Morocco: Referee with a Whistle

When Morocco’s beloved King Mohammed V died last year, no one Seemed less likely to hold the nation together than his eldest son, slender, dark-eyed King Hassan II. Hassan knew his way around the royal court, but his interest in the serious business of government seemed equally matched with a taste for racing sports cars, riding horses, and romping with starlets. The political pundits figured Hassan might last six months.

The predictions were wrong. During 22 months in power, Hassan, 33, has deftly played off squabbling left-wing groups against one another, at the same time raising the prestige of the Istiqlal political party, which led the fight for independence and made the throne the symbol of nationalism and freedom. Hassan, however, is more than just a symbol. Today, from the royal palace in Rabat, he rules his California-size kingdom of 12 million subjects with the assurance of a sultan, which is precisely the way Morocco was ruled for 13 centuries before him.

Outside Cash. It has been no easy task. Despite his father’s efforts. Hassan is faced with the grim fact that 80% of the population live in feudal and near-feudal conditions. Hassan’s task is to sweep away old traditions of tribalism, apathy and religious extremism without being swept away in the process. He negotiates amiably with France, which once held the territory in a colonial grip. In Paris last week, French and Moroccan negotiators opened talks for an $80 million loan, the biggest single French aid package since Moroccan independence.

Some 10,000 French civil servants remain the backbone of Rabat’s government bureaucracy, filling jobs that range from drafting legal papers to installing telephones. Striving to lower the massive 75% illiteracy rate, Hassan imported 8,500 French schoolteachers, more than were in Morocco during colonial rule. In so doing he defied influential Moslems who believe that all education must be based on the Koran. But Hassan thinks that advancement is where you find it. He currently gets $30 million a year from the U.S., has accepted an American suggestion to set up a kind of CCC to cope partially with Morocco’s 1,000,000 unemployed.

Hassan tries hard not to become too closely identified with the West. During the Algerian war, he played the role of mediator between the F.L.N. and Charles de Gaulle; when Algeria finally became free, Rabat crowds led by Hassan gave a hero’s welcome to Ahmed ben Bella and other rebel leaders on their way home from French prisons. Since then. Hassan has kept a watchful eye on developments in neighboring Algeria. Aware of the danger of a violent chain reaction of turmoil along the Mediterranean, he remains friendly to Algeria’s new regime, believes that the best insurance for stability in Morocco is stability in Algeria.

Some Say Swindle. Hassan’s proudest reform is Morocco’s first formal constitution. Istiqlal campaigned vigorously for the charter, which was approved by 80% of the voters in a nationwide referendum this month. The result was a stunning setback for the two major opposition parties, which campaigned against Hassan’s constitution. One defeated party was the National Union of Popular Forces, headed by Mehdi ben Barka, who led a left-wing faction out of Istiqlal three years ago. The other opposition group was the Union Marocaine du Travail (U.M.T.), the nation’s most powerful labor group (700,000 workers), headed by Socialist Mahjoub ben Seddik.

Meeting the press, Hassan displayed a benevolent disdain for his political foes, enthusiastically described the constitution to foreign correspondents in an hour-long torrent of fluent French. Political and religious freedom is guaranteed to all, and education is considered a basic right. There will be an elected House of Representatives; it will be chosen for four-year terms in elections next spring. But the legislature can be dispersed any time the King sees fit, and no bill can become law until he signs it.

Opposition parties called the constitution a “swindle”; Hassan himself concedes that “the powers of the King are enormous.” But seated behind his 7-ft.-long desk, with its imposing array of telephones, tape recorders and push buttons. Hassan urged reporters to “imagine a football game presided over by a referee who didn’t have the right to use his whistle.”