| Morocco "Morocco is a constitutional monarchy with an elected parliament. The King of Morocco holds vast executive powers, including dissolving parliament at will. Executive power is exercised by the government but more importantly by the king himself. Legislative power is vested in both the government and the two chambers of parliament, the Assembly of..... More From Wikipedia |
Morocco Joins in, Defying Predictions
21 February, 2011 | By MARC CHAMPION (Wall Street Journal)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Thousands of protesters took to the streets in Morocco on Sunday
to demand changes to the nation's constitution, defying predictions
that this thousand-year-old monarchy would prove an exception to
the demands for greater democracy that are sweeping the region
showed what purported to be groups of protesters in Tangier, Fes,
Marrakesh and other cities Sunday, including several clashes with
police and apparent vandalism.
A clip from Al Hoceima, a port in northern Morocco, showed a
hotel gutted by fire and young men milling around among broken
glass from the blown-out windows. Clips purporting to be from
Tangier and Sefrou, a town near Fes, showed skirmishes with
police. In the clip from Sefrou, a group of police severely beat one
protester with clubs. It wasn't immediately possible to confirm the
scenes shown in these videos.
Morocco is one of the last of the so-called Maghreb countries of
Northern Africa where protesters have taken to the streets in the
wake of the fall of Tunisia's president this year, and many analysts
had predicted it would prove an exception.
Indeed, as protests began Sunday, there was virtually no visible
uniformed police presence in Rabat. By 4 p.m., there was no sign of
the state violence witnessed in Egypt, Libya, Bahrain or Iran, and
the crowd had dwindled to around 1,000.
Stores were largely unshuttered and cafés open along the protesters'
route toward the parliament, as patrons watched from their sidewalk
tables sipping café au lait in the partly Francophone capital.
Yet Sunday's demonstrations, triggered as in Egypt by a Facebook
campaign, underscore the potential for political tension. Morocco
has seen some steps toward democracy over the past decade,
including two elections that international observers declared largely
free and fair, but most powers remain with the king and his
appointees.
A crowd that included Islamists, leftists carrying Che Guevara
banners and the apolitical uniformly stopped short of calling for the
removal of King Mohammed VI. The king, who took the throne in
1999 and dramatically improved Morocco's once notorious record
on torture, as well as on women's rights and some other areas, is
widely popular. There were similar protests Sunday in Casablanca,
Morocco's much larger business center.
But as elsewhere in the Middle East and the Maghreb, a younger
generation is demanding systemic change. If granted, it would
transform the distribution of power in this nation of 32 million,
stripping influence from what a U.S. diplomat described as
Morocco's "monarchical autocracy" in a 2008 U.S. State
Department cable published by WikiLeaks.
"People don't take part in elections in Morocco, they are
meaningless. We want a monarchy, but like in Spain or England,"
said Aharahi Fawzi, a 30-year-old IT specialist with a university
degree, who has been unemployed for three years—a common
complaint in Morocco. Spain and England both have largely
ceremonial monarchs who have limited powers.
Bystanders, generally older, looked on with disapproval. "This king
works for the people. He has done a lot for the poor," said a 67-
year-old who said he was a landscape artist and gave his name only
as Mohammed. "I don't know what these young people want, we
who are older have seen a lot."
Protest organizers put out a video to promote the demonstrations, in
which a group of young people, one after the other, say in a single
sentence why they want to take part. The reasons include "so that I
can get a job without bribing," and "so we can hold accountable
those who ruined this country."
The government's main spokesman had said it looked on the
prospect of demonstrations with "serenity." Protests in Morocco are
relatively common.
But the government appears to have been rattled. Several
government ministers sought to taint protest leaders as foreign
agents, homosexuals or other claims in public comments; Twitter
campaigns sprang up apparently spontaneously to persuade young
people not to attend; and an online rumor was spread that the
protests had been canceled. Protest organizers put out a second
video to counter that rumor.
