US embassy cable - 05AMMAN981

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 AMMAN 000981 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 02/06/2015 
TAGS: PGOV, KDEM, KMPI, JO 
SUBJECT: ROYAL COMMISSION ON DECENTRALIZATION APPOINTED; 
PARLIAMENT MOVES TO RESTORE ELECTION OF MUNICIPAL COUNCILS 
 
REF: AMMAN 712 
 
Classified By: CDA David Hale for Reasons 1.4 (b), (d) 
 
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SUMMARY 
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1.  (C) A royal decree appointed a committee stacked with 
former ministers to help implement King Abdullah's 
recently-announced federalization initiative.  Deputy Prime 
Minister Muasher will serve as rapporteur between the GOJ and 
the committee.  The Lower House of Parliament voted to rebuff 
a separate, earlier government initiative that enabled the 
Ministry of Municipal Affairs to appoint half the members of 
each municipal council in the country.  End summary. 
 
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COMMISSION MEMBERS NAMED 
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2.  (U) In accordance with King Abdullah's decentralization 
initiative announced January 26 (reftel), the palace issued a 
royal decree January 31 appointing 12 Jordanians to a 
committee charged with developing proposals to implement the 
King's plan.  The committee includes three former prime 
ministers (Zeid Rifai, Fayez Tarawneh, and Abdur Rauf 
Rawabdeh) and six former government ministers.  Jordan River 
Foundation Director Maha Khatib is the only civil society 
leader (and the sole woman) on the committee.  Only two of 
the members, a former Interior Minister and a current palace 
advisor, are of Palestinian origin.  Deputy Prime Minister 
and Minister for Government Performance Marwan Muasher was 
selected as rapporteur between the GOJ and the committee. 
 
3.  (U) The King held an initial meeting with the committee 
on February 1.  In his public remarks, the King highlighted 
the need for the committee to establish "appropriate 
mechanisms" using transparent standards to delineate the 
country into "development regions."  Government Spokesperson 
Asma Khader elaborated that the committee's work would 
include recommending necessary changes to the country's 
elections and municipalities laws. 
 
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AN INSIDE GLIMPSE 
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4.  (C) Commission member and former PM Fayez Tarawneh told 
Charge February 3 that the King hopes the decentralization 
initiative will keep Jordan at the leading edge of reform in 
the region in light of the recent elections in Iraq and the 
Palestinian territories.  Tarawneh said that although the 
King indicated he had some specific ideas (e.g., the role of 
the national parliament should be left as it is), he did not 
provide any concrete directives, but rather gave the 
commission almost carte blanche in recommending measures to 
achieve federalization.  Deputy PM Muasher as rapporteur will 
not direct or actively participate in the commission's work. 
While there is no official head of the commission, Tarawneh 
said that Senate President and former PM Zeid Rifai, the dean 
of Jordan's elder statesmen, was emerging as the group's 
informal leader. 
 
5.  (C) Tarawneh jokingly admitted that he has his commission 
colleagues were not of "the digital age," but claimed that 
members had the expertise necessary to draft legislation and 
develop other measures.  He explained that the King had said 
they were chosen because of the public's trust in them.  They 
were giving themselves a week after the February 1 meeting to 
"think about" the initiative before getting down to business. 
 According to Tarawneh, the King gave no time frame or 
deadline, but it was nevertheless clear that he expected the 
commission to work expeditiously.  Strict media silence will 
be maintained to prevent the ideas and proposals discussed in 
the commission from leaking to the press. 
 
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IT SOUNDS GOOD, BUT ... 
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6.  (C) When asked for their reaction, post contacts have 
been generally supportive of the decentralization proposal, 
although a few confided that they had hoped for more 
non-governmental figures on the commission.  Almost all, 
however, added that they could not offer an informed opinion 
since public details of the initiative were so scant.  In 
poloff's discussions with three members of Parliament, all 
the MPs cautiously welcomed the proposal, either unaware of 
or unmoved by the possibility that empowered regional 
legislatures might erode the central parliament's authority 
(reftel). 
 
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LOCAL DEMOCRACY 
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7.  (U) In his decentralization speech, the King stated that 
the proposed councils for the new regions would work "hand in 
hand" with municipal councils in prioritizing development 
needs.  Prior to 2003, all members of municipal councils, as 
well as city mayors, were directly elected.  Citing alleged 
mismanagement and inefficiency, the GOJ adopted a provisional 
law in November 2002 authorizing the Ministry of Municipal 
Affairs (with PM approval) to appoint mayors and up to half 
of the councils in the country's 99 municipalities.  (NOTE: 
The city of Amman is the one exception as its mayor is 
selected by the Prime Minister and approved by the King.  End 
note.)  Voters participating in the summer 2003 municipal 
elections accordingly chose half of these councils' members, 
with the rest chosen by the government. 
 
8.  (C) The provisional law on municipal elections has been 
widely criticized, including by many MPs and Islamists, as 
anti-democratic.  On January 31, 2005, the Lower House of 
Parliament voted to repeal the appointment process in favor 
of directly electing all municipal council members.  MP 
Mohammad Shawabkeh (East Banker, Madaba) told poloff February 
1 that even though he was generally pro-government, he voted 
to scrap the provisional law as it "didn't really go along 
with all the talk on democratic reform."  Like other 
provisional laws rejected by the Lower House, it will remain 
in effect until the Senate also votes against it.  Local 
journalists told post's information officer that some MPs 
expressed second thoughts about repeal of the law when they 
realized that direct election of the mayor of greater Amman 
and the city council could open the way for Islamic Action 
Front (IAF) dominance of the capital's government, given the 
IAF's strong support base in the area. 
 
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COMMENT 
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9.  (C) The wide latitude apparently given to the commission 
is not easily reconcilable with the specific goals that Royal 
Court Minister Rifai earlier laid out to G-8 COMs in Amman 
(reftel).  The palace may have to weigh in with further 
guidance as the commission's work progresses.  Commission 
members are from the conservative-minded old guard; as 
Minister of Planning Awadallah commented to Charge, "They are 
not reformers."  Nevertheless, the King views the grassroots 
reform initiative as irreversible, and the conservative, East 
Bank flavor of the commission may be a deliberate effort to 
calm reform phobia felt most strongly among the King's East 
Bank constituencies. 
HALE