Bassam al Antari-Albawaba.com
The Jordanian PM designate Faisal al Fayez and his cabinet members held Thursday private meetings, which are expected also to take place on Friday. During these talks, the participants are set to prepare a work plan for the new government, which will succeed the outgoing cabinet, led by Ali Abu al Ragheb who submitted the resignation of his government Wednesday.
Observers accused the outgoing government of poor performance in the economic and political fields.
It should be recalled that King Abdulla II asked his royal court minister, Faisal al Fayez, to form the new cabinet after he accepted the resignation of the government of Abu al Ragheb, who has been in office since June 2000.
The Jordanian political editor, Raja Talab, believes that the main reason behind the resignation of Abu al Ragheb's cabinet was its failure in achieving the Kingdom's economic and political targets. “In my opinion, there has been a failure in the implementation of all the policies whether at the economic or political level and there was a lack of interaction with the various political powers within Jordan,” added Talab.
The king has put political development with all its aspects at the top of the new government’s priorities, including the supremacy of law, justice, equality and effective participation of women and youth. He reiterated the importance of advanced political parties law and a democratic elections law on the basis of which the 2007 elections would be held in addition to political openness to all the sectors of the society.
Talab also suggested that the letter of designation, which focused on political development, implied that there has been a clear failure in the work of the outgoing government although this was not stated explicitly.
Abu al Ragheb formed three governments and reshuffled them many times, but failures continued. Observers said this was an indicator that the problem was in the way the ministerial team was led rather than in their competency.
In view of this, Talab said, "the king saw that it was necessary to designate a new Prime Minister who can understand his vision in a more dynamic manner and who is more capable in implementing this vision.”
In his letter of designation, the king told al Fayez that the willingness for change requires "somebody who can translate our vision into action for raising the standard of living among all Jordanians and guarantee the future of both young Jordanian men and women."
On another note, Talab thinks the candidates for the incoming cabinet are qualified for working as a harmonious team and capable of implementing the king’s envisioned change as far as the economic and political development are concerned.
Meanwhile, Al Fayez and his team have started at the Jordanian resort city of Aqaba discussions on the king’s letter of designation and on specific mechanisms for its implementation before the announcement of the new government next Saturday.
“This private meetings constitute an unprecedented action in the formation of governments in Jordan aiming to create an atmosphere of harmony, understanding and consistency among the ministers and their Prime Minster,” said Talab in his comments.
For his part, the editor in chief of the Jordanian daily al Arab al Yawm, Samih al Ma’ytah said, “the letter of designation criticized the outgoing government and its lack of integrity and consistency.” “It is clear that there was a criticism of the outgoing cabinet and the absence of coordination among its members, the fact that reflected its failure in achieving a political development,” added Ma’ytah.
According to the al Arab al Yawm editor in chief, “the most serious mistake of the outgoing government was its failure to use the opportunities which were available to it to remedy the shortcomings in its performance.” “Each time this government was given the chance to reform itself, the change used to come in form only,” he noted.
“Abu al Ragheb had the opportunity to reshuffle his cabinet and enhance it but each time he brought some persons to back him against other ministers,” Ma’ytah told Al Bawaba on Thursday.
Ma’ytah criticized bitterly some members of the outgoing cabinet, saying “they used to do nothing. There are some ministers not known by the Jordanian public because they stay all the time in their offices without attempting to even make any field visits.”
He gave an example on this phenomenon by saying that “the Minister of Justice, Fares al Nabulsi, never made any visits to the courts or even the directorates of his ministry. Moreover, Nabulsi never participated in the parliamentary discussions of the laws.
Ma’ytah concluded by saying that “change is a normal thing and is a trait of political system in Jordan. Perhaps the outgoing government has stayed much longer than expected in view of its bad relations with the social and political powers and the various criticisms against it.” (Albawaba.com)
© 2003 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
