Jordanian king should not be welcomed to Australia

King Abdullah II of Jordan and his wife, queen Rania, will be coming to Australia on 23 November, invited by our governor-general. They will meet with the prime minister and other high profile politicians. So far, the visit has been kept very secretive in all the mainstream media outlets and relevant government websites.

This Arab monarchy has barely weathered the waves of protests that swept the Arab world from 2011 onward, loosely known as the Arab Spring. Nevertheless, it might be wobbling as the people’s discontent is growing at Abdullah’s increasingly autocratic rule.

The Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, as it is officially called, was founded by British imperialists in 1921. King Abdullah I, the great-grandfather of the current king, was installed to rule the Emirate of Transjordan. It was meant to be a buffer state for the potential state of Israel, a pro-Western outpost keeping its petulant neighbours at bay – a role well filled by its successive kings.

The people of Jordan, both the majority from a Palestinian background and East Bankers, are feeling the harsh burdens of long term economic and political hardship. Economic growth has fallen below 2 percent, while public debt has grown to 93 percent of GDP. In addition, a fresh bout of tax and price increases on essentials such as water and bread was imposed as a part of a loan deal with the IMF.

Cuts to education and health services feed the discontent. Economic trouble in the rich Gulf states, particularly in Saudi Arabia, suggests that the worst is yet to come. Further economic strain comes from the huge influx of Syrian refugees. Aid, tourism, investment and remittances (the last alone are 14 percent of GDP) are sharply down.

Even the kingdom’s middle classes have had their living standards eroded by years of price rises and subsidy cuts. The capital, Amman, in which half of the country’s 9 million people live, is the Arab world’s most expensive capital, yet people’s salaries are among the lowest.

As a result, crime is climbing and the suicide rate is at an all-time high. Recently, a well-known journalist, Nahid Hattar, was murdered on the steps of Amman’s courthouse as he waited to attend a hearing of blasphemy charges brought against him. Nahid’s killer might have been a lone wolf, but social media were flooded with messages from his supporters. In the absence of a credible opposition and with the left and labour movement severely repressed, people are looking elsewhere to express resistance. The Muslim Brotherhood, historically a pro-royal Islamist movement, is widely seen as compliant and divided. There are signs that some of the aggrieved are finding more extreme outlets such as the Islamic State.

Jordanians are taking to the streets across the kingdom. In late October, thousands mobilised in protest against a $10 billion gas deal with Israel, carrying banners that read “The enemy’s gas is an occupation”, “Jordan boycotts [Israel]” and “No to the Zionist gas deal”. There were also protests against the so-called educational reform that removes Koranic verses deemed to be dangerous from the curriculum. People are demanding economic relief, more subsidies, political liberalisation and an end to corruption.

The king defused a 2012 wave of protests through a combination of deficit spending and serious but limited constitutional reforms. In addition, the regime has been successfully using the chaos in neighbouring Syria as a deterrent to Jordanian protests, while containing the more serious opposition through a sustained campaign of arrests. But for how long?

Huge human rights abuses against political prisoners in Jordan were highlighted by Navi Pillay, the UN human rights commissioner for the Middle East. According to the 6,000-page report, the king allegedly forced political prisoners to play Russian roulette while a prison guard threatened a detainee with another gun!

“We believe that these and other interrogation techniques used by the Jordanian authorities amount to torture and crimes against humanity”, Pillay told AFP.

Jordan’s monarchs are not welcome here. Full stop.