(CNN) -- The king of Jordan dismissed his government Tuesday and appointed a new prime minister with orders to implement political reform.
The dismissal follows several protests calling for change in Jordan -- protests that echo demonstrations that have swept across North Africa and the Middle East in the last few weeks.
King Abdullah II asked Marouf Al Bakhit to form a government in Jordan that will implement "genuine political reform," the Royal Court said in a statement.
The government will "take practical steps, quick and concrete, to launch a process of genuine political reform" and "comprehensive development," according to a letter from the king to Al Bakhit. It also will act to strengthen democracy, the letter said.
Jordan has been deprived of "achievement opportunities" due to some leaders' resistance to change, the king wrote, and because they had sometimes put their own interests ahead of those of the public.
The king asked Al Bakhit and the new government "to conduct a thorough evaluation process" and review laws regarding political affairs and civil freedoms to "address the mistakes of the past" and develop "a clear action plan that takes the march of reform forward."
King Abdullah II also called on the new government to strengthen the institutional infrastructure and combat corruption, and prosecute those found to be involved in corruption.
The development in Jordan follows protests that forced the president of Tunisia from power and unrest that has convulsed Egypt for days. Demonstrators also have called for change in Algeria, Sudan and Yemen. Protest organizers have called for a demonstration this week in Syria.
In Jordan, police estimated that several thousand people gathered in capital Friday to demand more significant economic and political reforms. Protesters including Islamists, leftists and union members marched in downtown Amman, and there were protests in six other cities as well, authorities said.
It was the third Friday in a row for the protests. Demonstrators gathered in front of the Al Husseini Mosque to decry government policies they blamed for rising prices, low wages and unemployment.
There were also calls for former Prime Minister Samir Rifai, who took office in December 2009, to step down, and for the dissolution of parliament.
The Islamic Action Front, the political arm of the Jordanian branch of the Muslim Brotherhood, is also asking for an "elected government." Currently, the king appoints the prime minister and the Cabinet.
The Jordanian government in recent weeks announced several measures aimed at easing citizens' economic hardships, including reducing taxes on fuel derivatives and subsidizing some basic commodities. A pay raise of 20 Jordanian dinars a month (US$28) was given to civil servants, military personnel and retirees. But protesters Friday said the measures do not go far enough.
Those in Amman on Friday also showed their solidarity with others in the Arab world, most notably Egypt, where protesters have recently taken to the streets to demand certain freedoms and urge the ouster of their leaders and governments.
It's nice to see the king of Jordan implement democratic reforms. But I wonder why he chose to do so now all of a sudden, after all those years on the throne.
Last edited by The Minx on Tue Feb 01, 2011 10:01 am, edited 1 time in total.
Governments tend not to do things until prodded. So far the King of Jordan has been the fastest and most flexible responder to protests. I should also note a lack of violence or crackdowns on the part of the Jordanian government.
"it takes two sides to end a war but only one to start one. And those who do not have swords may still die upon them." Tolken
The Jordanians have always been much quicker to respond to public pressure than most of the Arab world, and the King of Jordan is actually (somewhat) pro-Western, rather than just a dictator who happens to fall our way. It's a somewhat semantic distinction, but it's something.
Gaze upon my works, ye mighty, and despair...
Havoc: "So basically if you side against him, he summons Cthulu."
Hotfoot: "Yes, which is reasonable."
The man is western. His mother was English and he was educated in the States. He even went out and married a women with college degrees. Hell he treats visiting Marine units (my own among them) more like his own troops (he visited the ship we came in on, had an inspection tour of the unit, gifted us with figs and dates, etc) then foreign troops.
"it takes two sides to end a war but only one to start one. And those who do not have swords may still die upon them." Tolken
He's also pretty popular at home, his country is in far better shape, and he power shares with an elected parliament that has clean elections. Jordanians have far less reason to be angry and far more reason to believe that the system will positively respond to their anger without having a revolution.
