all hail the king

Last week, King Abdullah II declared Tuesday, June 9th 2009 a national holiday celebrating the 10-year anniversary of his ascension to the throne. Streets closed, parades, King's speech, parties, the works. It's the first really hot day since I've been here. Rather than participate in the festivities I chose to take it easy at a friend's barbecue and enjoyed a long afternoon nap.

The concept of a modern day monarchy may be a bit strange to westerners. Jordan is not a monarchy in name with the King as figurehead. Rather, the King has full executive authority as the head of state, the chief executive and the commander in chief of the armed forces. This got me thinking about the implications of a monarchy government for Jordanian society, political participation and economic development. Of course a monarchy must mean people are oppressed with little freedom of speech and political expression, social norms dictated from above, and a lack of judicial due process; right? But that's not what I see....

This being his first time in Jordan, one of the undergrad interns at the Endeavor office asked me and a couple of local Endeavor employees, "What do people really think of the King? When I ask the taxi drivers they all say they like him. But aren't they just saying that for fear of persecution?" One of the Endeavor guys answered, "No. I think the King is generally well-liked. People recognize that he's doing a lot for the economic development of the country. You might find more criticism amongst the lower classes, in East Amman." Based on my observations, I tend to agree. And let's not forget Queen Rania...who wouldn't like her? (Perhaps I'll save Queen Rania for another blog post, but for now, check out her facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#/QueenRania. You've gotta love a Queen with a facebook page!)

First, the Jordan government is a constitutional monarchy. The King as executive appoints the council of ministers, or cabinet, and signs all laws. But there is a legislative branch, a Senate of 55 appointed by the King and an elected 80-member Chamber of Deputies, who can over-ride the King's veto with a two-third majority. The judicial branch is constitutionally independent, with judges subject to no authority but the law. While Islamic courts exist, they are used only to deal with personal matters including marriage, divorce and inheritance. Everything else is dealt with by civil courts. However, the system of checks and balances is lop-sided in favor of the King, with the Parliament generally regarded as weak.

The King has made genuine attempts to improve the economy. The U.S. Free Trade Agreement negotiated in 2001 has improved exports. Youth literacy rates are at 99%, and education is generally good. Projects such as the Queen Rania Center for Entrepreneurship and Al Hassan Science City aim to stimulate small and medium business growth. In fact, it is in this climate of enthusiasm for business development that Endeavor selected Jordan as its newest office. The Jordan River Foundation (http://www.jordanriver.jo/) promotes handicrafts of the poor to improve their livelihood. And the King promotes private investment in infrastructure - many of the development projects and the new stores and restaurants are a result of private foreign capital. The main one being the huge Abdali development project (the "new downtown of Amman"), funded by Lebanese-Saudi businessman Saad Hariri's Oger International.

Jordan is peaceful. One feels safe and comfortable here. Amman is very clean and easy to navigate thanks to new street signs and building numbers. There are no feelings of fear from the almighty ruling hand. No political persecution. There is freedom of religious worship. Students are free to wear headscarves or crosses or other forms of religious expression to schools. Compare this to rules banning such forms of religious expression in democratic countries such as France.

I heard some say yesterday that democracy won't work in Jordan. It's not that people are opposed to democracy. I believe Jordan is quite capable of having fair, free, peaceful elections with results accepted by the public. The problem people see is the sectarianism. They feel a democracy would be so by definition, but would lack any deep and meaningful political discourse, since people would vote primarily along sectarian lines; a system not dissimilar from that in Lebanon.

So is a monarchy good or bad for Jordan? If the King wants something to happen, it happens. It's somewhat of a system of benevolent dictatorship; probably great for a developing country. Think about how difficult it is for us to get things done in the U.S. Think about the mess of health care reform. Sometimes I wish someone had the power to fix it all in a way that optimized for the majority without wasting time and taxpayer money navigating a political web that's near impossible to navigate. But would I change the democratic system we have in the U.S.? Absolutely not. And would I change the system in Jordan? It's easy to say yes, as there could be many improvements. But I say, no, not yet anyway. I think the monarchy is good for Jordan, at least for the time being.

Different systems for different situations; and to each his own.

(Note: I snatched the photo of the King and Queen from facebook. Apologies if I'm breaking any kind of copyrights!)