Many diplomats and analysts, as well as ratings agencies, have
predicted that Morocco would prove the least susceptible country in
the region to unrest, a prediction still supported by Sunday's light
police presence. They cited the comparative tolerance of a regime
where thousands of nonprofit organizations operate freely, and
where there have been relatively free elections over the past decade.
"This just isn't the same country as 10-15 years ago," said Robert
M. Holley, a retired U.S. diplomat and executive director of the
American Moroccan Center for Policy, a lobby in Washington, D.
C. "The point is that if people want to change the government in
Morocco, they just have to wait a couple of years until elections and
do it."
Morocco scores the highest of all countries in the region on
Freedom House's indexes of political representation and civil
liberties. At the same time it scores among the lowest on economic
indicators, ranking 114th in the 2010 United Nations Human
Development Report, compared with Egypt at 101st, and Bahrain
at 39th. Morocco's gross national income per capita of $2,770 and
literacy rate 56%, according to World Bank data, are particularly
low. Libya, Iran, Jordan and Bahrain have GNI per capita ranging
from $4,000 to $25,000, and all have literacy rates above 80%.
There is growing frustration at the slow, and some say slowing, pace
of political reform in Morocco. Though parliaments are elected, the
king appoints the prime minister, as well as the ministers of justice,
foreign affairs, defense, interior and religious affairs, as well as all
regional governors. He also has the right to block laws.
As a result, election turnouts have fallen steadily, dropping to 37%
at the 2007 parliamentary elections, from 58% 10 years earlier.
Similarly the PJD, an Islamist party that chose to participate in the
democratic process and didn't take part in Sunday's demonstrations,
has lost support to the harder-line Justice & Charity movement.
"People in the U.S. and Europe always say Morocco is free. But if
you look here, it isn't true. We want real elections where the people
get to choose what they want," said Nabil, a 24-year-old protester
and supporter of Justice & Charity, who declined to give his
surname. He said he feared reprisal.
Courtesy
21 February, 2011 | By MARC CHAMPION (Wall Street Journal)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Thousands of protesters took to the streets in Morocco on Sunday
to demand changes to the nation's constitution, defying predictions
that this thousand-year-old monarchy would prove an exception to
the demands for greater democracy that are sweeping the region
- In Rabat, the capital,
a crowd of as many
as 10,000 people
marched through the
streets chanting:
"Down with
autocracy" and "The
people want to
change the
constitution," as well
as slogans against the
government,
corruption and state
television.
- Smaller crowds also
gathered in
Casablanca, the
showed what purported to be groups of protesters in Tangier, Fes,
Marrakesh and other cities Sunday, including several clashes with
police and apparent vandalism.
A clip from Al Hoceima, a port in northern Morocco, showed a
hotel gutted by fire and young men milling around among broken
glass from the blown-out windows. Clips purporting to be from
Tangier and Sefrou, a town near Fes, showed skirmishes with
police. In the clip from Sefrou, a group of police severely beat one
protester with clubs. It wasn't immediately possible to confirm the
scenes shown in these videos.
Morocco is one of the last of the so-called Maghreb countries of
Northern Africa where protesters have taken to the streets in the
wake of the fall of Tunisia's president this year, and many analysts
had predicted it would prove an exception.
Indeed, as protests began Sunday, there was virtually no visible
uniformed police presence in Rabat. By 4 p.m., there was no sign of
the state violence witnessed in Egypt, Libya, Bahrain or Iran, and
the crowd had dwindled to around 1,000.
Stores were largely unshuttered and cafés open along the protesters'
route toward the parliament, as patrons watched from their sidewalk
tables sipping café au lait in the partly Francophone capital.
Yet Sunday's demonstrations, triggered as in Egypt by a Facebook
campaign, underscore the potential for political tension. Morocco
has seen some steps toward democracy over the past decade,
including two elections that international observers declared largely
free and fair, but most powers remain with the king and his
appointees.
