Ignorance is Worse than “American Conspiracy”!

The United States did not want to encourage Jordan to adopt political reforms, whether during the rise of the national and left-wing powers or during the rise of the Islamic powers. On the contrary, it played a catastrophic negative role, represented by promoting and adopting the “One Vote Law” by U.S. Ambassador Edward Gargayan in 1993. This law was imposed in an unconstitutional way, following the dissolution of the 11th Parliament, which was considered one of the best parliaments in the history of the country.

Interestingly, that law contributed to the “marginalization” of the Palestinian population and reduced its representation. Today, it is said that Americans want an election law that takes this population into consideration. The new element that made Americans adopt reforms is the 9/11 attacks. Without sophistication, Americans discovered, even before the Arab Spring, that bin Laden, al-Zawahiri, and 19 of the Twin Towers bombers had never participated in elections or known peaceful change. Thus, they turned to violence.

At that time, the deposed Egyptian President, Hosni Mubarak, responded to President Bush’s requests by the “reform from the inside” theory. We did not understand his theory until we saw him in custody! In Jordan, we were more intelligent; we came up with nice initiatives crowned with the national agenda, which was nothing but to gain time. This agenda ended up as a CD referred to by researchers in their reform theories! With the decline of the neoconservatives, the sinking of America in the Afghan and Iraqi swamps, and the economic crisis, Obama rose to the top as a leader focusing on the inside and withdrawing from the outside. The idea of “reform from the inside” came to an end and the Arab countries witnessed their worst elections. In Jordan, we are still suffering from the 2007 municipal and parliamentary electoral fraud. At that time, and to go too far in the conspiracy theory, the American Ambassador warmly welcomed the elections and praised their fairness!

Today, “the conspiracy” continues, but with different tools. If the obvious electoral fraud in 2007 was a message to the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas Movement that their win will not be repeated in Jordan, then the fairness of the elections and their fair law is a message to the Arab spring that the doors in Jordan are wide open for it with the anticipated Islamic rise.

Each time, America used to assess its interests with Jordan based on Jordan being the strategic and historic ally. The American government is not a constitutional court or a human rights organization delivering a moral certificate. In 1993, America wanted to weaken the Muslim Brotherhood in order to pass Wadi Araba Treaty [the Israel Jordan Treaty of Peace]; after that, the U.S. needed Jordanian participation in the peace process and the war against terrorism. Today, it is America’s interest to maintain stability in Jordan through continuing the reform process.

The American talk about demographic equality in the election law is based on ignorance which is even shared by Jordanian leaders in the State and the opposition. Handling this ignorance is easy. Since 1993, the Jordanian reform Movement, led by the Islamic Movement, has adopted the reform of the electoral process through going back to the constitution and the fairness of elections. We reply to the Americans by going back to the constitutional origin of 1952; that year, Palestinians formed two thirds of the Jordanian population after the union, and because this was a balanced unity between two equals, the electoral districts were distributed equally. This is what kept “Jordan Jordan and Palestine Palestine”. After the disengagement, the Bank’s electoral districts were given back to Palestine, and after 1993, their representatives became members in the Legislative Council. The State, with the constitution which is a contract between two societies, along with the Jordanian reform movement with its various streams, are capable of resisting any pressure through using sense and logic, and are also capable of showing the American ignorance of the Jordanian constitution and history. But resorting to a group of racists to resist the Palestinian demography will grant the conspiracy success, that is if there is a conspiracy. The reality is that there are powers that see the Arab Spring and the fair elections resulting from it nothing but a “Zionist-American conspiracy”! For those who don’t believe this, just watch Al-Manar TV.