Is Jordan a mystery?

Is Jordan a mystery? The answer is simply no. The matter of the fact is that there are so many observers who have failed to understand the Jordanian Hashemite Kingdom and what is happening in it. The events that took place in Jordan for several days this month drew international focus on the country and many expected it to develop in a similar way to the "Arab Spring". Some shameful violent actions took place during the recent unrest in Jordan, but the majority of Jordanians refused to let their country slip into chaos and insisted in defending it. These events showed that very few in the Arab world are aware of Jordan's nature and the real strength of its ruling regime, which gave the country a strong ability to resist extremely complicated regional conditions The lack of awareness of the truth about what is happening in Jordan is back to the special nature of this country, which is very different from countries that witnessed the fall of dictatorial regimes like Tunisia, Egypt, Libya and Yemen. Jordan was able to defend its existence during the 1970 crisis thanks to this special nature, which also enabled the country to get over the defaming campaigns launched by some Arab country and the Israeli project of turning Jordan to be an alternative home for the Palestinian refugees. A lot of the Palestinians failed to realise the dangers directed by this project at the future of their country and that is why they didn't appreciate the true patriotism showed by Jordan's first King, the late Abdullah I, and his son, the late King Hussein, who were much more farsighted than most of the Arab leaders at their time. During his reign, King Abdullah I fought against ignorant, while his son, Hussein, fought against the nationalists and leftists who exploited the Nasserist trend spreading during the sixties and seventies, where the cold war was taking place all over the world. King Hussein also fought against a lot of opportunists who hid behind various slogans. The third King of the dynasty, Abdullah II is currently fighting against all these things and all those fronts together, in addition to the religious extremism, the Muslim Brotherhood's opportunism, the Iranian coverts and the Syrian crisis' repercussions. He also had to fight against the strange situation in Iraq caused by the US invasion, which turned a part of the country into an Iran-controlled territory, and triggered a fierce sectarian tension among the Iraqis, which affected all the Arab world and was well-exploited by Israel. The Jordanian government's decision to lift subsidies on fuel and cooking gas gave the chance to some fronts to call for protests and security violations across the country. The real aim behind this call was to spark unrest in the country and to cripple the reforms launched by King Abdullah II, in addition to forcing a suspension of the parliamentary election slated in January 2013. Taking a look at Jordan's modern history, we can easily realise that Jordan has been always suffering economic crises of various levels. But it is notable that every time the economic hardships led to unrest in the streets, the ruling regime solved the crisis with launching further reforms and showing more political openness. We can take example from the so-called "April Uprising" that took place in 1989. King Hussein responded to this uprising by leading a democratic change that saw the martial law annulled and the parliamentary life reinstated. However, this democratic change was possible to be achieved thanks to King Hussein's brave decision of disengaging the West Bank from the Jordanian territories in 1988. By this move, King Hussein put the first stone in the Palestinian independent state, which turned out to be a main point in any viable solution of Middle East struggle since then. The only side who defended Jordan during the latest unrest were the Jordanians themselves. The Jordanian people's awareness was the main reason behind their success in containing the intentionally-stirred riots that followed the government's decision. This awareness was met by a high-level effectiveness in dealing with the riots by the state's institutions, particularly the security apparatus, which addressed the violent actions in a civilised way. The Jordanian security forces succeeded in keeping self-restraint and avoiding causing any casualties among the rioters. The Jordanian police did not fall into the trap aimed at pushing them to respond violently to the rioters' provocations. They kept self-restraint even when some protesters raised slogans calling for "bringing down the regime" or attacking the King. Of course this was back to the fact that the King himself has earlier discussed these slogans openly and with no sensitivity. Needless to say that Jordan suffers a deep economic crisis. But we have to take into consideration that this crisis is caused by both internal and external conditions, which are well-known to everybody. The first step to get over this crisis should be taken by the Jordanian people who have to participate heavily in the upcoming parliamentary election slated in January 2013. Their heavy participation would be a perfect response to the boycott calls raised by the Muslim Brotherhood. The Brotherhood are seeking to gain political ground by exploiting the economic hardships, but they don't know that their plot has been well-exposed to the Jordanians. It was interesting that the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt - who are currently a ruling party - were not reluctant in signing a loan from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) at the same time where Israel was launching a war on Gaza. This move proved that the Brotherhood have no different means to get over the economic crisis bar seeking aids from the international financial institutions; the same institutions which they attack when they are in the opposition. So they simply say that receiving loans from the IMF is good only if the Brotherhood is in power! Jordan is going to see further unrest, but the unrest will always have a limit, because the people have enough awareness to deal effectively with it. Although we have to take into account that some foreign fronts are working on galvanising this unrest to overshadow what is going on in Syria. As for the Arab countries in general and the Gulf countries in particular; they have to know that supporting Jordan to overcome this crisis is directly related to their own interests. Jordan's security is an integral part of the Gulf security, and the dangers looming around Jordan will surly affect all the Arab countries and the Arab civilisation itself. These dangers are going to increase in the near future as Iran is set to lose its close allies in the region: the Syrian regime and its followers in Lebanon. --- The views expressed by the author do not necessarily represent or reflect the editorial policy of Arabstoday.