Jordan Times
Friday, July 15, 2005
Reform top priority —
Badran
Deputies say government `offered nothing new' to meet current
challenges
By Mahmoud Al Abed and Ahmad Barakat
AMMAN — Prime Minister Adnan Badran on Thursday
sought the House's vote of confidence on his government's policy statement,
which, deputies said, “offered nothing new” to meet current challenges.
Badran told MPs that political and socio-economic reform plans top government
priorities, focusing on “creating harmony between reforming education and
reforming culture and media.”
The premier said the government will seek to improve citizens' living standards,
combat poverty and alleviate unemployment “through a package of policies and
measures aimed at encouraging individual initiatives as well as small and medium
enterprises in addition to attracting more investments.”
He added that the government will work on improving “inputs and outputs of the
educational process,” develop the regions, fight corruption, enhance partnership
between all sectors, upgrade the performance of the judiciary and foster
self-reliance.
At the political level, Badran pledged to help create “a more solid domestic
front” and enrich political and intellectual pluralism in a bid to enhance
democratisation.
In his 33-page policy statement, Badran detailed measures to ease the burden of
a bloating oil bill on citizens after the recent hikes in fuel derivatives.
On Saturday, the government increased the prices of gasoline by 10 per cent,
while diesel and kerosene went up by 33 per cent and gas rose by 250 fils per
cylinder — all were part of a three-year plan to reduce subsidies and privatise
the energy sector. To ease the pill, the government decided to raise the monthly
salaries of civil servants by JD5-JD10 for those receiving less than JD300 a
month, allocations for the National Aid Fund from JD55 million to JD60 million
and minimum wage from JD85 to JD90 a month. According to Deputy Prime Minister
and Government Spokesperson Marwan Muasher, Jordan, which faces a record budget
deficit of JD950 million, hopes its austerity measures will reduce expenditure
by JD60 million.
On foreign policy, Badran said his government will continue to support the
Palestinians in their quest for an independent state and help Iraqis build their
future. The government will also “sustain constructive and balanced ties with
all brotherly Arab countries” and develop these relations in the various fields,
he said.
The premier told the 110-member Parliament that his government would ensure a
more active role of Jordan in the global anti-terror war and in spelling out the
true essence of Islam that rejects terrorism and violence.
`Rhetoric'
Several MPs, however, told The Jordan Times that the policy statement “offered
nothing new” to tackle present challenges and that the government's programme
did not propose any convincing solutions.
“The prime minister spoke chapters, yet he said nothing,” said MP Bassam
Haddadin (Zarqa, 1st District), one of more than 48 deputies who objected to the
initial government makeup and threatened to withhold confidence in the Cabinet.
Badran later made a reshuffle.
Some Islamic Action Front (IAF) deputies agreed that what Badran presented to
the House yesterday was a repetition of statements by previous governments.
However, IAF deputies Moussa Wahsh (Amman, 2nd District) and Azzam Huneidi
(Amman, 1st District) commended the government's recently announced austerity
measures to reduce its expenditures, “provided that they are translated into
real practices.”
Wahsh, an accounting expert by profession, urged the government to “upgrade the
efficiency of the general sales tax collection mechanism.” This, he said, would
earn the treasury more than JD100 million a year, helping the country address
immediate national priorities.
For Mefleh Ruheimi (Jerash), one of the 48 lawmakers, the policy statement was
“unrealistic.”
Ruheimi said Badran talked about poverty, unemployment and water shortage, but
did not mention any effective solutions to the problems.
House Deputy Speaker Mamdouh Abbadi (Amman, 3rd District) hoped that the
government's programme would be in line with National Agenda, expected to be
announced next month.