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History and Government
History: The original inhabitants of Morocco, the Berbers, have experienced a series of invaders over the centuries. The Phoenicians were the first of these in the 12th century BC, followed by the Carthiginians – who incorporated the littoral region into their extensive empire. When Carthage was subjugated by the Romans in the second century BC, the North African coast came under Roman control. After them came the Vandals in 429 AD and the Byzantines in 533 AD. The first Arabs arrived from the west in 682 AD and established a series of dynasties which have ruled Morocco ever since. As in much of North Africa, the conflict between Arabs and Berbers has been a central feature of the country’s history.
In the early 15th century, the rising maritime powers of southern Europe started to take an interest in North Africa. The port of Ceuta – now a Spanish possession – was originally occupied by the Portuguese in 1415. This early struggle for control between the Arabs and Europeans came to a climax at the battle of Ksar Kbir in 1578 at which the Portuguese led by King Sebastian were defeated by the forces of Sultan Abdul Malik, then head of the Saadian dynasty. This victory heralded an illustrious period of Moroccan history under the Saadian dynasty during which the country became a major centre of artistic and scientific endeavour as well as enjoying considerable economic prosperity.
After the Saadians and the successor dynasty, the Alawites, Morocco came under growing European influence from the Spanish and then the French. At the end of the 19th century, the French occupied Morocco and in 1912, at the Treaty of Fez, the Sultan was deposed and the country put under the control of a French Resident-General. The treaty was constructed to ensure that Spanish interests, principally in the form of the enclaves of Ceuta and Melilla, were guaranteed.
An independence movement began almost immediately, backed discreetly by the royal family. But it was not until after World War II, in 1956, that Morocco finally achieved independence. Spain retained (and still retains) the enclaves of Ceuta and Melilla in the north, which is a bone of contention between the two countries. Morocco’s first post-independence Head of State was Sultan Mohammad V, who later changed his title to King; after his death in 1961 he was succeeded by his son, Hassan II. Among the major issues for Morocco since the mid-1970s has been the dispute over the territory formerly known as Spanish Sahara and now as Sahrawi. Formerly a colony, the Spanish pulled out of the Spanish Sahara in 1975 after the death of Franco. The Moroccans moved in almost immediately despite the objections of the indigenous Sahrawi people. For the next 16 years, until a UN-brokered ceasefire came into effect in 1991, the territory was the scene of a conflict between the Moroccan army and an indigenous guerrilla movement, the Polisario Front. The Moroccans believe the territory is an integral part of the nation. Polisario wants independence.
The Polisario Front established a government in exile, the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR), based in Algeria. Its latest incarnation, inaugurated in September 1995, has elected a Saharan national Assembly and a 14-member government led by Mahfoud Ali Beiba. At this time, the Sahrawi were still placing most of their faith in the UN process, conducted by a UN ‘implementation’ force called MINURSO, with the eventual aim of holding a referendum to determine the status of the region. However, through the 1990s, the poll was repeatedly postponed due to stalling by the Moroccan government. Rabat intended to move a sufficient number of settlers into the region to outnumber the indigenous Sarhawi. The question of who is eligible to vote in any future referendum thus becomes critical. The Polisario want the franchise confined to those born in the old Spanish Sahara, plus descendants; Moroccan settlers would be excluded.
The UN was at first inclined to support the Polisario position, but in 2001 its policy underwent a major shift coinciding with the appointment of a new UN special envoy for Sahrawi, ex-US Secretary of State James Baker, as well as positive reports of offshore oil and gas fields in Sahrawi waters. The US, France and Britain all now favour an arrangement under which the territory has regional autonomy under overall Moroccan sovereignty. Polisario refused to accept it, and managed to secure the backing of the majority of members of the UN Security Council. As of Novemeber 2002, the US-French-British plan is on hold.
Morocco’s other outstanding territorial dispute concerns the Spanish-occupied enclaves of Ceuta and Melilla on the Mediterranean coast, along with a handful of tiny, unoccupied islands. In July 2002, in an attempt to pressurise the Madrid government, Moroccan troops occupied the Isla del Perejil (literally ‘Parsley Island’, taking its name from a wild form of the herb which grows there). Within a week, the Parsley Island war was brought to a swift end when a crack Spanish army unit retook the rock. Despite the absurdity, the Moroccan move had the desired effect of concentrating Spanish minds upon the future of their Moroccan possessions.
Within Morocco, the most prominent opposition to King Hassan for many years was the left-wing Union Socialiste des Forces Populaires (USFP), although it has latterly been overshadowed by the emergence of Islamic groups. Hassan maintained a firm grip throughout with a combination of repression and political concessions.
Several parliamentary elections were authorised during the 1990s, all of which produced inconclusive results as the poll split roughly evenly among four or five main parties. From this position, Hassan manufactured a number of essentially technocratic governments while excluding what were now his most important opponents: the Islamists who drew substantial and growing support from Morocco’s impoverished urban areas.
The 1997 election, which was preceded by rioting and strikes (met, inevitably by mass arrests and detentions), saw a socalist, Abd ar-Rahman el-Youssoufi (USFP) appointed Prime Minister for the first time since independence. However, aged and infirm, Hassan’s health was by this stage deteriorating and 18 months later, in July 1999, he died. His son, Sidi Mohammed, was enthroned as King Mohammed VI within days of his father’s burial.
Mohammed is keen to promote a more liberal image than his father, but is constrained by both internal and external forces. He is unlikely to make significant changes to Moroccan foreign policy which is broadly pro-western, with close ties to the USA and the European Union, especially France and Spain (Hassan even aspired to membership of the EU at one time). Closer to home, despite political differences with its North African neighbours, Morocco remains an enthusiastic member of the Union of the Arab Maghreb which it helped to create and functions as an effective regional lobby.
On the domestic front, the country went to the polls again in September 2002. A new system of proportional representation was used for the first time, but produced a similar result to the preceding ones. Of no less than 22 parties represented in the new assembly, the three main players are the Union Socialistes des Forces Populaires, the centre-right nationalist Itiqlal, and the Islamic Parti de la Justice et du Développement. The new premier, the socialist Driss Jettou, announced his cabinet in November and pointedly excluded any Islamists from it, confining it to members of his own party and Istiqlal. The influence of King Mohammed is evident, and the new monarch has also retained the system under which major policy decisions are taken by an ‘inner cabinet’ of himself and a small group of senior Cabinet ministers.
Government: The monarch appoints the Prime Minister and Council of Ministers to wield executive power under his supervision. A series of modifications have been made to the 1992 constitution concerning the bicameral legislature. The Chamber of Representatives (Majlis al-Nuwab) comprises 325 members, of whom 295 are elected by proportional representation in multi-seat constituencies; the remaining 30 seats are reserved for women and are elected from national lists. The 270 members of the Chamber of Counsellors (Majlis al-Mustasharin) are indirectly elected by local councils (162), chambers of commerce (81) and trade unions (27) for a nine-year term.
Copyright © 2003 Columbus Publishing Ltd.
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