All stories courtesy of the Jordan Times, unless otherwise specified.
IAF seeking resumption of cooperation
with government - Arabiyat
Government will not
take action against deputy accused of 'threatening national
unity'
New telephone exchange to
change numbers in several areas
IAF seeking resumption of cooperation with government - Arabiyat
By Francesca Ciriaci
AMMAN - Relegated to the fringes of the political arena as a result of their decision to boycott last November's general elections, the Islamic Action Front (IAF) is now asking the government to bring them back into the fold.
Though out of Parliament, the IAF is "still the first opposition party in the country, and we are still leading a coalition of 12 parties, independents and the Union of Professional Associations. The government should take that into consideration," newly elected IAF Secretary General Abdul Latif Arabiyat said Thursday in an interview with the Jordan Times.
Jordan's strongest political party, at the head of the three-month-old National Reform Forces (NRF), a coalition of opposition groups ranging from communists to nationalists, did not intend the boycott of the last elections as a long-term policy, but rather as a tactical decision, Dr. Arabiyat stressed.
"We are asking the government to resume dialogue on the major political issues and we affirm that we are ready for dialogue at any time," he stated.
In his second week at the head of the front, Dr. Arabiyat, elected by acclamation to secede another "dove," veteran politician Ishaq Farhan, said a new elections law is one of the main concerns of the IAF, and urged the government not to leave the Islamists aside in consultations on this issue.
"We expect the government and Parliament to work with us to have clean elections, a good elections law and a good administration for the next elections," said the 64-year-old U.S.-educated leader, who is also a former Lower House speaker.
Strongly criticising the Nov. 4, 1997 elections as "projecting a poor image of Jordan abroad," Dr. Arabiyat demanded that "equality be the main feature of the new elections law."
Officials announced a few weeks ago that the government has prepared a draft elections law and said they expected it to be submitted to the Lower House before the end of Parliament's first ordinary session, in March.
According to officials, the new law would divide the Kingdom into as many constituencies as the number of deputies to be elected and lower the voting age from 19 to 18.
The Islamists are also demanding that religious and ethnic minority quotas be abolished - nine of the 80 Lower House seats are currently allocated to Christians, while three are allocated to Chechens/Circassians - and that the newly drawn constituencies be equal.
"The first requirement is that the people be convinced by the new law, so that they will exercise their right to vote," Dr. Arabiyat said, adding that the November elections' turn out "did not even reach 20 per cent in many urban areas, which is a very bad sign for our democracy."
The last elections, clouded by widespread allegations of fraud and irregularities, were boycotted by the Islamists and other groups in protest against the one-person, one-vote system and government policies, which the opposition said were lowering the ceiling of public freedoms.
The boycott decision, however, took its toll in the Islamic movement, widening the traditional gap between "hawks," who supported it, and "doves," who advocated participation.
Two moderate leaders who participated - and won - in the elections were expelled by the IAF's mother organisation, the powerful Muslim Brotherhood, for not complying with the movement's directive.
However, Dr. Arabiyat affirmed that "the boycott decision strengthened the front."
"It was a trial, and we passed it," he said.
"Our popularity is even greater now, because the people and several politicians now understand our reasons and realised that we were right [in boycotting the elections] because they have seen the results of those elections," he added.
Playing down differences between hawks and doves, Dr. Arabiyat started his term as secretary general under the motto "Reconciliation," and indicated that "the unification of major trends in the front" was one of his main objectives.
"The mere fact that Hammam Said [a former deputy, well-known for his hard-line stands] is my deputy now proves that reconciliation among different trends is not only possible, but has already been achieved at many levels," Dr. Arabiyat said.
"The main problem between moderates and hard-liners is not a matter of principles or political choices, but of how to achieve our goals, [and] which strategies to use," he explained.
"We have to be practical and pragmatic, to build on what we have in our hands at the moment," he urged.
Government will not take action against deputy accused of 'threatening national unity'
By Fairouz Abu-Ghazaleh
AMMAN - The government Friday said it will not take any action against Deputy Ahmed Owiedi Abbadi who, according to a government statement, "threatened the country's national unity" in a speech he made during Wednesday's Lower House of Parliament session.
"The Lower House is its own master," Deputy Prime Minister Abdullah Ensour told the Jordan Times.
