Democratic Palestine : 45 (ص 22)
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- Democratic Palestine : 45 (ص 22)
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all fields, but the constitution was frozen all these years. The
state institutions were not developed but used only as a tool in
the hands of the bourgeoisie. For 30 years, we lived under
martial law which the authorities used to suppress the political
movement, especially the nationalists and the left. Then, in
1989, the April revolt in the South of Jordan erupted as a
reaction to the decay of the economy. The bourgeoisie realized
it could no longer rule as it had. Searching for an outlet to
maintain its dominant role in the society, the bourgeoisie
sought a new national charter. Realizing that the nationalist
and popular movement was heading towards a larger social
explosion, the ruling class took democracy as an instrument to
ensure its own survival.»
Tayseer Al Zabri of the JPDP termed the charter «a
denominator for many parties, ideas and political groups,»
emphasizing the distinction between basic principles and
specific articles of the charter. He added, «At the same time, we
have our program in Jordan as one of the democratic parties.»
Abdel Rahman Al Majali of the JCP concurred with the
evaluation of the others when he said: «Generally speaking, we
view the charter as an important step in the right direction,
especially since it confirmed democracy, political pluralism and
civil liberties which are the main features of the era...» There is
general consensus that the charter set out positive principles in
the economic, social and cultural fields as well. The charter also
defined the relations between Jordan and Palestine, affirming
Jordan’s recognition of the State of Palestine and its
disengagement from the West Bank. According to Dabbagh,
«The principle aspect is the right of the Palestinians to express
their convictions and defend their identity. The charter affirms
the historical, fraternal relations between Jordanians and
Palestinians, considering Palestine as a pan— Arab cause and
the struggle to liberate it as a duty for all people in Jordan.»
Dabbagh also noted that the charter defines the army’s role as
non — political: «Its main function is to protect Jordan from
Israel and to join the Arabs in liberating Palestine. The internal
security forces should execute the law and not interfere in
political life or violate the citizens’ human dignity.»
Both he and Tayseer Al Zabri differentiated between the
general principles of the charter and the need to formulate new
laws, especially for elections, licensing political parties and
publishing. Al Zabri reiterated the need «to make democracy a
material reality, not merely words hanging in the air,» while
Dabbagh stressed the imperative of a new labor law to
guarantee the right of unionization, job security and social
insurance for all workers. Some of these rights were partially
provided for in the old law, but space was left for employers to
implement them selectively, to their own interests. According
to Dabbagh, «It is important to affirm that the right to work is
sacred, especially now with so much unemployment. From the
labor law, we can characterize the type of society we have. We
are not so naive as to think we will get a great work law; this is
still a bourgeois state, so there will be compromise. But the new
draft is very good compared to the old law; it will give workers
their rights, relatively speaking.»
Dabbagh predicted that the democratic forces stand on the
threshold of a great political battle to have new laws adopted,
abolish martial law and move quickly to normalize political
life. «We think that martial law will be abolished, especially
with the new government.»
Abolishing martial law
On June 3rd, six members of the Jordanian Communist
Party — Revolutionary Path had been arrested when leaflets,
purportedly slandering Prime Minister Badran, were found in
their homes, although there was no evidence to support the
22
security forces’ claims that they had either written or
distributed the leaflets. The democratic forces protested these
arrests as a clear violation of freedom of expression,
highlighting the imperative of cancelling martial law once and
for all. In fact, there are continuing attempts to sabotage
democracy from forces within the executive and security
apparati, who wish to reassert their steadily eroding power.
However, such violations appear more as a_ backlash,
«splashes» which the democratic forces can combat on a
case —to—case basis, rather than a concerted effort by the
regime to kill democracy.
In the negotiations for entering the new government,
JANDA obtained a pledge for the release of all political
prisoners (30 had remained in Jordanian jails even after the
democratic opening) and for the repeal of martial law. The
latter proved more complicated than might appear since many
fields were covered by this law. Those wanting to abolish it
were confronted by the fact that another way would have to be
found for dealing with the Petra Bank scandal (a major
Jordanian bank that went bankrupt due to fraud), since the
civil law code does not cover economic crimes. (Postscript: On
July 7th, King Hussein cancelled most martial law provisions,
effective July 8th.) .
In fact, the new government was being formed in the same
days that these interviews were conducted. It was generally
understood that this would happen after the charter’s
adoption. In explaining the process whereby the charter
evolved, Tayseer Al Zabri related some facts that indicate that
a new government was imperative if democratization was to go
forward. He noted that the past government had delayed work
on the charter, saying : «The former prime minister was against
some of the articles we put in the section on pluralism; he was
fearful of some of the amendments to the constitution which
we proposed, especially concerning articles 114 and 120.»
(Article 114 gives the cabinet the right to monitor the allocation
and expenditure of public funds, contingent on the king’s
approval, and to organize the government’s storehouses;
article 120 gives the cabinet, contingent on the king’s approval,
the prerogative of issuing regulations governing the kingdom’s
administration — the formation of government departments,
appointing and dismissing government employees, supervising
‘their work, determining their areas of competence, etc. The
charter assigned these powers to the parliament which should
pass new laws regulating the use of funds and organizing the
country’s administration.)
Al Zabri continued: «We also said that if martial law was
needed in the future, it must be approved by the parliament and
for a limited period. These things made him angry and he put
the charter aside. It was not the Gulf crisis that delayed the
charter. At that time, we were doing well. We asked the
chairman of the charter committee, Mr. Ahmed Obeidat, to
stop the discussion of the charter due to the situation, but he
refused. Then when we finished our work at the end of 1990,
Badran put it aside because he was angry about these points.»
New government
In mid—June, Prime Minister Badran resigned and King
Hussein appointed Taher Masri to form a new government. On
June 19th, the new, 25— member cabinet was sworn in. Its
composition is noteworthy in several respects. Most obvious is
the absence of the Muslim Brotherhood which held five
ministries in Badran’s government; in the new cabinet, three
ministries were assigned to more moderate representatives of
the Islamic trend. On the other hand, five representatives of the
progressive nationalist coalition, JANDA, were brought into
the cabinet for the first time, heading the ministries of state,
Democratic Palestine, August 1991 - هو جزء من
- Democratic Palestine : 45
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