When Washington
cites examples of the potential for reform and democracy in the
Arab world, Jordan is one of the first countries mentioned. For
the first time since 1997, Jordanians went to the polls last month
to vote for parliament, and by most accounts the elections went
smoothly. Voter turnout topped 52 percent and stability was maintained,
with a clear majority of the seats going to pro-government candidates.
Islamists, though they later questioned the outcome, added credibility
to the process by taking part in the elections rather than boycotting
them. In the end they captured only 17 out of 110 seats, far fewer
than expected. Jordanian women took a step forward, with six parliamentary
spots specially set aside for females.
These were
important developments, but Jordan is still a long way off from
embracing true democratic reform.
In June 2001,
when the prime minister disbanded the last parliament, he hijacked
the legislative process and began governing by fiat. He put politics
and dissent on a short leash and refashioned the electoral process
so that it would be far from representative. Consequently, although
Jordan has finally returned its parliament to session, the country
is in many ways further away from being a functioning democracy
than it was two years ago.
At the heart
of the problem are the "temporary laws" the Jordanian
government has decreed over the last two years at dizzying speed.
These laws are constitutionally permitted only when parliament
is not in session and the "essential security needs"
of the nation demand them. By disbanding the parliament and putting
the country into a sustained state of high alert, the present
government opened the way for unfettered drafting of these laws.
Between 1930 and 1999, only 60 such temporary laws were decreed.
In the last two years, the government has implemented 184.
The temporary
laws contain a wide range of domestic restrictions. Public gatherings
require a three-day advance permit, which is almost never given.
Criticism of "friendly" nations is a crime prosecuted
before a military court. Reporters who write stories critical
of the government now face much harsher penalties -- up to three
years in prison. Misdemeanor convictions come with no right to
appeal. Civil servants are prevented from signing petitions that
might reflect poorly on the state.
Temporary
laws have also been used to gerrymander electoral districts to
favor the regime. In expanding the parliament's size from 80 to
110 seats, the regime watered down its critics by concentrating
the new seats in the south and west where regime support is strong.
The north and central voting districts, where the bulk of the
Palestinian population resides, are sorely underrepresented. Estimates
released by Fawzi Samhouri, director of the Jordan Society for
Citizens' Rights, a pro-democracy group that authorities dissolved
last year, are revealing. They show, for example, that Amman has
roughly one parliament member for each 52,255 voters, whereas
the city of Karak, hometown of the government's interior minister,
has a parliament member for every 6,000 voters.
The Bush
administration, which values its close relationship with the King
Abdallah II and wants Jordan to continue to run smoothly, will
be tempted to look the other way rather than pressure its ally
to honestly reckon with these unfair and restrictive temporary
laws. But to promote real democracy in the Arab world, the US
needs to begin encouraging its regional allies to tolerate internal
opposition from all sides and give it a legitimate outlet in free
and fair democratic elections. Otherwise, dissenters will tend
to boycott the ballot box, heading underground and becoming more
radicalized in the process.
None of this
takes away from the fact that the restoration of parliamentary
elections in Jordan was an essential move forward, one important
both to Abdallah and the Bush administration. Jordanians headed
to the polls only days before the opening of the World Economic
Forum near Amman. As one of the few Arab nations with a free-trade
agreement with the United States, Jordan is a model of the sort
of economic hopes for the region that US Trade Representative
Robert Zoellick promoted at these meetings. Fiery and anti-Western
political rhetoric from Jordanian campaigners -- or a different
outcome in the balloting -- would certainly have cast a gloomy
shadow over the ambitions of the Jordanian government and the
Bush administration for increased regional trade and foreign investment.
The elections
also held significance for the conflict between Israel and the
Palestinians. Jordan is one of the United States' closest friends
in the Arab world in part because of its willingness to engage
in dialogue with Israel. This was the first time since the king
took office in 1999 that Jordanian citizens, 60 percent of whom
are Palestinian, could vote. They did so as Secretary of State
Colin L. Powell, just across the border, worked arduously to keep
forward momentum in the sputtering "road map," which
has the strong support of Abdallah but has engendered deep skepticism
from most Jordanians, whose ballots could have been used as a
referendum on the issue.
The fact
that the elections weren't turned into such a referendum should
be seen as good news for Jordan's government. Perhaps now, with
a little external pressure, it will be willing to facilitate public
discussion of the many temporary laws, since not even the new
parliamentarians possess a complete list of them. Removing the
overly restrictive limitations on press freedom would also be
an important prerequisite for restoring government transparency
and opening a public debate about the validity of these laws.
The prime minister and others in the government who were most
directly involved with the disbanding of the parliament and the
repeated postponements of parliamentary elections should be held
accountable for their unconstitutional actions. These would be
small but crucial first steps in putting Jordan back on the path
toward true democratization.
But by far
the most important challenge lies immediately ahead. The next
parliament is supposed to review every one of the temporary laws
and decide whether to accept or reject each. It's clear that the
political deck has been stacked with pro-regime types. Now we'll
see whether the new parliament will be able to overcome that and
do what is right: begin the across-the-board reversal of those
laws that are most anti-democratic.
(Toujan Faisal
was, in 1993, the first woman to win a seat in the Jordanian parliament.
Last year she was imprisoned for four months, after accusing the
government of corruption. Ian Urbina is associate editor at the
Middle East Research and Information Project in Washington, DC.)
