In a move to forge a broad national dialogue on reform, Morocco created a new consultative committee.
Morocco's new consultative committee began to receive proposals on Monday (March 28th) from political parties and trade unions as part of the national constitutional reform process.
The body, headed by king's advisor Mohamed Moatassim, was established in parallel with an advisory committee set up by Morocco's King Mohammed VI.
It aims to build a mechanism for co-ordination with all political forces to "finalise an in-depth democratic and constitutional review". The committee will consolidate the Moroccan model, based on a "participatory and consultative approach", Moatassim said at the March 21st preparatory meeting.
He pointed out that Morocco had adopted the same approach in reforming the Family Code, developing the autonomy proposal for Western Sahara and the Equity and Reconciliation Commission.
The new entity will help enforce the proposals made in the king's March 9th speech, according to Justice and Development Party member Abd El Ali Hami El Din.
"As far as the form is concerned, we consider it to be good and suitable," he told Magharebia. "However, we have reservations about the members of the consultative committee that was appointed by the king. It includes conservative figures who have previously assumed several tasks and responsibilities in the state."
An elected constituent assembly is unlikely to be established in Morocco with the framework of a monarchy, he said. "There are no calls for toppling the regime like what happened in other countries," Hami El Din added.
He noted that Moroccans don't need a constituent assembly but "a public debate to introduce reforms". The seven pillars announced by the sovereign in his speech are enough to ensure a real democratic transition. "Moroccan political parties and institutions have to come up with daring proposals and to defend them," he concluded.
Some activists, however, dismissed the new body as ineffectual. The Unified Socialist Party and Annahj Addimocrati boycotted the gathering. They demanded that the re-writing of the constitution be assigned to an elected constituent assembly rather than committees appointed by the king.
For his part, Aziz Nouadi, president of non-governmental organisation "Justice", said that the mission of the committee is phony, "aimed at giving the royally-appointed committee free reign and enabling it to do what it likes".
"It will, of course, listen to the proposals of political parties and their ideas, and will then put them aside to approve the reforms that the king and his advisors want," he said. "When the parties that made high-ceiling demands ask about the fate of their proposals, the committee's response will be that they were only opinions among many others, that the committee has done some composite work, and that this was the result that is satisfactory to everyone."
Nouadi added that the decisive factor should be the pressure from the street, not the proposals made by parties. He stressed the need for a broad public dialogue and the media to be neutral in this issue.
© Magharebia.com 2011