In a statement issued Wednesday, the government, without naming Dr. Abbadi, denounced the deputy's comments, which it said "deviated from the subject in discussion [the budget], did not tell the truth and used personal and offensive language when referring to public officials."
The accusations Dr. Abbadi made against Deputy Prime Minister Jawad Anani, Minister of Planning Rima Khalaf and Minister for Information Affairs Samir Mutawi were "harmful to the country's national unity and opened the gates to the dangers of extremism and fanaticism," the statement said. All three ministers are Jordanians of Palestinian origin.
The statement also asked the House to take the necessary measures to preserve Jordan's democratic process.
But Acting Lower House Speaker Yousef Shreideh told the Jordan Times that the House will not take any measures against Dr. Abbadi.
"Every deputy has the right to say what he wants," Dr. Shreideh said.
When asked why he did not intervene during the session to stop Dr. Abbadi from making his statement, Dr. Shreideh said he did not see any reason for his intervention.
"If the government did not like what was being said then, according to House regulations the prime minister or his deputies could have intervened," he said.
According to Arabic dailies' reports, the government asked the House to postpone Thursday's session until today after House Speaker Sa'd Hayel Srour returns from Egypt. Dr. Shreideh declined to comment on the reason behind the postponement.
According to Arabic daily Al Dustour, Dr. Ensour met with 20 deputies on Thursday and discussed Dr. Abbadi's speech and its implications.
Deputies Nayef Moula and Ra'd Bakri issued a statement condemning "any attempt that infringes on the country's national unity, its institutions and the people working in these institutions."
Dr. Abbadi, a former police officer, lashed out at the government and many of its ministers and accused present and past governments of nepotism, favouritism and putting the wrong person in the wrong place.
In a long and fiery speech, which was carried live on Jordan Television, the deputy also called on the government to stop granting citizenship to "the bedouins and citizens of neighbouring Arab countries."
"Citizenship or passports should be taken away from the [people of neighbouring Arab countries], because Jordanian identity is a great honour that should not be given to those who only want to [take advantage of that privilege]," he said.
Dr. Abbadi added that the country has suffered from unnatural population growth, which has had its effects on Jordanians and consequences of pollution and unemployment.
According to the dean of the faculty of law at the University of Jordan, Mohammad Ghazwi, the constitution grants deputies the absolute freedom to express themselves under the dome of Parliament.
He said as long as the deputy stays on the subject being discussed and to the articles stated in the House's internal regulations, he has parliamentary immunity.
The constitution states that "members of the Lower and Upper Houses of Parliament have the freedom to speak and express their opinions within the limits of each House's internal regulations, and they should not be held accountable for any vote they cast, opinion they express or speech they deliver during the House's sessions."
Therefore, Dr. Ghazwi said, no party can take any measures against Dr. Abbadi.
Dr. Abbadi and the former editor of Shihan weekly tabloid were taken to court in August 1996 and faced charges of undermining national unity, inciting people to criminal acts, and fuelling bigotry for statements made by Dr. Abbadi in an article he wrote for the weekly tabloid in June of that year entitled "I will be relieved if the Palestinians were to go."
Dr. Abbadi and the former editor of the tabloid were acquitted of the charges two weeks before the Nov. 4 elections.
New telephone exchange to change numbers in several areas
AMMAN (J.T.) - As of Jan. 31, 1998, the new telephone exchange in Abdali district will begin operations, causing some changes in telephone numbers in parts of the capital, according to an announcement by the Jordan Telecommunications Company (JTC).
The announcement said the changes will affect the following districts: Jabal Hussein, Jabal Nuzha, Tla'a Al Ali, the University of Jordan, Wasfi Al Tall (Gardens) Street, and the Ministry of Interior and Firas circle areas.
According to the changes, telephone numbers starting with 67 or 66 will have the number 5 added to read 567 or 566. Telephone numbers in the new exchange will have seven instead of six digits.
The JTC said numbers starting with 68, 69, or 60 will also have 5 added to them at the beginning to read 568, 569, or 560, while those beginning with 70 on the left will be replaced with 562. For example, a telephone number reading 701303 will read 5621303.
Meanwhile, the Ministry of Transport and Telecommunications announced that the new telephone number of the post office at the Queen Alia International Airport is now 4451002.