ASSOCIATIONS LAW: PM RETURNS AMENDMENTS, ASKING

S E C R E T AMMAN 002716 SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 09/22/2018 TAGS: PGOV KDEM JO SUBJECT: ASSOCIATIONS LAW: PM RETURNS AMENDMENTS, ASKING AGAIN FOR PRIORITIES REF: A. AMMAN 2702 ¶B. AMMAN 2701 ¶C. AMMAN 2685 ¶D. AMMAN 2633 ¶E. AMMAN 2359 ¶F. AMMAN 2300 ¶G. AMMAN 2062 ¶H. AMMAN 1465 ¶I. AMMAN 2585 Classified By: Ambassador R. Stephen Beecroft for reasons 1.4 (b) and ( d). ¶1. (S) Prime Minister Nader Dahabi told Ambassador September 21 that he was sending civil society's list of associations law amendments back to the group of activists that produced them; he is insisting that they identify their priorities on the list. Dahabi asserted that he needs this prioritization in order to defend the key fixes as the process moves forward, particularly in Parliament where, he told the Ambassador, "I do not have control." ¶2. (C) Comment: Dahabi's rejection of the amendments is procedural, not substantive, and driven by the difficulty of defending them en masse against the East Banker tribal conservatives, both in parliament and in the cabinet, who would take issue with their dramatic diminution of the government's regulatory powers (Refs A and B). Civil society, on the other hand, fears that Dahabi is attempting to pick and choose reforms -- a move that their non-prioritized list was designed to forestall, but at the risk of its being indigestible for the government and parliament. Now that the activists' strategy has failed, we anticipate a vigorous debate within the selected group of NGO leaders about how to proceed. The core issues are likely to be registration, funding, and judicial oversight (ref B). Many of the other proposed amendments are either cosmetic (resolution of internal disputes, the fund for civil society) or can be addressed in other laws (tax exemptions). As parliament's October 5 re-opening looms, civil society will have to make a quick decision if they are to keep the government seized of the issue. End Comment. Beecroft