The echo of the king's words... and the practices of representatives and the government
In a speech by Jordanian King Abdullah II at the opening of the current parliamentary session at the beginning of this month, he provided support for the National Assembly with its two chambers (the House of Representatives and the Notables), reminding the King that the House of Representatives “is a foundational and leading pillar in political life, as the nation is the source of authorities and the source of its strength,” calling for “adherence to this principle so that our internal front will be impregnable and safeguarded.” The stable internal front is what strengthens the Kingdom’s efforts to protect its constants and interests, security and politically.”
Among the Jordanian King’s directives to the House of Representatives and the Senate, he said to the House: “Your House is a voice for the nation, a guardian of the public interest, and a watchdog over government performance,” considering that “difference in opinion is a strength, as long as Jordan’s interest is the goal.” With all the soft criticism of the behavior of some representatives under the dome, the Jordanian king alerted them by saying: “The Jordanians do not only look at the laws issued by this dome, but also at the behavior and speech that comes from it.” Some interpreted the king’s words as wanting the work of the authorities to be equal and complementary, without one of them controlling the other.
In the face of criticism made by journalists, and reported by civil society organizations that monitor the Public Freedoms Index, that media and press freedoms witnessed a decline during the era of the current government, King Abdullah II decided the constitutional right of every citizen, reiterating that “deliberation in public affairs is your legitimate right protected by the Constitution.” This country and ours are open to every sincere and responsible opinion.”
Emptying political life... through official intervention
Jordanian political elites and figures have found that political life in the country has been emptied of its contents, disrupted, or frozen. Government dealings left an impact on the movement of representatives under the dome, and they are the two authorities with which public opinion is preoccupied, which closely follows the sessions of the House of Representatives, especially the oversight sessions. But there are representatives who “accused the Prime Minister, Jaafar Hassan, of interfering in the will of the Council, after the elections for the presidency of the House of Representatives, which Ibrahim Tarawneh won for the current session.”
Representative Mujhim Al-Saqour, MP for one of the districts of the northern Irbid Governorate since 1997, attacked the Prime Minister, accusing him of interfering in those elections in which the Falcons ran against his colleague Ibrahim Tarawneh. But the latter won 70 votes in the first round, compared to the Falcons, who received 37 votes, while the third competitor, Sulaiman Al-Zaben, received 23 votes. What was striking was the candidacy of Tarawneh and Al-Saqour, who belong to the same party and had previously held leadership positions in it.
While the opposition accuses security decision-making centers of controlling political life, the reason for the interference, according to what Asharq Al-Awsat followed in the parliamentary movement for the permanent office elections, reflects the government’s role in pressuring security centers of influence to control the “loud-voiced representatives,” after it was recently rumored about an alliance relationship that created consensus with the representatives of the Islamic Movement and reduced the intensity of their criticism.
But what was striking about the permanent office elections this session was the ability of the representatives of the Islamic Movement to impose alliances that supported their candidates for first deputy and first assistant by 88 votes, while representatives of the centrist party blocs close to the government obtained 70 votes for those running for the office seats. This number did not exceed 70 votes. Observers noted “the ability of the representatives of the Islamic Movement to create alliances that include a majority of the members of the House of Representatives, after their two candidates obtained seats in the permanent office.”
Decision references
By the way, in Jordan, there is an expanded policy council that includes the country's decision-making authorities, as well as the ministers concerned with one or more items on the agenda of the meetings. There, it seems, “a friend” is being sought to ensure that what the government deems right is achieved in legislation and other decisions. Consequently, the involvement of the security aspect in political life caused an imbalance in the issue of trust in successive parliaments, which is usually weakened by government interventions. What is responsible for this is “the weakness of the government’s response to popular crises,” which caused a decline in the performance of the legislative authority and its role in activating public life. At least, Asharq Al-Awsat listened to the testimony of two former presidents of the House of Representatives, who did not prefer to mention their names. Their conversation agreed that the problem with weak governments is that they exhaust other decision-making centers when the government asks them to facilitate legislative tasks or withdraw parliamentary questions in oversight sessions, so that scene ends with huge losses in the popularity of the government and the representatives.
The recent security developments witnessed by Jordan were nothing but expectations made by specialized experts that “the threat of ISIS is still present, and in a way that requires redoubling efforts to combat it.” After talking about sleeper cells seeking to gain the title of “martyrdom” through “lone wolves,” the fangs of these wolves have become a source of threat to citizens who are not accustomed to witnessing cold-blooded killing. This was summarized by the pictures and videos of the “Hamoud Church” disaster, at the end of last month, and the incident of the killing of the security man at the door of the Sri Lankan embassy in Amman, the Thursday before last. The two scenes aroused the ire and anger of the Jordanians, amid demands to hold those who were negligent accountable, and to search for the loopholes that caused the return of ISIS activity and its targeting, after its plan to “reposition it and spread it hidden among civilians in areas of southern Syria.” This is what Jordan seeks to monitor and target, with an emphasis on changing the rules of engagement and implementing advanced defense plans on the border.
