Jordan faces wave of dissent as government’s troubles mount
JORDAN When a flash flood swept a group of schoolchildren to their deaths in Jordan last month, a wave of public criticism pointed to wider discontent within the kingdom.
The backlash against the government on social media questioned how anyone had been allowed into an area at risk of seasonal flooding near the Dead Sea. Two ministers were sacked over the tragedy and King Abdullah ordered an inquiry.
The reaction reflected the challenges facing a government struggling to win public support over a range of issues, chief amongst them tax increases needed to help plug the state’s gaping budget deficit.
Criticism on Facebook and Twitter has been running at a high pitch all year with little or no respite even after King Abdullah replaced the government in June following a rare wave of protests over the economy.
“Prison does not scare us and the word of justice we will say as long as we live. The country must get fixed,” political satirist Ahmed Hassan Zoubi tweeted on November 17.
King Abdullah’s half brother, former crown prince Hamza, has also weighed in, taking to Twitter in September to demand a crackdown on corruption in the public sector as a starting point for reform - a call voiced by the king himself.
For Jordan, a US ally whose stability has been a defining feature of the Middle East for decades, this has been an uncomfortable year.
The government has been forced to cut spending and raise taxes, confronted by the economic impact of years of regional turmoil and diminished Gulf Arab support as a result of falling oil prices and the Yemen war.
Adding to the pressures, Donald Trump’s proposed Middle East peace plan has hit a political nerve in Jordan, where millions of citizens of Palestinian refugee origin live alongside native Jordanians.
Despite questions over whether the president’s “ultimate deal” will get anywhere, his approach has stirred old fears of any attempt to settle the conflict in a way that would suit Israel but forgo Palestinian rights at Jordan’s expense.
With its stability underpinned by a powerful military and security apparatus, Jordan has developed one of the Arab world’s more open economies, investing in education and infrastructure including its gleaming airport and roads.
A bulwark against Islamist militancy, Jordan has made peace with Israel and absorbed waves of Palestinian, Iraqi and Syrian refugees. It also navigated its way through the 2011 Arab Spring, though it still faces some of the issues that ignited regional turmoil that year, notably youth unemployment.
Since the summer protests, there has been no sign of unrest in the streets. King Abdullah and his Hashemite dynasty enjoy solid support and act as a unifying force among native Jordanian tribes and Jordanian Palestinians.
But not for the first time, the monarchy has come in for criticism of late. (Reuters)