JORDANIAN PARLIAMENT GIVES ABUL RAGHEB'S

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 AMMAN 005245

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 08/19/2013
TAGS: PGOV PHUM KISL JO
SUBJECT: JORDANIAN PARLIAMENT GIVES ABUL RAGHEB'S
GOVERNMENT VOTE OF CONFIDENCE, AFTER A HEATED DEBATE


Classified By: PolCouns Doug Silliman, per Reasons 1.5 (b) and (d).

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Summary
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1. (U) On August 14, Jordanian Members of Parliament (MPs)
overwhelmingly approved the new government of Prime Minister
Ali Abul Ragheb. Despite this support, many MPs criticized
the prime minister's cabinet and agenda during the five days
of debate that preceded the vote. In the end, Abul Ragheb
fired back against his opponents, primarily members of the
Islamic Action Front (IAF),and, as expected, swept the vote
with a significant margin. The intensity of the debate was a
warning shot to the government and elite that it has not
succeeded in establishing broad, popular support for
reformist policy. End Summary.

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Victory for Government
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2. (U) Abul Ragheb's third government won an overwhelming
77.7 percent vote of confidence on August 14. 84 of 108
voting deputies (one lawmaker was absent and the House
speaker, per House rules, did not vote) voted in support of
the 28-member Cabinet. All 17 IAF deputies voted against the
government and were thus the bulwarks of opposition. Of the
23 "nays," half were deputies representing districts in the
capital, including those of the IAF. The Democratic Alliance
bloc's 12 deputies, headed by former Health Minister and
Amman Mayor Mamdouh Abbadi, and the 24-member National Action
Front, headed by former Speaker Abdul Hadi Majali, all gave
their vote of confidence. Five of the six women elected to
Parliament under the new female quota system voted against
the government.

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Quotable Quotes
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3. (C) Speeches for and against the government lasted five
days, with MPs either rehashing their bloc's platform or, in
the case of Islamic Action Front (IAF) members, intensifying
their criticism of government policy. Many deputies accused
the premier's policy statement of being a rehash of previous
policies, with nothing new or solid. The majority of
deputies, in what became a series of extended speeches,
continued demands from days previous for services in their
various constituencies. Abul Ragheb, in fact, sarcastically
complained to A/S Burns August 13 that he would have to sit
through 109 speeches, all of which would go overtime. We
have heard others criticize the Speaker's tolerance of MPs'
breaking of parliamentary rules. They attribute his attitude
to the fact he will have to be re-elected as Speaker in
November if he chooses to keep it.


4. (C) Of the substance addressed by MPs, desire for
political and economic reform topped the list. Many members
called for greater press autonomy to allow differentiation
between government mouthpiece media outlets and independent
voices allowed to express opposition to national policies.
In terms of regional policy, the Palestinian issue topped
many opposition MPs' concerns. Many, particularly IAF, MPs
used their time at the podium to denounce the Quartet roadmap
and called on the government to support both Palestinian and
Iraqi resistance groups. Abul Ragheb told A/S Burns August
13 that the IAF only asked a few things of the government:
to end the occupation of Palestine, get the Americans out of
Iraq, unite the Arab world, and create a unified Muslim
"umma" (or nation). The prime minister explained to A/S
Burns that the IAF MPs individually are "nice and
intelligent"; but, once they reached the podium, their
collective condemnation of the government was propaganda for
their supporters.

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For the Opposition...
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5. (U) Several MPs excoriated the government of PM Abul
Ragheb for lacking a real program. Abdul Munem Abu Zant, a
non-IAF Islamist deputy, was one of the strongest voices of
opposition. He began his speech by blasting the one-person,
one vote Elections Law, which he said provoked sectarianism
and tribalism, and asked about the national unity Abul Ragheb
has said his government supports. In fact, challenged Abu
Zant, Jordanians "have not seen a minister from a camp or a
poor family." Another MP in opposition exclaimed that
"authority and business don't mix, and if they do, this would
turn a country into a private company... That is why in our
case economic growth rate figures have only been felt by
those in power not by regular folk." The MP also accused the
current executive authority of dictatorship and snobbery
"prompting citizens to call it a Christian Dior government."
Another referred to government appointments in years past,
calling them examples of "nepotism and favoritism" in many
cases. "I found the shortest way to (success) is to be a
relative or friend of an official," he said, adding that Abul
Ragheb's policy statement was neither cohesive nor practical.
Finally, an IAF MP insisted that "Islam is the solution to
problems the country is currently facing and to what will
come in future disasters - which will be the result of not
following God's doctrines."

