Cabinet Shuffle and Regionalization Plans in Morocco

King Mohammed VI made a partial ministerial change Monday. The cabinet changes inculde two ministries of sovereignty: the powerful Ministry of the Interior and the Ministry of Justice. Mohammed VI appointed president of Morocco's Supreme Court Tayeb Cherkaoui to replace former Interior Minister Chakib Benmoussa, while Mohamed Naciri replaced Abdelouahed Radi at the helm of the Ministry of Justice. The soverign also appinted two new minsters: Yasser az-Zanaki and Mohammed Sa'ad al'Alami to head the ministeries of Tourism and Handicrafts, and Relations with Parliament and Modernization of Public Sectors respectively.

The appointment of Tayeb Cherqaoui is particularly intriguing given his juridical and legal background. Hopefully, this is an indication from the king that the Ministry of the Interior will no longer rely on questionable extra-legal means in its day to day affairs. The appointment of Tayeb Cherqaoui, former president of the Supreme Court, could be a new and unprecedented page in the annals of the Ministry, as there is a high expectation that the new minister will steer the ministry towards respecting principles of the rule of law.

This cabinet shuffle comes in the aftermath of , and is linked to, the key royal speech on the regionalization plan in Morocco, which the monarch delivered Sunday. In the speech, the monarch announced the founding of a new Advisory Commission on Regionalization, headed by Morocco's ambassador to Spain and ex-minister of Justice and former president of the Advisory Council for Human Rights (CCDH), Omar 'Azziman. The commission is also composed of 21 members, including three women from different academic and professional backgrounds. The commission is entrusted with the task of developing "a general plan for a sophisticated, national regionalization model, covering all of the Kingdom's regions, to be submitted to me at the end of June 2010," King Mohammed VI said in the speech.

Regionalization policy has been long championed by late Hassan II, but no significant inroads have been made in the decade since his death. The creation of the advisory commission and their mandate to develop and present a concrete plan to the king is certainly a major push towards finally implementing a comprehensive process for regional governance.