Difficult balancing act for Morocco's young king

By Sinikka Tarvainen

MADRID/RABAT (DPA): Seven months after the accession to the throne of King Mohammed VI, Morocco is in turmoil.

"The king remains popular, and great hopes are still attached to him," commented one observer in Rabat.

But the increase of freedoms has unleashed more and more expressions of discontent, and there is some question as to whether the authorities can keep them under control.

The death of Mohammed's father Hassan II at age 70 last July ended a 38-year-period of iron-fist rule.

The new monarch rolled up his sleeves from the first day. He called for sweeping reforms, surrounded himself with fresh young advisors and sacked hated interior minister Driss Basri, who embodied a system of repression and fear.

Mohammed, 37, has replaced dozens of provincial governors and other officials linked to Basri, and established royal commissions to deal with issues ranging from the fight against poverty and drawing foreign investment to the question of Western Sahara.

"The king is now assessing the need for reform and consolidating his hold on power," a Western analyst says.

But the monarch has also come under increasing criticism for allegedly undermining democracy by sidelining Socialist Prime Minister Abderrahmane Youssoufi, 75. The government has been reduced to a mere "manager", the French monthly Le Monde Diplomatique wrote.

Many Moroccans also blame the large and slow-moving government, with its 43 ministers and secretaries of state from seven parties. The government is "shy, passive and without imagination", the newspaper La Nouvelle Tribune complained.

With almost a half of the population of 28 million estimated to be living in poverty and with a 55 per cent illiteracy rate, Morocco needs urgent reforms. But the king does not have the people and structures that he needs to carry them out, analysts say.

With the freedom to protest simultaneously increasing and civil society "boiling like never before", Morocco could risk a social explosion, one analyst added.

Students are demonstrating against unemployment, trade unions are staging strikes, employers are demanding new labour laws and non- governmental organizations are mushrooming for issues ranging from women's rights to the cause of the families of hundreds of opponents of King Hassan who are believed to have been killed under his rule.

Press freedom has visibly expanded, and corruption scandals are reported on almost daily. "Everything that had been kept hidden (under King Hassan) is coming to light," Le Monde Diplomatique said.

A measure of police repression remains, but residents describe it as erratic. The king has not met expectations, sometimes raised by the regime itself, that he would release Islamic fundamentalist leader Sheikh Abdessalam Yassine from his ten-year house arrest.

"It is as if the regime did not know how to deal with it all," one analyst said.

Legislation is being considered to weaken the so-called Makhzen parties, artificially created under King Hassan's rule to weaken the genuine parties. The measure could help King Mohammed to revitalize political life and provide him with instruments of change.

The ultimate test for Mohammed VI will be whether he will allow really free and transparent elections and show willingness to give up a part of his own power, Moroccan human rights activists say.

But others warn that the king could also go too far, and that Morocco needs a strong leader to keep it from edging towards chaos.