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...and the Government
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6. (U) Among those more supportive of government policy was
Raji Haddad, a conservative former soldier in the Army, he
went so far as to call for the reopening of political jails
"for those who insult our country on satellite TV." He also
urged the government to give greater authority to governors
so that they could "punish offenders," asking security forces
to "whip" lawbreakers even harder. More moderate in their
support of the government were a host of other MPs, many of
whom chose to focus on the question of national unity. Said
one deputy, "some economic policy makers in the government
don't know one village outside of the capital. How will they
ever make sound economic decisions when they're completely
ignorant of societal needs?" Another pro-government figure,
Mahmoud Kharabsheh, linked his vote of confidence to the
manner in which the government has been handling the Iraqi
and Palestinian issues. He was critical of those MPs with
"private agendas" that were failing to take into account
national interests. Still others criticized the "individual
declarations by fellow MPs that, regretfully, addressed some
very sensitive issues in a provocative manner over these last
few days.

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PM Strikes Back
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7. (U) After sitting and listening to parliamentarians slam
his government's policies for five consecutive days, Abul
Ragheb struck back before the confidence vote was to take
place on August 14, giving a 20-minute speech in which he
rebuffed many claims accusing him of fronting a rehash of his
previous governments. The prime minister's address had
strong words for the IAF: "the morals of Islam have been
attacked in the name of Islam and from those that claim they
work for Islam. Does Islam condone lying and falsifying
facts?" This statement was a reference to what he called
"misquotes" from a private meeting with IAF members during a
series of meetings with different House blocs before the vote.


8. (U) The PM's speech was laden with promises to implement
political and economic reforms, giving special reference to
long awaited changes in the Political Parties Law. Stressing
the importance of parties working within the confines of the
Constitution, Abul Ragheb assured deputies that his
government would put forth a new law to boost party
participation in political life. But the premier, a former
deputy himself, blamed parties for their own failure.

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Comment
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9. (C) While there was never any question that Abul Ragheb
would receive a vote of confidence given Parliament's
composition (i.e., a small but vocal opposition v. a sizable
body of Palace loyalists),it was nonetheless interesting to
watch the maneuvering of MPs on the floor. Deputies'
speeches carried no real surprises, raising individual or
local concerns without real debate on any major policy. As
for the IAF, in marked contrast to its relatively moderate
joint statement on August 10, IAF deputies' individual
declarations the following day were quite critical of the
government. In the end, their votes of no confidence were of
no surprise and had no practical impact.


10. (C) PolOff, Pol Intern, and Pol FSN attended one of the
sessions and noted a greater number of gallery observers than
MPs, including the British Ambassador, who caused both
bafflement and uneasy suspicion by sitting through several
day-long sessions. The mood in the House was light, despite
impassioned cries from the podium. MPs casually chatted with
one another and read newspapers as their colleagues took
control of the floor for approximately 20 minutes each,
reading prepared statements that held the interest of few
other members.


11. (C) The hardest part for Abul Ragheb was not surviving
the vote but having to sit through five days of verbal abuse
) much of which came in the form of derisive personal
attacks instead of policy concerns. (He was briefly
hospitalized for exhaustion, amidst the week.) The intensity
of the debate served as a reminder that the King and
government have not yet cemented public support for the
reform path they have followed for the past four years.
Poverty and unemployment remain the daily reality of the vast
majority of Jordanians, feeding political discontent and
incivility. The next real test will be this Fall's budget
debate, where the IMF and US-supported imperative of fiscal
restraint will come up hard against deputies' calls for
greater spending on social and development programs.
HALE