How progressive is Morocco monarch’s proposed constitutional change? Not very

MUSTAPHA AJBAILI


I waited eagerly for hours to watch the King of Morocco unveil a new draft constitution according to which my country will be governed for years to come. The king described the draft constitution as progressive. The national media and the predominantly domesticated political parties said it was advanced, democratic and even revolutionary.

For me and for thousands of those Moroccans who have dreamed of a democratic constitution that grants the power to the people, the unveiled reforms were indeed progressive. But the question is, how progressive are they?

The answer is: Very little. I found the long-awaited royal speech quite disappointing in many ways.

It was designed to stave off democratic protests that have swept the Arab world and was expected to introduce fundamental reforms that would strengthen an elected government, strip the king of many religious and political powers and ensure the separation of powers, including judicial independence.

But as I read the draft constitution, I discovered that the king has barely surrendered any meaningful powers.

The draft constitution elevates the prime minister to the “head of government’’ and ensures he is selected by the king from the party that received the most votes. Previously the prime minister is selected by the king regardless of election results.

The head of government will have the new powers of choosing and dismissing cabinet members—with the approval of the king—and will be able to fill a number of other government positions. The selection, however, of the powerful regional governors will remain in the King’s hands.

The king will also remain the supreme commander of the armed forces and the “commander of the faithful.”

The new constitution introduced the Supreme Security Council — which will make security policy—and it will be chaired by the King.

The unveiled constitutional amendments are undoubtedly progressive, but they are insufficient to satiate popular demands for reform. The King remains to have almost indefinite ruling powers. He appoints the cabinet (executive), can dismiss the parliament (the legislative) and he is the head of the Supreme Judicial Council. Besides, he has the military and security forces in his hand.

To make sure his new draft constitution is passed, the king called for a “yes” vote in a referendum to be held on July 1. He also instructed political parties and media to campaign for the project.

In response, the youth-led February 20 movement, which has brought thousands of people onto the streets in unprecedented calls for change, has opposed the constitutional reforms, which it described as cosmetic. The group called for nationwide protests on Sunday against what sees as a “granted” constitution.

The group is unlikely to cease demonstrating in the streets, and if it continues to do so, the regime will eventually lose its patience and will likely resort to cracking down on protesters. The consequences of this are unpredictable, but violence only yields violence.

(Published in english.alarabiya.net June 18, 2011)

Mustapha Ajbaili: Erdoğan and Turkey’s quest for greatness

MUSTAPHA AJBAILI


Al Arabiya

I spent one day in Istanbul on my way from Dubai to Morocco last month. I stayed in a two-floor house converted into a pension located on a charming, cobblestoned street in a quiet area of Istanbul’s historic Sultanahmet district. The owner, Orhan, greeted me with a Turkish cup of tea, and then we began talking about the change taking place in the Arab world.
As we spoke, an election campaign van passed by. The van bore the slogan of the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) “İstikrar sürsün” (let the stability continue). I asked Mr. Orhan if Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan would be re-elected. He replied: “Oh yeah, there is no doubt about this. With Erdoğan, Turkey will be great again.”

For the ordinary man, Orhan, elections in Turkey were not merely about improving economic conditions or creating more jobs but more about restoring to the nation the greatness it had once enjoyed during the Ottoman Empire.

Mr. Orhan’s remarks made me reflect on the history of the power struggle in Turkey and how differing parties all unite around the common goal of building a great state.

Modern Turkey came to being following a war of liberation fought by Turkish nationalists against the Allies. Turkey was partitioned by the Allies following the Ottoman Empire’s defeat in World War I.

The Ottoman Sultanate was overthrown and Mustafa Kemal Atatürk came to power seeking to build a great state. Most successive leaders followed Mr. Kemal’s quest and ambition to build a great state but none was ever compared to him as Mr. Erdoğan has been.

Suzy Hansen, an American journalist based in Istanbul recently wrote of Mr. Erdoğan: “By now, Erdoğan is more than merely popular. He is a once-in-a-lifetime phenomenon, with all the political genius of a Bill Clinton and none of the personal excess […] If the AKP wins the June 12 elections, as is widely expected, Erdoğan will become the most powerful Turkish leader since Kemal Atatürk.”

(Mustapha Ajbaili, a senior editor at Al Arabiya English, can be reached at Mustapha.ajbaili@mbc.net)

Mustapha Ajbaili: In Morocco, ‘Say the year is good!’

During a two-week visit to the North African Kingdom of Morocco, there have been music festivals of international grandeur, royal inaugurations of development projects and soccer celebrations across the country. The events widely publicized in the national broadcast media conveyed an image of normalcy being enjoyed by a country situated in a region swept by revolutions and social unrest.

But this type of publicity is often described by ordinary people as part of an official policy known as “goulou al-aam zeen” (Say the year is good!). This policy, people say, imposes a blackout on what the “Makhzan”—a word used to refer to the ruling establishment—sees as the kingdom’s dark side, which if brought to light could spur unrest, hurt the economy and the image of the regime abroad.


Indeed, there have been many more developments in the kingdom but these have received comparatively little media attention despite their high newsworthiness. There have been pro-democracy protests all over the country, brutal security crackdowns, and quasi paralysis in the sectors of health, education, judiciary and fisheries due to repeated nationwide strikes. Even the imams leading religious prayers in mosques have taken to the streets for the first time to demand better treatment by the government.

King Mohammed VI, the commander in chief of the armed forces and the “commander of the faithful,” distances himself from those problems, leaving an incapable government to deal with them. He appears on the national TV channels to highlight achievements and to deliver beautiful tidings. Watching the national media it takes no brilliance to recognize that the “good things” are attributed to the king and the “the bad things” are attributed to the government and to “radical elements” of the civil society. But regardless of who does what, the national broadcast media often highlight three active parties in the Morocco’s political scene—the king, the government and the civil society. The “makhzan”—or the hidden hand is never a player in the game.

At the time of writing hundreds of school teachers across the nation are in an open strike. They describe themselves as prisoners in “cell number nine.” Most of them have spent years in “grade nine” and have never been promoted to “grade 10” at a time when the ministry of education occasionally recruits waves of unemployed graduates straight to grade 10.

According to the law, a person first has to undergo a period of training as a teacher before he or she can be sent to class but the minister of education has issued exceptions to unemployed graduates constantly demonstrating before the parliament and government buildings and placed them in grade number 10, thereby angering teachers who have undergone training and still in grade number nine. Was the education minister not aware that his decision would plunge his sector into turmoil? A few teachers who spoke with the writer said it was impossible that the minister was not aware of his wrongdoing but that he had “no choice.”

“Our ministers have no choice, they do what they are asked to do and shut up even if it is wrong. When a problem breaks out in a government sector, the responsible minister can only wait for a call from the hidden man of the makhzan to tell him what to do,” a school teacher said.

Today there is much talk about a new constitution, the separation of powers and the institution of a system of regionalism that seeks to buttress local governance. Some people say the new reforms will take the nation to new heights in democracy building. Others cast a jaundiced eye on the anticipated reforms saying what the country needs most is strong law enforcement on all without exceptions.

On Friday, June 10, a columnist at Al Massae newspaper, whose executive editor was recently handed a one-year jail term for “criticizing the performance of the security forces,” asked whether it was acceptable for the interior ministry to crackdown on unauthorized peaceful demonstration demanding reforms while allowing another unauthorized demonstration to celebrate a soccer victory—a legitimate question that highlights a law enforcement problem.

(Mustapha Ajbaili, a senior editor at Al Arabiya English, can be reached at Mustapha.ajbaili@mbc.net)