MENAFN News
The Maghreb’s challenge
(MENAFN – Khaleej Times) Just over a year ago, the Arab Spring sparked dramatic change throughout the Arab world. Popular movements have brought a range of avowedly Islamist political parties to power, replacing the largely secular former regimes. What that will mean for these countries, and for the region, is one of today’s central geopolitical questions.
In North Africa, two Islamist parties have come fully to power via democratic elections: al-Nahda (Renaissance) in Tunisia, where the Arab Spring began, and the Justice and Development Party (PJD) in Morocco, both of which now lead new coalition governments.
Whereas a popular revolution produced regime change in Tunisia, Morocco underwent a peaceful transformation that left the monarchy in place. Last July, Moroccans voted overwhelmingly to approve a new constitution that shifts executive power from the king to the prime minister, who will now be fully responsible for the cabinet, the civil service, and the implementation of government policies.
The king retains some prerogatives, such as the authority to select the prime minister (from the parliament’s majority party) and the head of the army. Furthermore, like heads of state in other parliamentary systems, he has the right to appoint the government ministers and ambassadors, dissolve the parliament, and dismiss the cabinet.
While the PJD’s success was based on institution-building within a constitutional monarchy, Al Nahda has revolutionised the Tunisian system. But both parties won after running on a moderate platform of constitutionalism, separation of powers, civil liberties, and women’s rights.
This new political reality in the Maghreb will bring Europe (particularly France, the region’s old colonial master) face-to-face with Islamist governments determined to promote a new type of relationship.
But these governments have much work to do at home first. Currently, the Maghreb countries suffer from soaring unemployment, poverty, and high prices for basic commodities. In response, both Al Nahda and the PJD are emphasising job creation, free trade, foreign investment, and a crackdown on the corruption that has plagued their countries’ economies.
These governments’ first major test of economic stewardship will be how they treat the tourism industry. Although Western tourism is a critically important source of employment and foreign currency in both countries, some Muslims have criticised the industry for promoting alcohol and other relaxed social conventions that threaten Islamic values.
So far, both Al Nahda and the PJD have taken a pragmatic stance. They recognise that, while their supporters may be devout Muslims, they also need to earn a living; empty hotels and beaches would be economically disastrous. Thus, tourism professionals in both countries have received strong government assurances that business will continue as usual.
Some European analysts predict that, over the longer term, greater stability will follow the political changes in the Maghreb, with perhaps more than a million unemployed Moroccan and Tunisian immigrants returning home if their countries’ economies improve.
But the region’s Islamist parties appear to be conscious of risks, and determined to mitigate them. They know that they need economic growth to curb unemployment and pay for social services, so they are working to bolster the private sector. In many cases, they are even advocating the kind of free-market policies that their secular predecessors favoured.
As they negotiate the realities of modern economic life, the Maghreb’s Islamist ruling parties are likely to lose some supporters. But, unless they are willing to break with the past, they will not succeed in the present.
Moha Ennaji is President of the South North Center for Intercultural Dialogue in Morocco, and Professor of Linguistics and Cultural Studies at the University of Fez
