REPORT - VISIT TO JORDAN - 12-14 JUNE 2012

I.         INTRODUCTION

The Arab spring began in January 2011 in Tunisia after a street vendor set himself on fire in protest of systematic abuse meted out by police and officials in that country. This triggered a region wide set of protests that touched virtually every society in the Arab world. Jordan was no exception and although the protests there have been smaller and more orderly than in other countries, the level of alienation and public anger has nonetheless been significant.  Already in 2010, the King of Jordan, Abdullah II, had dissolved the parliament and many in the country felt that the institution and part of the governing class had become corrupt and unresponsive to the general public.  For the following year, the King had promised to apply a new electoral law with high standards but little changed.  The new electoral law was a copy of the old one and the changes in the new document were essentially cosmetic.  It added six new parliamentary seats for women but the reforms came to be seen as an exercise in “gattopardismo” - change was designed simply to preserve the privileges of the old order.  The new parliament was essentially a copy of the previous one, and public anger grew as there was a wide spread sense that this was a one party institution that gave no voice to the opposition.  This then triggered more widespread demonstrations and other expressions of public alienation.

(...)

Download the full Report below