As Morocco braces for another wave of demonstrations on March 20, many analysts underscore the singularity of its king's reaction to similar unrelenting protests currently plaguing many Arab countries. In a rare televised speech, King Mohammed VI called for comprehensive constitutional reform which could strip him of the bulk of his executive powers turning his monarchy into the first real constitutional monarchy in the Arab world. Concretely, this implies the king will no longer appoint the prime minister and regional governors, devolving this power to elected officials and finally putting an end to a one-man ruling formula which has been a significant point of contention and a major source of political anxiety for decades. The king also called for an independent judiciary, more individual rights, gender equality, and an equitable treatment of Morocco's largest minority of Berbers by declaring their mother tongue an official national language.

These reforms are indeed broad and potentially earth shattering for a country where 45% of the population is illiterate, 28% live under the threshold of poverty, the king, his family and close entourage have wide-reaching tentacles in the national economy, and journalists, despite more freedoms than in Tunisia and Egypt, still face strong intimidation for their investigative reporting and discussion of cultural and religious taboos. Following the King's speech, analysts are now calling Morocco the "exception" and lauding the palace's wisdom at a time when regimes in Libya, Yemen and Bahrain are using brute force against protesters or calling for minor cosmetic changes to their rule. I believe the king's long overdue decision to jumpstart the reform process and hold a constitutional referendum is the wisest and boldest decision he's ever made since he took over in 1999, but Moroccans need stronger and more concrete assurances that these reforms will in fact materialize soon. This king already sent some "strong" signs of change when he came to power by removing the symbols of his father's iron rule (particularly the minister of internal affairs, Driss Basri, notorious for his tyrannical policing of the state), releasing political detainees, and appointing a reformist prime minister. Eleven years after, Moroccans still await the results of a long and ineffectual reform process which has produced minimal and only skin-deep gains. Moroccans, just like all Arabs, are tired of yet another commission, another campaign, another project inauguration that reflect very little on the lives of people on the ground. Let the self-sacrifice of the late Fadwa Laroui, a 25-year-old single mother of two who set herself on fire to protest against corruption and a horrendous rich-poor chasm, serve as a reminder of what needs to be urgently fixed in this country. Times have changed in the past few weeks and the road to (tahrir) squares is much easier to find, but let's hope that both officials and protesters remember that the road is paved with good intentions. 

Tomorrow's protests are this king's most arduous and revealing test. If protesters are allowed to march peacefully without any crackdown, then this king is serious about change and all political parties and civil society, including the remarkable youth movement behind these protests, should work with him to carry these reforms through. Only then can we really call Morocco, the Arab exception. Let us all remember as we follow Tunisia and Egypt's transition that as Alexis de Tocqueville once said, "In a revolution, as in a novel, the most difficult part to invent is the end."