US embassy cable - 05AMMAN1309

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 AMMAN 001309 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 02/16/2015 
TAGS: PGOV, PREL, JO 
SUBJECT: KING ORDERS ANOTHER COMMITTEE TO DEFINE JORDAN'S 
NATIONAL PRIORITIES 
 
REF: A. AMMAN 712 
     B. AMMAN 981 
 
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SUMMARY 
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1.  (C)  King Abdullah has formed a new 26-member commission 
to delineate the goals for Jordan's development over the next 
ten years.  The group is diverse and includes current and 
former senior government officials, civil society activists, 
business leaders, and significant opposition figures, notably 
former PM Taher al-Masri and Islamic Action Front leader Abd 
al-Latif Arabiyat.  The committee is the latest in a series 
of royal commissions tasked with "defining national 
priorities" that have come and gone in Jordan, most recently 
the "Jordan First" campaign of 2002.  It is unclear what form 
this "dialogue" will take; some contacts say the committee is 
just another diversion from making the hard decisions needed 
to realize true reform.  End Summary. 
 
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ANOTHER COMMISSION TO SET JORDAN'S PRIORITIES 
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2.  (U)  King Abdullah on February 9 ordered the formation of 
a new royal commission charged with setting goals and 
guidelines for Jordan's development during the next decade. 
Deputy PM Marwan Muasher will chair the 26-member Steering 
Committee for the National Agenda, comprised of a former 
prime minister, former and current ministers, members of 
parliament, academics, business leaders, women's activists, 
and a senior Islamist figure (see complete list in paragraph 
4 below). 
 
3.  (U)  In a letter to PM Fayez, the King stressed that the 
drafting of national goals must be the result of a "profound 
dialogue that takes into account the contributions of all 
Jordanians from governmental and non-governmental 
institutions."   The King said he expects the committee's 
work to be completed by September and that it should include 
a sound evaluation mechanism.  He added that the government 
should be the "engine" in efforts to translate the national 
goals into facts on the ground.  "Success," according to the 
King, "will be measured with tangible improvements to the 
citizens' standards of living." 
 
4.  (U)  Members of the Steering Committee for the National 
Agenda: 
 
1. Former PM Taher al-Masri 
2. Minister of Planning Bassem Awadallah 
3. Minister of Justice Salah al-Bashir 
4. Minister of Education Khalid Touqan 
5. Senator and rapporteur of the Senate Financial and 
Economic Affairs Committee Rajai Muasher 
6. Former Education and Higher Education Minister Mohammad 
Hamdan 
7. Senator and rapporteur of the Senate's Administrative 
Affairs Committee Jamal Khreishah 
8. Senator and rapporteur of Senate's Environment, Health, 
and Social Development Committee Aref Batayneh 
9. Senator UN Assistant Secretary General and Director of the 
Regional Bureau for Arab States at the UNDP Rima Khalaf 
10. Deputy and President of Lower House's Financial and 
Economic Affairs Committee Hashem Dabbas 
11. Former House Speaker and member of the Islamic Action 
Front's Shura Council Abd al-Latif Arabiyat 
12. Chairman of the Jordan Radio and TV Corporation's Board 
of Directors and Director of the Center for Strategic Studies 
Mustafa Hamarneh 
13. Senator and rapporteur of the Senate's Legal Affairs 
Committee Osama Malkawi 
14. Deputy and President of the Lower House's Legal Committee 
Ghaleb Zu'bi 
15. Deputy and President of the Lower House's Labor and 
Social Development Committee Musa Khalayleh 
16. Deputy and President of the Lower House's Administrative 
Committee Salamah Ghweiri 
17. Former Member of Parliament Dheeb Marji 
18. Businessman Mohammad Elayyan 
19. Jordan River Foundation Director General Maha al-Khatib 
20. Women's activist Nuha Ma'aytah 
21. Islamic Centrist Party member and women's activist Nawal 
Fa'ouri 
22. Chief Editor of Al Dustour daily Osama Sharif 
23. Information Technology Association of Jordan Chairman 
Marwan Juma 
24. Academic Munif Hijazi 
25. Businessman Fadi Ghandour 
26. Director of the Family Guidance and Awareness Center in 
Zarqa Nadia Bushnaq 
 
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BARELY OFF THE GROUND 
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5.  (C)  The Steering Committee has yet to hold its first 
meeting.  Committee member Hashem Dabbas told poloff February 
16 that he had not been consulted about the committee before 
being named, but was simply informed that he would be 
appointed to a royal commission.  Dabbas added that since the 
announcement he had received no information or guidance about 
the committee's work except for what he had read in the 
newspaper. 
 
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SKEPTICS HAVE LOW EXPECTATIONS 
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6.  (C)  Despite the diversity in the committee members' 
backgrounds and world views, some contacts are skeptical that 
the committee's work will lead to concrete reform.  Former PM 
Kabariti told Charge that he viewed the commissions as a 
diversion from true reform and that maintaining security is 
still the GOJ's primary concern.  Director of Polling at the 
University of Jordan's Center for Strategic Studies (CSS) 
Fares Breizat questioned the value of standing up the 
committee at this time, noting that numerous commissions in 
Jordan's recent past have convened to debate Jordan's needs, 
with little concrete result.  He pointed to the 
GOJ-instigated "Jordan First" campaign in 2002, which brought 
together a similar grouping of individuals to produce 
comprehensive recommendations to deal with Jordan's social, 
economic, and political challenges.  However, once the 
recommendations were issued, the campaign fizzled.  Little 
action was taken to implement the recommendations, leaving 
Jordanians with little more than a slick advertising campaign 
and, for some, a bad taste in their mouth about the GOJ's 
true intentions, according to Breizat. 
7.  (C)  The Jordan First campaign was preceded by still 
other commissions, including King Hussein's appointing of a 
group to draft Jordan's "national charter" in the early 
1990s.  Citing his university students as an example, Breizat 
told poloff that average Jordanians have tuned the government 
out, chalking up the latest commission as an effort to 
convince outsiders (read: the U.S.) that the government is 
doing something noteworthy while the people are convinced 
that it is "business as usual."  That said, Breizat lauded 
the diversity of the group, and said he expected debate 
within the committee to center around three "priority 
issues": democracy, development, and human capital.  He 
expected former PM Taher al-Masri and CSS Director Mustafa 
Hamarneh to champion the issue of democracy and political 
participation, Awadallah and Bashir to steer the group 
vis-a-vis development, and Touqan to lead the charge on human 
resources. 
 
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COMMENT 
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8.  (C)  Jordanian officials informed us in advance that a 
royal committee for "national dialogue" was coming.  Yet it 
remains unclear what form this "dialogue" will take and how 
it will extend beyond the 26-member committee to local 
opinion leaders whom activists say are increasingly alienated 
from policymakers in Amman.  We note that contrary to the 
recently formed ten-member royal committee tasked with 
realizing the King's vision for decentralization (refs), this 
team is more diverse and reform-minded.  However, several 
team members, including Hamarneh and Ma'aytah, told poloff 
separately that they are reserving judgment on the 
government's intentions until the committee begins its work. 
The inclusion of significant opposition figures, including 
former PM Taher al-Masri and the IAF's Arabiyat, could mean 
that the King is serious about having vigorous debate or, 
alternatively, that he hopes to co-opt their views while 
putting on a good show. 
 
9.  (U)  Baghdad minimize considered. 
 
Please visit Embassy Amman's classified web site at 
http://www.state.sgov/p/nea/amman/ or access the site through 
the Department of State's SIPRNET home page. 
HALE