It's not that I'm unforgiving, it's that most of the people who wrong me are unrepentant assholes.
That's true: I'm aware of how much better a regime Jordan is than others in the region. But the timing was interesting nonetheless, and there are protests in Jordan despite Jordan being a better place to live in than the other Arab countries.
"A better place to live in than the other Arab countries" is a very relative term. Jordan is still suffering from issues of poverty and lack of employment, which has underlain many of these protests.
Gaze upon my works, ye mighty, and despair...
Havoc: "So basically if you side against him, he summons Cthulu."
Hotfoot: "Yes, which is reasonable."
Yup, showing that the powers that be over there have been dragging their feet. Looking up some statistics:
Egypt has 20% of the population below the poverty line compared with 14% for Jordan.
However, in Jordan, the unemployment rate is 13.4% officially, but the unofficial unemployment rate is 30%. Egypt apparently has a lower official unemployment rate (9.7%), no word on the unofficial one, so that's pretty irrelevant.
Moreover, Jordan is poorer than Egypt, with a per capita GDP of $6200 per year to Jordan's $5300.
The "better place to live" is more about the elections and rule of law than the economy (and that's relative too).
Last edited by The Minx on Wed Feb 02, 2011 2:39 am, edited 1 time in total.
Amman, Jordan (CNN) -- In unprecedented criticism of Jordan's royal family, three dozen prominent Jordanian tribal figures issued an urgent call for reform Sunday and warned that the country may follow Tunisia and Egypt into turmoil without it.
The statement from 36 members of the country's major tribes attacked what they called the interference of Queen Rania in running the country. The queen, "her sycophants and the power centers that surround her" are dividing Jordanians and "stealing from the country and the people," the letter states.
The tribal figures said they were sending a clear message to King Abdullah II. They warned that if corruption was not prosecuted and reform was not implemented, "similar events to those in Tunisia and Egypt and other Arab countries will occur." The internet and satellite television had overcome the ability of regimes to stifle the thirst for information, the statement said.
There has been no response from the royal palace to the statement, which was posted on a popular Jordanian website. But the website, ammonnews.net, later complained that it had been the target of "intentional hacking" and that the statement had been removed.
Jordan's tribes make up about 40% of the country's population and are seen as the bedrock of support for the Hashemite monarchy that has ruled the country for nearly a century.
Though it was not clear whether all the signers were speaking for their tribes, such criticism of the monarchy is rare in Jordan -- recent street protests that criticized the government stopped short of calling for King Abdullah II to step down.
Abdullah marks twelve years on the throne this month, but faces growing criticism among Jordanians amid a recession and allegations of widespread corruption among officials. He dismissed his Cabinet last week, acknowledging that corruption needed to be tackled and political reforms urgently pursued.
Rania, 40, has been married to Abdullah for 17 years. She has had a high profile at home and internationally and has been involved in a number of charitable causes, including youth unemployment.
The tribal leaders said Sunday that allegations of corruption by Layla Trabelsi -- the wife of longtime Tunisian strongman Zine El Abedine Ben Ali, who was forced into exile by a popular revolt in January -- and by Egyptian first lady Suzanne Mubarak have been "the catalyst of populist movements" in those countries. What has happened in Jordan is even worse, the statement said.
"We refuse the squandering of public money and aid to polish her own personal image at the expense of the nation," the statement said. The signatories demanded a breakdown of how aid money from the United States and European Union was being spent and called for a new election law and greater media freedom.
Resentment of Rania, who is Palestinian, is not new among Jordan's Bedouin tribes, but has risen sharply. In recent days, tribal sources have expressed to CNN their resentment about what they perceive as her lavish lifestyle and her interference in politics.
It's certainly possible that she is at the center of corruption but from what I've read the queen has generally been a positive force. Pushing for more schooling and such. I'd have to look more into it but I honestly wonder if this is more about the fact that she's a politically active women then anything else.
"it takes two sides to end a war but only one to start one. And those who do not have swords may still die upon them." Tolken
