Doesn’t the war on Ouahbi hide a conflict between Islamists and secularists at the Ministry?
We should understand why this occurs exactly in this juncture and why this storm was raised against Ouahbi precisely?
Morocco is going through a complex historical turning point after political scene in Morocco and across the Arab world has been overwhelmed by conservative Islamic movement. Last elections of September 2021 have come to get rid of Islamist fundamentalists and so political equation has changed by the rise of moderate liberals.
RNI party which leads the government cabinet focusing on King Mohammed VI’s major project for social protection, and the PAM which leads King’s legal file and which is based on empowering women to enjoy full economic, political and social rights through reforming family status code that has been put aside over the last decade by then PJD Minister of Justice Mustapha Aramid and also the penal bill code, all this occurs under the eyes of the conservative old national party of Istiqlal (Independence party) which plays moderately its traditional role of a mediator.
To choose PAM Secretary General as a minister of justice and human rights was not an arbitrary choice. Ouahbi is a politician with social liberal thinking who defends women rights; he has done so since he was a MP; he has leftist affiliation as he was militant in USFP youth organization and was brought up in Attalia’ party on the principles of secularism before he has joined PAM and these are the main characteristics we should recall strongly with Minister of Justice and human rights in this specific phase.
Former PJD Minister of Justice Mustapha Aramid was subject of several questions marks by international organizations, on their top the UN. His appearance at world forums has brought Morocco to lose its credibility as a state capable of progress and of social development especially women rights, since he is a polygamous, who cannot talk as a minister in front of the world community about a major project that concerns half the society which is women, he is a person incapable of achieving social justice in his private life.
On the contrary, current Minister of Justice enjoys credibility in terms of his political background and in this context, we’d like to recall the big reception and cooperation afforded to the Moroccan delegation he has led during the broad periodic UN session of last November and at the final public session when the UNHRC President has praised the performance of the Moroccan delegation led by Ouahbi. Also Ouahbi was received personally by the UN Higher Commissioner for human rights to talk about several major projects undertaken by Morocco especially in advancing human rights and implementing penal rules in the field of violence against women.
And this is the whole point, the central transition at the Ministry of Justice has been done at the level of the Minister and his inner staff; however, let’s not forget that there is a deeply- rooted administration that has been formed over several decades and has been reinforced over the last ten years by Islamists leadership in the person of former Minister of Justice Aramid, senior executives, and directors were appointed and integrated into senior positions, a kind of an army of conservatives (from PJD and Justice and Charity movement) who were manipulated to safeguard Islamist thinking and it’s natural that after last elections and after Aramid and his inner staff departed, those senior executives have remained at central, local and regional administrations.
Liberal social political transition which occurred at the central level was not accompanied by a transition at the local administrative level, particularly with the incoming of a secularist Minister who has raised the slogan of women rights and supports a liberal secular project of the jurist system that concerns women.
A Minister who talks about abortion and consensual relationships outside the context of marriage and punishment laws, defining filiation and accounting men for responsibility is something cacophony for conservative Islamists who coexist and fight against him on daily basis at the Ministry.
So it’s natural we see today, that when some trade unions and associations, which used to have a conflict with Minister Ouahbi such as the bar association, come up with communiqués in which they have condemned the attack against the bar institution, and have also condemned skepticism in the honesty of exams, then comes PJD youth organization with its own communiqué to call for staging protests and criticized entirely the credibility of bar profession exams entirely.
The prevailing conflict now has exceeded its level of skirmishes about a statement by a Minister known for his spontaneity in the political milieu and who uses sometimes sarcasm discourse to express his disappointment regarding a position or a question, to become an ideological conflict between a conservative religious thinking and a moderate secularist one. These are among the manifestations of the ideological conflict between two streams that coexist at one ministry, one governs politics (Minister Ouahbi and his inner staff) and the other one controls the administration (rooted Islamists from PJD and Justice and Charity movement which has never got out of the conflict).
My guess is that we will see in the future many outings of this kind to see Islamist surfing over the waves of simple pitfalls by secular politicians as it has occurred and occurs in other countries.
