King Hassan seen as 'survivor'

David Medicoff, who will begin teaching international law and politics this fall at the University of Massachusetts, says the regime of Morocco's King Hassan was the extension of a family dynasty. CAROL LOLLIS photo

By STEVE PFARRER, Staff Writer

Saturday, July31, 1999 --  (AMHERST) - Like the late King Hussein of Jordan, King Hassan II of Morocco seemed something of an anomaly: a long-reigning monarch in an age when democratic governments have made inroads into many parts of the world.

But a University of Massachusetts professor says there were valid reasons why Hassan - who died last week at age 70 after heading the country since 1961 - was able to stay in power so long, and why, even among Moroccans who did not like him, he still retained some measure of respect.

"This guy was a survivor," said David Medicoff, who will begin teaching international law and politics this fall at UMass. "He came to power at a young age, he survived coup attempts, and he became a very public presence ... at some level, he (became) imprinted on people's minds, and even people with reason not to like him recognized his importance."

Medicoff, who also specializes in Middle Eastern politics, lived for a number of years in Morocco in the late 1980s and early 1990s, studying the government for his dissertation. He was intrigued by the stability of Hassan's regime, which he says was an extension of a family dynasty that, with the exception of the years of French colonial rule earlier this century, had controlled Morocco for some 300 years.

"In the U.S., there are a lot of stereotypes about the Arab nations - people tend to think of them as unstable, full of religious fanatics and firebrands," he said. "But countries like Morocco and Jordan have had these remarkably long periods under the same leaders."

Medicoff attributes Hassan's success to a number of factors, including his ability to act as a bridge between the Arab and Western worlds: Fluent in French, with the media savvy of a Western politician, the king "embodied a lot of different images," Medicoff said, and as such was able to foster the image of what Morocco needed in its leader.

"One day you'd see him at an international conference wearing his Yves St. Laurent suit, then he'd be back in Morocco in ceremonial dress, with long flowing robes," said Medicoff, who never met Hassan but says he developed ties with a number of high-ranking Moroccan government officials over the years.

Hassan was no liberal leader, Medicoff adds. The Moroccan government is officially described as a constitutional monarchy, and there is a popularly elected parliament, but the king and his ministers have traditionally made nearly all the country's laws, and the king himself is not allowed to be publicly criticized. He was also accused of brutally crushing dissent earlier in his regime.

More debate

But over the years, Medicoff said, Hassan recognized the need to allow more public discussion and debate in the law-making process - and about the country's problems in general - and as such parliament's powers have expanded, in that some laws now come out of that body.

"There's a fine line to Moroccan politics, in that you have a king who is in control but a system that is trying to open up so people can feel they're participating," he said.

Hassan was also credited over the years with being a moderate Islamic voice who called for peace between the Arab nations and Israel; he helped engineer Egyptian President Anwar Sadat's historic visit to Israel in 1977, the first ever to Israel by an Arab leader.

Medicoff, though, says Hassan earned much of his public acclaim in Morocco by surviving two early coup attempts. One involved an attack by renegade Moroccan fighter planes on his commercial flight. In the other, army officers shooting their way through the royal palace reportedly confronted Hassan in his office; the king, holding the Koran, then cried "What are you doing, my children?" at which point the would-be killers fell to their knees and begged forgiveness.

Medicoff says the latter account remains anecdotal, although he says it was reported as fact in the Western news media. But whatever the merits of the story, he added, it spoke to Hassan's reputed coolness under fire and convinced many Moroccans that the king, whether they liked him or not, was a force to be reckoned with.

"Probably the best image for him is that of the stern father who believes his sternness is best for his children's interest," he said.

In a Boston Globe story this past Sunday, for example, a former Moroccan woman who spent years in prison after her father was involved in a coup attempt recalled that her first reaction after learning of Hassan's death was a feeling of sadness, not satisfaction.

Morocco, like many nations in North Africa, is facing poverty and high unemployment - due in part to a drop-off in trade with Europe - and now contends with a large, increasingly restive population of young people. Hassan publicly acknowledged the problem in recent years, Medicoff says, and he believes the king's successor, Hassan's son Mohamed VI, may move to combat the problem by developing more trade between Morocco and the United States.

"(Mohamed VI) is part of a new generation of (Arab) leaders who are part of the old system but socialized in a newer time," he said. "He's likely to be more liberal ... he's more comfortable with the West than the Arab world."