Nervous times ahead

Jordan's monarchy
Nervous times ahead
The king is catching a harsh wind, too

Feb 3rd 2011

Something strange is happening in a usually quiet corner of the Arab world, often mocked as “the Hashemite kingdom of boredom”. A group of former generals and intelligence officers, who served Jordan’s king in the security apparatus that was counted on to clobber street protests, have themselves been staging unlicensed demonstrations.

When rallies erupted in January, they were at first largely tribal affairs in the impoverished Bedouin villages where King Abdullah recruits his forces. But as they spread to Amman, the capital, and to other towns, other disgruntled Jordanians, including Islamists, teachers and leftists, have jumped on the bandwagon.

As the protests spread across classes and towns, demands for better living standards acquired a sharper political edge, aiming at the government and even the king himself. Dissident generals and Islamists are asking the king to rescind parts of the 1952 constitution, which enshrines his right to hire and fire unelected prime ministers. As in Tunisia and Egypt, disparate groups have joined forces. The protests have been peaceful. But, amid threats of civil disobedience and nationwide strikes, Jordan looks less secure as one of the West’s favored buffer states in the region.

In response, the king at first increased the meager government pensions and salaries by 20 dinars ($28) a month; few of the beneficiaries sounded grateful. Then, on January 31st, he sacked his government, a time-honored Jordanian device for fobbing off protest. The new prime minister, Marouf Bakhit, comes from the same Bedouin and military stock as most of the protesters. In a previous stint as prime minister, he placated his Bedouin troops by raising their salaries. Muhammad Sneid, who organized the first rural protest in the town of Dhiban, cheered the appointment of one of his own.

The Islamists, by contrast, have not been mollified. After three hotels in Amman were bombed by jihadists in 2005, Mr Bakhit led the crackdown which, among other things, saw the Islamists’ representation in parliament drastically reduced in rigged elections in 2007. The grumpy generals, however, seem readier to give Mr Bakhit a chance. In a sign of division, they scolded the Islamists for waving the green flags of Islam alongside Jordanian ones.

In any event, the new prime minister is unlikely to dampen Jordanians’ desire for faster economic and political progress. The king has talked of political reform for 12 years, retaining absolute power even as the kingdom’s economy has faltered. To pay for a national debt that has tripled in a decade, he has cut services and subsidies and raised taxes. “It took north Africa’s explosion to make him take notice,” says Adnan abu Odeh, who once ran the royal court and was one of the protesters.

Criticism of corruption has grown increasingly personal. The king is widely derided for spending too much time abroad, allegedly buying birthday presents, such as a yacht for Queen Rania. Tales abound of favored bureaucrats becoming rich.

The sour mood is notable in the south, where the intimate alliance the Hashemites enjoyed with the local tribes has begun to fray. The bunting and obsequious banners that recently marked the king’s official birthday were rarer than in previous years. “We feel we’re a minority in our own country,” says Mr Sneid. Referring to the business elite which is said to have the king’s ear, he continues: “We feel they’ve captured the government and we’re working for foreigners.”

Source: The Economist.
Link: http://www.economist.com/node/18065683?story_id=18065683.