Bread-and-butter issues in mind, Jordanians take to the street

W

eeks of protests have led regional allies to prop up the Jordanian monarchy with a new infusion of cash, a show of support they hope will stabilize the country and head off radical elements.

Last week, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and the United Arab Emirates pledged $2.5 billion to the kingdom, money that will be used to support Jordan’s faltering economy. The pledge came after social protests forced the resignation of the prime minister and got the attention of King Abdullah II, who turned to regional allies for help.

Tens of thousands of Jordanians have come out to the streets to protest tax hikes and rising prices, the result of an austerity program imposed by the International Monetary Fund after it extended a $723 million loan to Jordan in August 2016. The terms of that loan included lowering the public debt and eliminating certain public subsidies. Jordan has been doubly strained by the cost of housing over one million Syrian refugees who have crossed the border due to the civil war.

As it happens, I was part of a contingent of reporters at the Jordanian border with Israel on the day the former prime minister, Hani Mulki, resigned. Standing on the Israeli side of the Gulf of Aqaba, the king’s majestic palace was in full view.

“He visits there once every few weeks,” a soldier said, explaining that the army knows precisely when the king comes due to the increase in naval activity in the Red Sea. “The number of ships increases dramatically and every extraneous motion on our side triggers a reaction on the other side,” he said.

Little did he know, at that moment King Abdullah was rushing back to Amman to oversee a transfer of power to the new prime minister, former World Bank official Omar al-Razzaz.

The immediate cause of the Amman protests was the imposition of new income tax hikes that primarily target the middle class. More than 30 professional associations of engineers, lawyers, doctors, pharmacists, reporters, and paramedics filled the streets of Jordan’s main cities to protest the high cost of living and the austerity measures. And while past demonstrations in the Hashemite kingdom have been attributed to anti-establishment factions such as the Muslim Brotherhood, the left, or tribes from the periphery, this time the protests united all parts of Jordanian society from across the spectrum — the middle class along with the lower class, Muslims and Christians, young and old.

Jordanians began to feel the pinch at the start of the winter, when VAT was raised on over 100 basic goods and services, and subsidies were removed from staples like bread. If that wasn’t bad enough, the day after demonstrations in Amman began last week, the prices of gas and electricity went up, not for the first time, adding fuel to the fire. All of those measures were tied to the IMF austerity measures.

Removal of the bread subsidy, for example, was meant to save the country $70 million a year. The government justified the move with the claim that 33% of those benefiting from the subsidy aren’t even Jordanians, essentially ignoring the flipside of that same argument — the remaining two-thirds who are suffering are Jordanian citizens.

Adding to the burden are the approximately one million Syrian refugees who have flooded the country in recent years. At one time, Jordan received aid from Saudi Arabia and the US on behalf of the refugees, but that funding has since dried up. After King Abdallah expressed anger over the US embassy’s move to Jerusalem, President Trump increased economic aid to Jordan, but it’s nowhere near enough.

The majority of Jordanian citizens earn salaries ranging from $704 to $845 monthly, according to the Jordanian Bureau of Statistics, but those wages have remained static while prices have risen steadily. Anger over the fiscal measures could be heard in the chants of the protesters: “The World Bank won’t control us.”

Popular rage was further sparked by a leaked recording of a conversation between the Jordanian finance minister and his advisors, one that illustrated the yawning gap between rich and poor in the kingdom. “We’ll get that $800 million even if we have to force the people to walk around barefoot and naked!” one of the participants in the meeting said.

When certain elements tried to sow fear by threatening that the protests could turn Jordan into another Syria, the demonstrators showed up with placards reading, “Why shouldn’t we turn Jordan into Singapore?” implying that they believe in change for the better, not for the worse.

This dynamic ultimately led to Mulki’s ouster and his replacement by al-Razzaz, the Harvard-educated former minister of education. The king subsequently announced a freeze on the new tax hikes while the new prime minister reviews them. Unimpressed, demonstrators have said they will remain in the streets until a genuine solution is found.

At a Price

Israeli officials say they expect the protests to subside and for order to be restored. Much as they would like to stir up trouble, the Muslim Brotherhood in Jordan has so far failed to ride the wave. But defense officials know the possibility exists and are watching developments closely. “We have eyes on the sea, air, and land,” an IDF source on the Jordanian border said. “We’re constantly aware of what’s happening across the border in neighboring countries.”

Several weeks ago, a senior delegation from Jordan arrived in Israel for top level meetings with the heads of the Mossad, the Shabak, and the IDF to discuss intelligence cooperation. The Jordanians understand full well that maintaining stability depends on their level of preparedness. Jordan would happily benefit from Israeli intelligence, which currently spans the entire region, down to the Sinai Desert and up to the Jordanian border with Syria.

That intelligence will come at a price. Like Egypt and Saudi Arabia, the Jordanians will be called upon to pay for Israeli-American aid with “Palestinian currency”: in two to three weeks, when the Americans present their plan of the century to solve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the role of Jordan, Egypt and Saudi Arabia will come into play.

The bottom line is, Jordan is stable — at least for now.

(Excerpted from Mishpacha, Issue 714)