AMMONNEWS – Banan Malkawi - In an article in the Washington Post on Friday, Janine Zacharia writes that Jordan is going through a period of “exceptional dourness,” with autocratic governance being the name of the game culminating in laws restricting public and press freedoms and arbitrary measures against various groups in the country including teachers, government employees, and day-laborers.

Zacharia, the newspaper’s Middle East correspondent in Jerusalem, finds that King Abdullah “has faced an unusual amount of domestic criticism in recent months that has coincided with a trend toward more autocratic governance,” according to observers.

She explains that increased criticism about the direction Jordan is heading and “grumbling” stemming from local groups such as the retired military officers, journalists and teachers, is being “directed by proxy at the government” because overtly criticizing the king “remains taboo.”

“It's not that Jordanians haven't had gripes in the past. What's new, observers say, is the willingness to openly pass judgment on the "system," a euphemism for the king. Criticizing the king is punishable by up to three years in prison, while slandering a government official carries a penalty of up to one year,” Zacharia says.

She notes that some critics predicted that the disenchantment could feed instability in Jordan, especially that “for now, steps taken by the government to restrict freedoms have blistered [the King’s] reputation as an enlightened reformer and fueled a surprising amount of discontent among the monarchy's traditional backers.”

She highlights that the domestic challenge comes as Jordan's relevance in the region has dwindled, as it is having less influence over the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, and that with “Jordan’s regional role in decline, domestic disgruntlement has become pronounced.”

Noting that some of the “disgruntlement” appears to be driven by Jordan’s privatization policies and the government’s cutting of subsidies, among various other economic reform policies, Zacharia yet finds that despite these efforts, the World Bank ranked Jordan 100th out of 183 countries this year in terms of ease of doing business, behind Yemen.

“Lucrative sales of government-controlled land that don't seem to have enriched Jordan's coffers have prompted corruption complaints. Officials, citing a tripling of economic growth in the past decade, say the scope of alleged corruption is exaggerated,” she adds.

She notes that King Abdullah has addressed such concerns despite that many Jordanians are finding the regime growing out of touch with the average, poor Jordanian citizen.

In a June speech marking the 11th anniversary of his ascendance to the throne, Abdullah addressed people's concerns.

"Ample talk about corruption, nepotism and favoritism" is "overblown," the King said, asking his people for patience as his newly appointed government works to fix the economy.

She adds: "Jordan now really is in the balance," said Labib Kamhawi, a political analyst in Amman. "People are now doubtful about Jordan," he added, predicting the criticism could lead to an "explosion."

In highlighting the crises-prone conditions in the country, Zacharia brings back to light the infamous statement issued by the retired military personnel.

She writes: “In May, a group of retired military officers issued a public six-point complaint about the government that stunned many because of its bluntness. It criticized privatization, and it reflected a growing paranoia among Jordanian-born nationals that the United States, Israel and Jordan are concocting a settlement to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict that will offer Jordanian citizenship to more Palestinians.”

"We will not accept under any condition or in any form, any solution to the Palestinian question at Jordan's expense," Abdullah said in his June speech.

Amid this mounting discontent, the writer points that Jordan is on the verge of holding Parliamentary elections in November amidst plans of boycott announced by major political and populist groups, most prominently from the Muslim Brotherhood and the Islamic Action Front, Jordan’s largest political parties.

“Jordan's autocratic trends led the non-governmental group Freedom House to downgrade it from "partially free" to "not free," she adds.

Aside from the retired military personnel and the eminent parliamentary election fiasco, Zacharia highlights where else has public disenchantment been most pronounced, especially amidst increasingly autocratic governing policies: day-laborers, teachers, water crisis, and electronic media.

“Rights activists deplored the crackdown on workers such as Muhammad al-Sunaid, 34, who was fired after demanding better pay for government-employed day laborers. He was sentenced in a military court to three months in jail in part for insulting an official after asking why he was fired.”

“This summer, teachers expressed dissatisfaction with low wages by holding a 70-mile protest march, something unheard of in Jordan. Fifteen teachers who led the push to unionize were fired. "We have no unions and teachers live in poverty," said Mustapha Rawashdeh, one of the teachers' organizers who lost his job. Dissatisfaction with Jordan's leaders among the people, he said, "has reached new heights.''

“And in Jerash, which gets the lowest share of water per capita in Jordan, residents openly complained last week about shortages.”

Zacharia stresses that one of the most “brazen” restrictions introduced in Jordan this year affects online media.

“Whereas Abdullah made affordable Internet access a priority and Queen Rania has more than a million followers on Twitter Jordan passed a provisional cyberspace law this month that Paris-based Reporters Without Borders said creates a "legislative arsenal that can be used to punish those whose posts upset the authorities." Penalties range from fines to forced labor,” she explains.

“In a letter Tuesday to Abdullah, the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists said the law could be used to harass online media and undermined "Jordan's image as a free and open society," she adds.

In explaining, she relays that Jordanian officials say the cyberspace law was necessary because private investors demanded regulations to limit pornography and other offenses.
Zacharia conveys that one senior Jordanian government official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said with regard to the news Web sites, "we would like professional journalism. A lot of them deal in slander. People's freedom ends when it infringes on other people's freedom."

Yet in highlighting the audacity of local news websites in posting material that upsets authorities, she notes that only one site carried the retired military officers' statement in full. It is noted that several other local news sites published the full text of the retired military officer’s statement, much to the dismay of authorities, including ‘Ammon News’ which also translated the statement and published it on its English news site.

Even though the Web site was hacked four times, Zacharia notes, it still carries articles that upset the government. “Its two main writers say they keep bags packed for the possible eventuality that they will be arrested once the cyberspace law formally takes effect,” she concludes.