Kudos to you!!

You were right on target. He was the same when I and Samir were living in the same area in Amman. He was rotten spoiled, controlling, manipulating because of who his father was, bragging how one day he will become PM in Jordan without having to even worry or prove himself to earn the post. He is obsessed with power and public positions and has an imature side with an ego… too bad for Jordan and the message his appointment sends to other Jordanians…

Thank God for this blog! It’s one of the few where we can express ourselves freely with what’s happening n Jordan nowadays. More to say in days to come…

Regards,

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/23/world/middleeast/23amman.html?_r=1&scp=2&sq=jordan&st=cse

AMMAN, Jordan — In recent days, King Abdullah II, popularly perceived in the West as being among the most enlightened Middle East leaders, has dismissed the prime minister and replaced him with a palace aide and loyalist, dissolved Parliament and postponed legislative elections for a year.

The king’s decisions were widely seen here as an effort to free the government from a recalcitrant legislature so it could push through financial measures viewed as essential to shoring up an economy burdened by debt and deficit. The Parliament, dissolved midway through its term, had opposed cuts in spending and the reduction of business taxes, key components of the government’s financial plan.

While King Abdullah often talks about human rights and democracy, the reality here is often quite different, rights advocates say. Last month the internal security forces were criticized by human rights groups when two prisoners died in custody.

The king’s recent moves, while aimed at fiscal management, demonstrate the leadership’s continued intention to manipulate and suppress the political process, former officials and political commentators said.

“The nature of humans is they want democracy,” said Ali Dalain, an independent member of the Parliament that was dissolved. “Since 1993, democracy in Jordan has been receding. One person cannot solve all problems and cannot make everyone happy, so people must share in determining their fate.”

The king tried to blunt that criticism by ordering the government to rework an unpopular election law that limits the ability of voters to select their representatives. But even allies of the government conceded that there was little chance of substantially altering the law, which was instituted in 1993 to keep power out of the hands of certain groups, like the Muslim Brotherhood, an Islamist organization.

“There are no fundamental changes; we should not be under any illusions,” said Nawaf Tell, a Foreign Ministry official who is director of the Center for Strategic Studies at the University of Jordan. “Yes, I read the newspapers; hopes are high, but this is not the case, that’s not what is going to happen.”

The king’s credentials as a proponent of democracy were further undermined when he delayed legislative elections and then announced that there would be elections for new local councils, a move termed political sleight of hand by those calling for free elections for Parliament. The councils would have no legislative or decision-making authority, officials said, but would instead work as local administrators and troubleshooters.

“These councils have no political identity, and they will use the councils to improve Jordan’s image,” said Rohile Gharaibeh, deputy secretary general for the Islamic Action Front, the political party for the Muslim Brotherhood in Jordan. “This will be how they try to distract people.”

When the king first moved against Parliament and promised to fix the much maligned election law, many groups praised the decision. As the economy has soured, with unemployment around 13 percent, the legislature has developed a reputation for self-interest and incompetence. It also lacked legitimacy because of accusations of vote-buying and fraud in the last election, though former officials say it was the intelligence service that oversaw the electoral manipulation.

Jordan’s actions are nothing out of the ordinary in the Middle East, where kings, emirs, sultans and presidents rely on elected institutions to claim legitimacy and give citizens the perception they have a stake in the direction of the state, political experts said. But those institutions have little independent power or authority. In Egypt, officials in 2006 delayed local elections for two years, saying they would use that time to improve the democratic conditions, though those improvements have not occurred.

When Jordan’s king dissolved Parliament, he also instructed the government to ensure that future elections were a “model of transparency and justice.” By doing that, he focused attention on the election law that was put in effect in 1993 by his father, King Hussein.

The law shifted control of Parliament away from heavily populated urban centers, with a majority of Palestinians and Islamist supporters, to more rural, tribal-dominated areas. The election law has been preserved over the years because it permitted some degree of public political participation, while allowing the government to preserve a social balance that it sees as essential to keeping Islamists from taking power, and keeping Jordanians of Palestinian origin from winning political control. Of the six million Jordanians, at least half are ethnic Palestinians.

Government supporters say changing the law would undermine the identity of the state and diminish the prospects for the two-state solution to the crisis between the Palestinians and the Israelis. But critics contend that the election law has been used as a political tool to protect old-guard interests.