A crowd that included Islamists, leftists carrying Che Guevara
banners and the apolitical uniformly stopped short of calling for the
removal of King Mohammed VI. The king, who took the throne in
1999 and dramatically improved Morocco's once notorious record
on torture, as well as on women's rights and some other areas, is
widely popular. There were similar protests Sunday in Casablanca,
Morocco's much larger business center.
But as elsewhere in the Middle East and the Maghreb, a younger
generation is demanding systemic change. If granted, it would
transform the distribution of power in this nation of 32 million,
stripping influence from what a U.S. diplomat described as
Morocco's "monarchical autocracy" in a 2008 U.S. State
Department cable published by WikiLeaks.
"People don't take part in elections in Morocco, they are
meaningless. We want a monarchy, but like in Spain or England,"
said Aharahi Fawzi, a 30-year-old IT specialist with a university
degree, who has been unemployed for three years—a common
complaint in Morocco. Spain and England both have largely
ceremonial monarchs who have limited powers.
Bystanders, generally older, looked on with disapproval. "This king
works for the people. He has done a lot for the poor," said a 67-
year-old who said he was a landscape artist and gave his name only
as Mohammed. "I don't know what these young people want, we
who are older have seen a lot."
Protest organizers put out a video to promote the demonstrations, in
which a group of young people, one after the other, say in a single
sentence why they want to take part. The reasons include "so that I
can get a job without bribing," and "so we can hold accountable
those who ruined this country."
The government's main spokesman had said it looked on the
prospect of demonstrations with "serenity." Protests in Morocco are
relatively common.
But the government appears to have been rattled. Several
government ministers sought to taint protest leaders as foreign
agents, homosexuals or other claims in public comments; Twitter
campaigns sprang up apparently spontaneously to persuade young
people not to attend; and an online rumor was spread that the
protests had been canceled. Protest organizers put out a second
video to counter that rumor.
Many diplomats and analysts, as well as ratings agencies, have
predicted that Morocco would prove the least susceptible country in
the region to unrest, a prediction still supported by Sunday's light
police presence. They cited the comparative tolerance of a regime
where thousands of nonprofit organizations operate freely, and
where there have been relatively free elections over the past decade.
"This just isn't the same country as 10-15 years ago," said Robert
M. Holley, a retired U.S. diplomat and executive director of the
American Moroccan Center for Policy, a lobby in Washington, D.
C. "The point is that if people want to change the government in
Morocco, they just have to wait a couple of years until elections and
do it."
Morocco scores the highest of all countries in the region on
Freedom House's indexes of political representation and civil
liberties. At the same time it scores among the lowest on economic
indicators, ranking 114th in the 2010 United Nations Human
Development Report, compared with Egypt at 101st, and Bahrain
at 39th. Morocco's gross national income per capita of $2,770 and
literacy rate 56%, according to World Bank data, are particularly
low. Libya, Iran, Jordan and Bahrain have GNI per capita ranging
from $4,000 to $25,000, and all have literacy rates above 80%.
There is growing frustration at the slow, and some say slowing, pace
of political reform in Morocco. Though parliaments are elected, the
king appoints the prime minister, as well as the ministers of justice,
foreign affairs, defense, interior and religious affairs, as well as all
regional governors. He also has the right to block laws.
As a result, election turnouts have fallen steadily, dropping to 37%
at the 2007 parliamentary elections, from 58% 10 years earlier.
Similarly the PJD, an Islamist party that chose to participate in the
democratic process and didn't take part in Sunday's demonstrations,
has lost support to the harder-line Justice & Charity movement.
"People in the U.S. and Europe always say Morocco is free. But if
you look here, it isn't true. We want real elections where the people
get to choose what they want," said Nabil, a 24-year-old protester
and supporter of Justice & Charity, who declined to give his
surname. He said he feared reprisal.
Courtesy
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| Associated Press Protesters march during a protest and wave the Moroccan flag in Rabat, Morocco Sunday Feb. 20, 2011. At least 2,000 people are marching in Morocco's capital to demand a new constitution that would bring greater democracy in the North African kingdom. |