towards meaningful reform.
Twelve years into his reign, there is still great respect for the king among the poor but the patience of the educated class is wearing thin.
Soon after he came to the throne, the king made a powerful television address in which he promised an end to poverty and corruption. He has once again made that promise. What is announced in the reform package in June and the willingness and speed with which the reforms are implemented may well determine if Morocco is to avoid the violence and bloodshed recently experienced by its neighbours.
The Alaouite dynasty’s capacity to adapt and survive is legendary; it saw off the French occupation of Morocco and went on to form a formidable alliance with the former enemy.
Mohammed VI is a direct descendant of Sultan Moulay Ismail, who cemented the power base of the Alaouite dynasty in the 17th century by suppressing, then uniting, the almost ungovernable tribes to form what we now know as modern Morocco. Many Moroccans hope that that instinct for survival will translate into a more democratic administration.
Mohammed VI has a rare opportunity now to establish himself as a leader of world stature. If he fails his people, though, by not putting an end to the endemic corruption which has lined the pockets of a corrupt administration, he may well be consigning the Alaouite dynasty to the dustbin of history and his people to much future bloodshed.