“I don’t think that King Hussein, when he designed the election law, thought it would reach the situation we are in today,” said Mustafa Hamarneh, a former director of the Center for Strategic Studies, who now edits a weekly magazine. “But there are conservatives who believe that this is the best way to maintain stability.”

For the moment, the king has focused on the day-to-day management of a struggling economy. The national debt is headed toward $14 billion this year at the same time that the economy is contracting as a result of the global financial crisis. The king rolled out his final reshuffling on Monday, when he swore in a new prime minister, Samir Rifai, 43, a businessman and former palace adviser.

Referring to the flurry of royal decisions, Musa Maaytah, Jordan’s minister of political development, said, “The most important thing now is how to develop political life and increase the participation of citizens.”

Mr. Maaytah holds a post that Jordan says was created to demonstrate the kingdom’s commitment to improving the political environment. But the ministry is also seen as the weakest in the cabinet, political analysts said, a perception underscored in part by there having been seven ministers in the six years the post has existed.

Mr. Maaytah said he hoped the situation in Jordan would improve, but acknowledged that the jury was still out. “I was against dissolving the Parliament,” he conceded.

Mona El-Naggar contributed reporting.

I have placed a blog on your site since around 2 months or so ref my ordeal with obtaining my JOrdanian Nationality. I’m thankful for your offer to assist me and I did supply you with all the supporting documents.

I had planned and executed an investment of 4 million JOD on airport grounds fopr Jordan (you know my full story by now).

I spent 15 years in my company and chose to come to Jordan; his Majesty the King was so generous in offering me the Jordanian Nationality by means of a ‘Royal’ instruction and since over a year now.

No one in Jordan from X-PM or any of the senior people that heard my story cared even to help, assist or even clarify to me why was I deprived of what is my right.Would you think the new PM would take an interest in giving me my Jordanian Nationality based on the order of His Majesty – or may be you could help in making my voice and case reach his desk..??

You are a free journalist and I respect your blog and your professional way of objectively looking at things; so can I bother you with getting my voice heard..!!! Thanks

pretending jordan has political parties .. thats cute

By Hani Hazaimeh

AMMAN – The Kingdom’s Islamist parties are the least concerned with human rights among other political parties in the country, according to a study revealed on Sunday.

The study, which was conducted by the National Centre for Human Rights (NCHR), categorised the country’s 15 political parties into four groups – Islamists, nationalists, leftists and moderates.

It used a content analysis methodology that reviewed each party’s agenda, principles and objectives as well as their activities to assess the extent to which they focus on human rights, said Nitham Barakat, who headed the team that compiled the study……………………The 102-page study showed that Islamic parties’ charters made the least mention of equality, accounting for only 13.64 per cent of all references to equality in party charters. In comparison, moderate parties accounted for 33.64 per cent of such references………………………Barakat explained that the founding documents of leftist and Islamic parties do not include any references to the right to life, freedom of movement or freedom from torture and cruel treatment, whereas moderate and nationalist parties stress these rights in their agendas………

On another point. If a sense of being disenranchised is a valid excuse for apathy, India might still be ruled by the British, South Africa would be in the thrall of apartheid, and the Czech Republic would still be Czechoslavakia under communist rule. So I totally agree with Yet Another Jordanian@ Making your voice heard isnt just about yelling and typing, its about doing. Making an effort despite whatever obstacles are in the way, to overcome and create solutions to the problems. Nas’ recent post also finds a resonance with me.

What I am trying to say is that people were scared of Pinochet and his secret police in Chile and the dictatorship in Argentina but the mothers of Plaza De Mayo went out and demonstrated and demanded to know what happened to their songs despite knowing that they might face the same fate as their children. Thankfully I don’t think anyone has to face such a fate in Jordan, but there needs to be an active civil society in order for things to change.

Most of our civil society organizations and efforts are non-political, but they still benefit the lives of everyday Jordanians and make a difference. It doesn’t have to be politically charged in order for things to change in a benificial way to the population. Democracy isnt going to be the solution to all of Jordan’s problems I’m sorry to say. Communism might have been a great idea, but whose been able to implement it properly? They have democracy in the US but they still have an active civil society element that fills in for where the government doesnt/can/wont etc. The argument that there has to be democracy for civil society to be active and thrive is wrong and history has proven that over and over. I’ve lived in a democracy for many years and I’ve seen its flaws.

