Jordan challenges the 'debunked' Brotherhood

Would the Muslim Brotherhood in Jordan realise that the Jordanian Kingdom is not Egypt? Would they realise that "pouncing on power" in Jordan will not be as easy as it was in Egypt for many reasons? In the forefront of these reasons is the fact that the Brotherhood had never been sidelined in Jordan, but they were always able to work regularly as any common political party. They even obtained a share in authority throughout their presence in the Kingdom. That included holding major cabinet portfolios in 1989 after they achieved good results in the legislative elections then. But unfortunately they fell short of expectations, as it was clear that they were only interested in changing the Jordanian people's mentality through sowing ignorance amongst them in order to keep them under the Brotherhood's control. Day after day, it gets clearer that the Brotherhood are only looking at gaining power. We can take a look at what happened recently in Egypt after the terrorist attack that targeted the Egyptian army in Sinai. The Brotherhood were expected to give it time in order to find a solution to address the security threats in Sinai and Gaza. Instead they used the incident as a reason for settling their scores with the military council, rather than addressing the rising terrorist threats directed at Egypt. These terrorit threats are a result of the agreement that took place ironically between the military and the Brotherhood at the expense of the ousted President Hosni Mubarak and his family, who acted in absolute stupidity during the last 15 years of Mubarak's rule. All what we can say now is: May God be at Egypt's help amid the massive problems it endures, which the Brotherhood are not expected to solve easily. Watching what is happening in Egypt requires us not to only pray for it, but more importantly to get our focus at the future of the entire region and the role expected to be played by the Brotherhood who achieved victory in the latest elections in Egypt, Tunisia and even Morocco. We should bear in mind that the latter has a unique successful experience, thanks to the brave reforms carried out by King Mohammed VI and also thanks to the fact that Morocco's Brotherhood have been used to work openly as a legitimate political party for a long time. There were only two Arab countries where the Brotherhood were legally engaged in the political sphere or even considered as a partner in authority. Those two countries were Morocco and Jordan. King Abdullah II of Jordan has highlighted this fact when he said that "the Muslim Brotherhood in his country were involved in the governing bodies in the past 60 years." Would Egypt's Brotherhood realise how massive are the challenges awaiting them compared to any other Arab state? That is what the Jordanian King warned against when he urged them to be "more practical" in the way they think. "Can they be more practical? They have to give up on oratory and focus on the challenges facing their people, mainly in economy. We have 85 million unemployed young people in the Arab World. That is a massive challenge, particularly in Egypt which has a mass population," King Abdullah II said recently in an interview with an American news network. The King made this interview before the latest developments that took place in Egypt and were considered as "a coup" carried out by the Muslim Brotherhood. In this interview, the King tackled some serious issues in the region starting with the Syrian crisis and the Alawite problem with all its dimensions. His comments were almost a call for being reasonable, looking at the future's challenges and avoiding needless speculation. He addressed the Jordan's Brotherhood about the significance of the recent reforms that took place in the Kingdom and the importance of running for the upcoming election. He reviewed the political reforms which started by changing third of the constitution's chapters in only 18 months in order to pave the way for fair election to take place before the end of this year. He was confident enough to ask "If there was any country that was able to achieve the same amount of reforms in only 18 months." The King spoke about the situation in his Kingdom in the right way. He called for a strong presence for the political parties in Jordan saying that "the real test will come by the end of the year, when the election takes place. I hope the results will guarantee a considerable presence for three to five political parties, representing the left, right and centre." Abdullah II was direct with the Brotherhood, whom he knows were "debunked" amongst the Jordanians since long ago. He said to them - and to whoever is concerned that the real reason behind their boycott to the election "is that they know they will not achieve the result they want. Everybody in Jordan knows well that they fear the result, as they have made up calculations six months ago about their chances in the election and decided not to run for it, as the expected result was not in their favour. Whatever we will do they will never see it enough," the King said. What do Jordan's Brotherhood want? They want an electoral law designed to favour them in order to enable them to seize power and then keep it forever. But Jordan's King is not willing to grant them what they want, as "it is better to put a law endorsed by all the political spectrum rather than a law agreed by only one party," as the King said. The Jordanian Monarch spoke about the major issues ignored by many people. He spoke about the importance of education and the need to support the middle class which is the backbone of any successful society. He also spoke about health care, taxation system and all the topics related to development and progress. He listed the real challenges facing the Kingdom to the Brotherhood, whom he sees as "part of the Jordanian family." Jordan is certainly different to Egypt. It has a King who knows where he is leading his country. He is determined and well aware of his country's problems, particularly the broad corruption. He knows where are the advantages and the disadvantages. He is aware of the relative failure in the attempts of forming a solid middle class in Jordan due to the worldwide economic crises that took place in the last couple of years. We can only look at the rise of the cost of oil and gas imported by Jordan to know how significantly these crises have affected the Kingdom. What looks essential now is to prevent the "mob" from controlling Jordan after they had controlled Egypt. The street movement must be controlled and directed to the right way, rather than being followed to an unknown destination. The question is still standing... Would the Jordanian Brotherhood's lust for power increase by the latest developments in Egypt? Or would they know that Egypt is different to Jordan, as Jordan's leadership knows them well, and knows how to control the street protests even if these protests are galvanised and supported by foreign powers, aiming to create a turmoil that could pave the way for certain groups to seize power. We have to remember that Jordan has witnessed more than 5000 demonstrations in the last two years only, and not a single death case was reported although there were some fronts who aimed for this to happen. That should be enough evidence that Jordan is capable of addressing the Brotherhood's challenge, and even throwing the challenge at them by working on improving people's living conditions rather than selling them illusions and feeding them slogans and speculation. --- The views expressed by the author do not necessarily represent or reflect the editorial policy of Arabstoday.