Twelve years after his death, King Hassan II is perhaps being remembered today by Colonel Gaddafi, the persona non grata who waged a war that spared nothing in order to topple the King's regime. When Hassan II was sharply criticized by his American and Western friends, over the unity agreement he signed between his monarchal regime and Gaddafi's indecipherable regime, he would respond that engaging Libya is the best way to push it towards change. However, when he discovered that it is impossible for the Colonel to change, he discarded the treaty of the Arab-African Union, and pursued a path altogether different to achieve collective change, under the banner of the Maghreb Union. The Libyan Colonel once wore a glove to avoid touching the King's hands, after the latter sat with former Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Peres. But history will remember the reply of the Moroccan King, who said that the day will come when Gaddafi will find no hands to shake. What the King had been asking him was to modify some of his ways, and a great deal of his mentality. At first, the King believed than an intellectual debate may convince the West to give Gaddafi a chance, in order to help him rejoin the international community. For this purpose, he dispatched the Moroccan intellectual Abdullah al-Erwi to hold a dialogue with prominent Western politicians. Later, the King wagered on economic and political integration, with a view to dilute Libyan contradictions in the framework of the Maghreb Union. This was based on the premise that walking together is the best political exercise. But then none of this came true. Gaddafi should have first confronted himself with some self-criticism, especially when he had the opportunity to leave the Bab al-Aziziya compound and tour the capitals of the civilized world, instead of confronting the whole world. But it was the Libyan people that came to call for deep political reforms. There can be no guilt in an oppressed people calling for the end of oppression. Instead, it is those who fire at unarmed chests who are guilty. King Hassan II had once asked Gaddafi to either turn over the Libyans implicated in the Lockerbie affair, or face exposing the interests of his people and his country to what is harsher than economic embargo. He warned him that time is not to his advantage. But it took years of humiliating sanctions to convince Gaddafi that the time of impunity from international accountability, has ended with the collapse of the eastern bloc, and that any compromise will fail to even out the harsh repercussions of ‘recidivism', to borrow a term used by Moroccan jurists (which means the act of a person repeating offenses, crimes or violations). In truth, one cannot always be exonerated by offering lucrative reparations, because the harm is often not forgotten. Because giving counsel is part of moral duties, King Hassan II also continued to advise the Colonel to depart from the ‘hypothesis of revolution' to the reality of the state. This meant that the state should be committed towards its people and the others, in not making the Libyans feel like they are an exception among other populaces. The King offered this advice while asserting that he would not accept a single dollar from the Libyan Jamahiriya, and that Morocco is able to pay the bill for its oil imports from its own treasury. Time then showed that while money can help fix problems of trade and commerce, it cannot create policies if such policies are not part of the logical context of our day and age. King Hassan II passed away, and among the five men who signed the treaty establishing the Maghreb Union in Marrakesh, only Gaddafi is still alive. This treaty was signed on February 17, 1989. However, the revolution of the Libyan people took place on the same exact day, only two decades later. Thus Gaddafi, the head of the Maghreb Summit that failed to convene, could not celebrate the anniversary of the establishment of the Maghreb Union. Instead, the number 17 became a bad omen. Not one letter of congratulations was sent to the Colonel, or even letters of reproach. All doors have been slammed in his face. Africa's King of Kings should have perhaps built his rule on wisdom. It was wisdom that prompted the late President Jamal Abdel-Nasser to tender his resignation in the aftermath of the June 1967 defeat, and this only made his popularity surge. However, the Keeper of Arab Nationalism does not want to heed the people's voices calling on him to step down. He would take no advice.