In Development Economics, there has to be a triggering factor for an economy to get out of its unproductive cycle, I was taught that started with the need for entrepreneurs to go out and take risks and start enterprises. Debating that is another issue but the point there is that there needs to be a trigger, and that trigger isnt going to be effortless and free, it might have a cost, but when has anything ever been free in this world?

our failure to connect those socially transforming ideas (and many others) to the larger political picture is one of the biggest sources for our current malaise and our acquiescent natures.

——–

if any of those groups got political and started getting “ideas” .. dont you agree that someone would start listening in on their conversations .. maybe call in their president to have a little chat ..
what im trying to say is that we (the people) are not lazy or aqueiscent or whatever else .. we are just scared of what might happen if we decided to say something .. we are terrified of what might happen if we “got involved” .. the prevalent attitude is “بمشي الحيط الحيط ويارب الستر” ..

ill give u a personal example .. during the war on gaza .. i live in riyadh .. now protests are banned in ksa .. forget about expatriates in saudi .. do you think the saudi ppl didnt want to protest .. i assure u that they did .. but they were scared of what might happen if they did .. the state went so far as to prod the mufti to declare that protests are wrong ..

so it all boils down to this .. change must come from the people .. no doubt about that .. but the people are too scared to do anything .. this environment of fear has been created by the state .. so unless the people grow some balls .. the status quo is going to continue ..
take iran’s protestors as an example .. they get beaten they get arrested they even get killed .. but they have balls .. however i admit they have the media coverage working for them .. if the same protests happened in a country that the US considers an ally the coverage would definitely not be the same .. but still ..

If by purpose you mean prviding social services in the land of the “7ashd an reba6″ then yeah. They simply thrived for being there at the right time in the right place. They built on their initial success that was a direct result of the government support and protection. One can look at their status in egypt to compare..And don’t forget the relationship between king hussein and abdulnaser..We drifted way beyond the original purpose, but I felt the urge to clarify..

“my point is this .. while i agree with the notion that the change must come from the people, it appears to me that the laws and policies in place also agree with this and therefore make every effort to snuff out any kind of initiative from the people ..”

i agree with you in principle, and those laws need to be seriously re-examined no doubt. the trouble is, to get something positive done; to create real social change, does not require a protest or a permission slip from the governor. we need to start looking at social movements as being strictly political and strictly as something that will illicit the bashing of heads from the state’s police force.

and although i dont want to get in to a discussion about police brutality, i should point out that while it does exist, of the hundred plus protests that ive been to in jordan over the past decade, the majority of fights tend to start with a protester throwing a stone at a policeman, followed by the group organizer yelling at him to fall back, followed by others throwing things, followed by the police captain getting fed up. again, im not saying that this happens in all cases, just the overwhelming majority of the political protests ive seen that have led to that (the majority of licensed protests do not end with anyone being beaten so let’s not confuse jordan with egypt).

“and thats exactly why they are considered public enemy #1 by the state … do you think the state will allow another ikhwan to appear .. by another ikhwan i dont mean another body that shares their ideology .. just one that shares their organization and influence”

i think mohanned’s argument was that the ikhwan exist because the government allows them to, in the sense that they serve the government’s purpose. im not sure that’s true, especially when considering their history in the country and the region.

that said, there are a multitude of religious and non-religious organizations that already exist on the ground that are not associated with the ikhwan. all of them are allowed to operate and ive researched, spoken to, interviewed and worked with a few in recent years. what makes the ikhwan strictly unique in this sense is their long history of social activism, and of course their numbers – outmatching anything else that’s available.

again, the reason i mentioned them in the first place is not because of their politics nor their religious convictions, but their ability to mobilize and create an unrivaled organization when it comes to social activism in their respective communities (and they are many). this social movement has had its impact on a religious and political level within these communities and depending where one stands, this may be seen as positive or negative. what cannot be denied as that they have managed to have an enormous social impact despite the obstacles set up by the system and the state that we constantly complain about.

if they had simply sat down and said, you know what, there’s nothing we can do because the system is against us and the country’s leadership is against us and everyone is corrupt and everything is terrible – then the social power base they have now would be non-existent.

they exist not merely in light of the system’s obstacles but because of them.

“perhaps .. but none of those have anything to do with politics so i dont get how its relevant to what we are talking about”

our failure to connect those socially transforming ideas (and many others) to the larger political picture is one of the biggest sources for our current malaise and our acquiescent natures.

