This trap that the outside opposition may fall into could turn the whole struggle of Jordanian people for social justice and democratic rights into a mere chess game in the hand of the ruling class. The only sound solution for the Jordanian working class is to build their own leading organizations, and break up totally with the bureaucrats.
By Naji Kanafani
The royal conflict within the Jordanian monarchy expressed itself recently through an unprecedented incident. The royal guards shot fire against peaceful protesters who were demonstrating in front of the palace. The video recording, which monitored and documented the incident, was carried out by a branch of the Jordanian security services that belongs to the regime itself.
A fight that led to the death of two Jordanian citizens was enough for the masses to spontaneously organize a massive protest toward the royal palace. As a matter of fact, it was not about the fight nor the death cases. Simply, the Jordanian working class is fed up with their corrupted monarchy, as they believe that the king himself is directly responsible for their everyday misery.
However, this unprecedented incident in Jordan (shooting at protesters in front of the royal palace) exceeds the importance of the event itself, as part of the security forces was responsible for leaking the video recordings, and publishing it on social media, in order to mobilize the masses against the king.
This incident highlights again the deep conflict that is still going on within the Jordanian regime. A lobby within the regime itself has been working since the last decade on replacing king Abdullah the second by his half-brother prince Hamzah, who was accused of a plot recently.
Moreover, the outside Jordanian opposition is trying to benefit from the conflict, aiming to make a national deal that might lead to mobilizing the masses to support the prince, in order to establish a constitutional monarchy, instead of the semi absolute monarchy that Jordan has nowadays.
The mutual interest between the outside opposition, and the so called “old guards” (the bureaucrats) explains the reason behind leaking the recorded video which was carried out by a group within the security apparatus. Yet, this does not necessarily mean that there is a direct connection between the opposition and the “old guards”, neither proves that the prince was actually plotting a coup as the palace claimed. The mutual interest simply put the two actors on the same page, without even a necessity of direct coordination.
However, this lobby rooted both in the state apparatus, and in the outside opposition mutual interest, could lead to a direct coordination in the future, in favor of the prince. The opposition unfortunately believes that this is the only way out of the semi absolute monarchy (instead of building a real working class leadership) while the bureaucrats could only use this opposition for their own class interest.
This trap that the outside opposition may fall into could turn the whole struggle of Jordanian people for social justice and democratic rights into a mere chess game in the hand of the ruling class. The only sound solution for the Jordanian working class is to build their own leading organizations, and break up totally with the bureaucrats.
The outside opposition declared on several occasions that they do not consider themselves as leaders of the masses inside the country. Yet, the absence of a united organized leadership that represents the working class could lead to burning any upcoming uprising in the cradle.
Bureaucrats’ Trap Undermines the Jordanian Future Uprisings