Jordanian political sources believe that, even if Amman “understood” the Syrian government’s position in its response to the recent Jordanian bombing and its insistence on denying security coordination, which is “the opposite of reality” that happened, the official Syrian position, in the opinion of experts, awakens Jordanian fears of redefining the “ISIS” organization inside Syria, as long as the presence of its members among the population and their entrenchment in them makes pursuing terrorist plans and operations not easy.
In light of the high levels of confidence, according to neutral opinion polls, in the army and security services, the Royal Air Force moved towards areas in southern Syria, carrying out a bombing of a terrorist cell belonging to ISIS, residing in an area of the border areas of Daraa, and which was in contact with the perpetrators of the “Hamoud Church” operation, which left 9 dead and about 40 wounded, including Muslims who were participating in the funeral of the deceased from the village of Hamoud.
Previous terrorist incidents
The Kingdom has faced many terrorist incidents, and the Jordanian retaliatory response to the victims of any organized or isolated, random act was not long in coming, such as the story of the terrorist who assassinated opposition journalist Nahed Hattar 10 years ago, at the entrance to the “Palace of Justice” in the Abdali area in the center of the capital, Amman, in which the death sentence was carried out after his trial. This is the fate that terrorists who carried out their plans under external instructions from ISIS could face, and they are brought before the State Security Court (military judiciary), which granted priority and “urgent status” to try the perpetrators of the last two attacks, amid expectations that rulings will be issued within days. The evidence cannot be denied.
In the context of the security experts’ questions, the timing of the perpetrators of the church and embassy attacks completing their sentences and leaving prison, days before they carried out their terrorist plans, required legislative reviews of the laws related to terrorism and penalties. The government made amendments to the Terrorism Law by increasing penalties for those accused and convicted of terrorism cases, and preventing them from benefiting from reduced sentences due to good conduct. They were also deprived of considering a year of imprisonment as 9 months, and counting it as 12 months.
But what is most important, according to Asharq Al-Awsat sources, is the return of “attention, focus, monitoring and follow-up” to the activity of any group whose movements are suspected, while benefiting from a database and information that helps narrow down any possible activity of sleeper cells, moving under directions through some smart applications and encrypted social networking sites. The source also confirmed that there are “re-evaluations of a map that distributes what is believed to be sleeper cells, or the presence of intentions or efforts to resume contact with external parties.” He added that “re-evaluation” does not mean negligence in dealing with recent crises, hinting that “possible changes within the ranks of security leadership” may not be related to “negligence or assuming responsibility.”
According to the same source, in his words to Asharq Al-Awsat, extensive combing operations included most of the governorates of the Kingdom and some hotspots in areas of East Amman. The security raids resulted in foiling the plans of some terrorists preparing to carry out terrorist operations in various locations.
Shuffling or rearranging cards?
The truth is that during the last three weeks, Jordan has experienced shocking events, and the intersection of the security and political aspects, in a way that has opened the appetite of analysts to consider the Kingdom’s near future, in the face of an intersection of challenges that require redoubling efforts to confront them. This requires rearranging priorities internally in terms of strengthening security efforts to confront terrorism, without this conflicting with completing the paths of political modernization.
The echo of the words of Jordanian King Abdullah II, when he opened the third parliamentary session of the twenty-year life of the House of Representatives, was still echoing in the halls of the House of Representatives and outside it and under the parliamentary dome, with a speech that could be described as “harsh towards the elites, and reassuring to public opinion.” Jordanian public opinion usually reacts to the speech of its king, especially when it uses critical language that is aligned with the pulse of the street.
Indeed, the Jordanian king sent clear messages that can be summarized as “the necessity of rebuilding the balanced relationship between the executive and legislative authorities, and emphasizing government commitment to the representatives, in exchange for the representatives also exercising their oversight role, provided that the supreme interest is represented in all the steps of the two authorities.” In particular, the controversial legislation, most notably the Social Security Law and the country’s general budget law, with the start of preparations for holding municipal elections in the spring of next year, and the calculations of the Islamic Movement’s dominance over the lion’s share of municipalities.
In the face of the state of “convulsion” that the government is experiencing, the prevailing opinion of the “mini-president’s council,” which gives economic priority at the expense of delaying any amendments to important political legislation, is matched by politicians warning against being patient in amending the necessary political legislation, before reaching the fourth and final parliamentary session next year, in which the behavior of the representatives differs and they are closer to the opposition, especially the representatives who intend to run for the new council.
Under the provisions of the effective electoral law, half the number of seats in the House of Representatives will be allocated to party forces in the next elections, expected to be held at the end of 2028. This is what some decision-making centers fear, and they are seeking to pressure to amend the law in a way that restricts the expansion of the seats of influence of the Islamic Movement, after the shocking result of the 2024 elections, in which the “Umma” Party (formerly the Islamic Action Front Party) currently won 31 seats, after miscalculations by the “godfathers of the path of modernization.” “The politician.” They have begun to disavow the results of their recommendations that were imposed on the previous government and the previous House of Representatives, while preventing interference in the legislation they recommended. By the way, these are recommendations that were made before the eyes of senior bureaucrats at a time when Prime Minister Jaafar Hassan was director of the private office of Jordanian King Abdullah II.
At a critical stage...
Jordan manages its crises
With caution and anticipation