———

@susie: i haven’t read it but it would be great if you wrote something about it and published it on 7iber.com

perhaps .. but none of those have anything to do with politics so i dont get how its relevant to what we are talking about

and thats exactly why they are considered public enemy #1 by the state … do you think the state will allow another ikhwan to appear .. by another ikhwan i dont mean another body that shares their ideology .. just one that shares their organization and influence

yeah, i dont get it.

but here’s a thought, instead of trying to draw analogies, it’s healthier if you just enter the debate with your arguments which we can dissect respectfully.

casting stones from the sidelines never helps

thanks

الملك يغادر ارض الوطن في زيارة خاصة

(بترا) – غادر جلالة الملك عبدالله الثاني ارض الوطن الجمعة في زيارة خاصة.وادى سمو الامير فيصل بن الحسين اليمين الدستورية بحضور هيئة الوزارة نائبا لجلالة الملك

الملك لا يقول لشعبه ما مناسبة هذه الزيارة الخاصة … واين سيقضيها ؟ ولماذا الان ؟

الملك قام خلال هذا العام ب 43 اجازة خاصة قضاها في الخارج على نفقة الشعب الاردني واصطحب معه زوجته واهلها وصديقاتها كما اصطحب اصدقائه واستأجر شاليهات ويخوت فاخرة وشملت زياراته الخاصة التزلج في كولورادو ولعب القمار في لاس فيغاس وكازينو لندن وزيارة مزرعة للخمور … هذا طبعا عدا عن الزيارات التي تأخذ طابعا رسميا بحجة القاء محاضرة هنا او زيارة جامعة هناك وهذه ايضا تتحول بعد نصف ساعة الى اجازة خاصة

وللمقارنة فقط … ملك المغرب لم يغادر مملكته خلال الفترة نفسها الا مرتين في زيارات رسمية ولم يظهر مع زوجته بملابس داخلية كما ظهر ملك الاردن وهو يشرب بيرة بد لايت في يخت فاخر في ايطاليا قبل اشهر … الرئيس السوري لم يقم مع زوجته باية زيارة خاصة للخارج ويقضي اجازاته القصيرة مع زوجته اما بحضور مسرحية في حلب او بزيارة منطقة كسب … الملك عبدالله تفوق حتى على والده الملك حسين … المرحوم الملك حسين قام خلال السنوات العشر الاخيرة من حكمه ب 12 زيارة فقط وكلها كانت لاسباب مرضية

“Every population who has ever lived in a banana republic under a corrupt dictator with expensive hobbies has managed to console itself by pointing to a few things (or accomplishments) that create the illusion that they are not living under a corrupt autocratic regime.”

One of the most powerful statements I’ve ever read .. You should write a book. Seriously.

@ NAS

Your logic kinda reminds of this ..
——————————————————————————————————————-
JENNINGS: Excuse me for interrupting. Who decides democratic maturity? Who is –.

ABDULLAH: The people.

JENNINGS: — as of now, you decide democratic maturity?

ABDULLAH: Well in this particular position, we formed the government, that the parliament is elected by the people. But to encourage that, I mean, I have been in discussions with parliamentarians that would it be stronger for you to create where you stand on issues of education, social services, et cetera, et cetera, so that you can create a political party so that in the future, the people actually pick you for where you stand, and not because you happen to be a cousin or a tribal member?
———————————————————————————————————————

………??

“I never uttered the word state or government propaganda in my comment”

then how do you define propaganda in the context you used it?

“A Good journalist would run a correction immediately..”

i am not a journalist nor do i claim to be one

if this is true then we should assume that any social reform on the ground level must happen despite the presence of the system. to me, that is the very definition of an organic social movement. that’s what’s needed. it’s happened all over the world.

“in my opinion it is only the first step. to excercise freedom of speech. to demand accountability. To ask for checks and balances. to focus the attention on what is imprtant.”

this is where i have trouble. i agree with this premise as any sane person would, but i also live in this environment; this environment where i see the majority of people not accountable for their own actions. the cheating, the fraud, the robbery, the disregard of ethics, etc. getting the simplest of tasks done in jordan is a whirlwind of trouble because you have to deal with employees (private or public) who have no work ethic. unfortunately they represent a majority but i use this as an example to say, yeah, i’d love to see accountability on the executive level, but what about the millions underneath? good leaderships helps but it can only do so much to change the core values in a people.

“social change takes time…protecting our country can’t wait.”

yes, but in my opinion it is a pre-requisite. you can have all the free elections you want, but without genuine social reform you will not only yield unfortunate results but the people will remain generally apathetic.