Word: hassanal
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...Hassan II, boldness and surprise are the keys to survival...
...contemporary ruler is as crafty and consistently surprising as Shakespeare's Henry V, it is surely King Hassan II of Morocco. Like Prince Hal, Hassan was once a high-spirited playboy who has managed to disarm his critics by adroitly consolidating his power. Since he inherited the throne at age 31 from his father Mohammed V in 1961, Hassan has worked hard to make himself and his kingdom Western, Arabic and African all at once. He can play by turns the extravagant cosmopolite who rides horses with President Reagan, and the devout Muslim who is officially known as Commander...
Like King Henry, Hassan has a fondness for the bold flourish. He took over part of the Spanish Sahara in 1975 by exhorting 350,000 Moroccans to march unarmed into the disputed territory while Spanish soldiers looked on in disbelief. He gained the upper hand in his eight-year desert war with the Marxist Polisario guerrillas by enclosing almost half of the 103,000-sq.-mi. Western Sahara with a 750-mile-long wall of sand and rock. Just last month he caught Western leaders off balance yet again by signing a treaty of friendship with Libya's notorious...
...King's lengthy repertoire of roles was on display once again last week, when Morocco held its first national elections in seven years. As one of the Third World's more democratic monarchs, Hassan allows his subjects to vote for 204 of the 306 seats in the legislative assembly (the rest are appointed by local councils). But in practice, the King himself chooses the Prime Minister and all the Cabinet ministers, often from among his family and friends. This year, however, with Morocco's standard of living on the wane and social unrest on the rise, Hassan...
Though he lost some ground, the King won some democratic laurels. During the 1977 campaign, newspapers were seized by the government and there were fierce protests of improper interference. This time Hassan gave the press a freer hand, declared that the government must remain neutral and reduced sentences for about 600 prisoners, some of them political. For the first time in more than two decades, he allowed the Socialists to help administer the elections. He also permitted them and the tiny Communist Party to buy commercial time on the air waves. Even the Communist newspaper Al Bayane conceded that...