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Al-Ahram Weekly 1 - 7 April 1999 Issue No. 423 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly 1 - 7 April 1999 Issue No. 423
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Egypt Region International Economy Opinion Culture Focus Interview Profile Features Travel Living Sports People Time Out Chronicles Cartoons Letters Morocco's 'Mr Clean' treads slowly but surly
By Dalal Abu Ghazaleh
In March 1998, Morocco announced the formation of the first opposition-led government in the modern history of the Arab world. The move was hailed universally as a significant step towards increased democratisation and inspired hopes that the experiment would be repeated elsewhere in the region.
Furthermore, the coalition government, led by socialist Prime Minister Abdel-Rahman Al-Youssoufi, has, against the odds, stayed in power for more than a year, with a clear mandate from King Hassan II to cure Morocco of its economic and social problems, including high rates of unemployment and illiteracy, shrinking revenues and widespread corruption.
Political analysts and diplomats say the monarch took the bold step in response to criticism of the November 1997 parliamentary elections held amid widespread vote-buying by political parties and the government and pressure from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the West, France in particular.
But Al-Youssoufi, who has spent most of his adult life either in prison or in exile for his political beliefs, knew from his first day in office that a difficult task lay ahead as he slowly built consensus within his seven-party coalition government which included four royal appointees, among them Interior Minister Driss Basri whose power pervades many ministries and departments.
Basri, Morocco's interior minister for more than 30 years, is the country's most influential minister, the closest to the king and in charge of the long-running Western Sahara dispute that is depleting the country's resources.
Al-Youssoufi has repeatedly struck a conciliatory chord, praising "the cooperation I am getting from my colleague Basri." But Moroccan political analysts and diplomats sense the tug-of-war between Al-Youssoufi and Basri, described by some as a government with two heads. Basri is holding on to his power bases, said a veteran Arab Gulf businessman, referring to the minister's influence in the media, local and provincial councils and strong ties with the business community.
These are the same areas identified by Al-Youssoufi and his aides as ripe for radical reform as he tries to deliver on his pledge to broaden and deepen popular participation in government and to advance transparency, the rule of law and respect for human rights. He aims to reduce the yawning gap between rich and poor, without spending beyond Morocco's means or triggering inflation.
He has complained that his biggest handicap is lack of funds, with the $13.7 billion budget being sapped by a bloated bureaucracy and foreign-debt servicing, leaving a meagre 15 per cent for investment.
Building on his reputation as "Mr Clean" with a number of significant steps to improve Morocco's human rights record and moves, albeit slow, on the economic, social and judicial fronts, Al-Youssoufi appears to have attracted a sympathetic Western audience. Western donors in the Paris Club have expressed a willingness to swap some of Morocco's foreign debts, estimated at $19 billion, into direct investments, while the World Bank agreed to double its average annual aid to $450 million this year.
While Europe and the World Bank helped with cash and funds, the United States has thrown its political weight behind Al-Youssoufi. To alleviate poverty, reduce the unemployment rate, ease significant social pressures and redress widespread illiteracy, the Al-Youssoufi government needs to double economic growth to over six per cent a year, US Ambassador to Morocco Edward Gabriel told a recent gathering of Western diplomats. "We all have a major stake in a prosperous, democratic and stable Morocco," he said.
At home, Al-Youssoufi's policies have so far been seen as marked by extreme caution, to the extent that criticism of his perceived inaction came even from members of his own Socialist Union for People's Forces, known by the French acronym (UFPS).
But his close aides said the 74-year-old former militant lawyer was not only clearing the dust off many portfolios shelved by previous governments, but reopening them with a new philosophy to prepare a strategy to win back confidence in his government.
A human rights report by the US Department of State released last month said that Morocco's human rights record has improved measurably under the Al-Youssoufi government. This was an apparent reference to the release in October of 28 political prisoners and disclosure of information, albeit incomplete, relating to more than a hundred activists who had been reported missing by their families since the 1960s and 1970s, decades that witnessed considerable social and political unrest.
Premier Al-Youssoufi also asked all government officials -- from ministers to heads of departments -- to present lists of financial and real estate holdings in a clear attempt to stamp out the corruption that has been widely seen as the main reason for lack of investment in the country.
Al-Youssoufi stated also that judicial reform was his top priority. The human rights report said that the Al-Youssoufi administration had taken a series of steps to improve the court system, including rooting out high-level corruption and naming a new director for judicial administration at the justice ministry.
In December, the government unveiled a new strategy to create work opportunities for some 230,000 graduates who enter the job market every year in a country already suffering from a 19 per cent unemployment rate. It also announced plans to build schools in poor rural areas where illiteracy reaches an alarming 90 per cent, compared to the overall rate of around 50 per cent.
Another problem plaguing Al-Youssoufi's administration is his lack of influence on the powerful media. In the 1980s, Interior Minister Basri also doubled as minister of information and installed several aides in key media posts. Promising a free media, the prime minister appointed the respected columnist Al-Arabi Al-Masari, from the Istiqlal (Independent) Party, as minister of information. But a year later, Al-Masari's influence has failed to take hold, with the press code still empowering the interior ministry to confiscate publications it judges offensive.
Insiders said that Al-Youssoufi's activities have rarely received due attention from domestic television and radio and that he has sought airtime on Arab satellite stations widely watched in the country. But Al-Youssoufi appears undeterred by the obstacles facing him. "I work with the mentality of a man who will not fail," he declared in a recent interview.
