The Media Relations Department of Hizbollah Wishes You a Happy Birthday by Neil MacFarquhar

Author:Neil MacFarquhar
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Tags: Non-Fiction, Travel, Religion, History
ISBN: 9780786741533
Publisher: PublicAffairs
Published: 2009-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

The mukhabarat fortified their central role after both Jordan’s 1994 peace treaty with Israel and then King Hussein’s 1999 death. While peace diminished the external threat, making the military less important, the mukhabarat was deployed to monitor widespread opposition to the treaty. Then when the king died, having been on the throne for forty-seven years, the mukhabarat helped provide stability and support while his young, green heir found his feet. That support naturally encouraged Abdullah to give credence to the mukhabarat viewpoint that opening up civil and political life would only provide cover for enemies of the state.

Many reformers believe one key reason that Jordan’s elected parliament remains so weak is that the mukhabarat interferes not only in elections but how members vote once in office. The GID denies any such interference, but parliament members claim heavy lobbying by the mukhabarat does change votes. Not that they need to sway many opinions. During the years I was working in Jordan, numerous MPs told me that roughly one-third of their number were either former security agents or military officers.

“Some members of parliament allow the mukhabarat to intervene in how they vote because they depend on them for help in getting re-elected,” Mahmoud A. al-Kharabsheh, a maverick MP who joined the mukhabarat in 1974 and retired as its head in 1991, told me. “They enter into 90 percent of the political decisions in this country.” The mukhabarat can make all the difference in an electoral campaign by getting hundreds of voters to the polls, he and other MPs said, as well as providing access to government jobs for constituents, money, and other facilities. “It’s a carrot and stick. They tell the MPs that whatever they want in the future, they will support them. It is well understood that they will turn against any MP who fails to do what they ask,” said Kharabsheh. Jordan’s own semi-official National Center for Human Rights criticized much about the election system in its annual report issued in 2008, covering the previous year. It said that the wholesale transfer of registered voters from one district to the next undermined the concept of free and fair elections, and that the new, more restrictive law on political parties would stall their development.

Most resentment toward the mukhabarat stems from their interference in all manner of political issues. “Policy should guide the security services and the security services should not be setting policy,” said Hamza Mansour, leader of the Islamic Action Front, the Jordanian branch of the Muslim Brotherhood and the country’s strongest opposition party. Security police who visited the party headquarters at one point demanded that the organization hang pictures of King Abdullah on the walls. Many organizations saw the hand of the mukhabarat behind the strenuous regulations for getting permits to hold a public meeting and the rules covering public demonstrations. March organizers were told that the only flag that could be waved was the Jordanian flag. No banners were permitted. Raising pictures of King Abdullah was also obligatory and there could be no chanting.

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