Jordan's Arab Spring protests intensify as demonstrators call for 'the downfall of the regime'
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[url]http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeast/2012/11/20121116104741489813.html[/url]
[quote=AJE]Angry over the increasing cost of fuel, protesters have returned to the streets in Jordan's capital, Amman.
Roughly 2,000 people gathered downtown on Friday afternoon to protest against a package of price increases, under which the cost of household gas will rise by 53 per cent and petrol by about 12 per cent, said Al Jazeera's Nicole Johnston.
[B]"But what's different about this protest and the protests that were held last night is that people are now starting to call for the downfall of King Abdullah,"[/B] said Johnston. "We haven't heard this in demonstrations before. This is quite unusual."
Our correspondent also said that security presence was heavy and that crowds of monarchy loyalists had also started coming downtown, with police forming a line between them and the protesters calling for reform.
"Go down Abdullah, go down," the protesters chanted as police, some in riot gear, largely stayed away from crowd, near the main Husseini Mosque.
[B]The crowed also chanted "The people want the downfall of the regime", the rallying cry of the Arab Spring uprisings[/B] that have shaken the Middle East and toppled leaders in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya and Yemen.
"Shame. Shame. Prices are spiking and Abdullah gambles," people shouted.
The Muslim Brotherhood, the country's largest opposition group, had previously called on people to take to the streets, but top officials from the group chose not to participate in the rally.
The 50-year-old king has ruled since his father, King Hussein, died 1999.
Crackdowns threatened
[B]Jordanian authorities have threatened to crack down on those who incite violence during protests with an "iron fist", while opposition groups have pledged to continue demonstrations in the kingdom.[/B]
The protests, which erupted on Tuesday across the country, are the largest and most sustained to hit the country since the start of uprisings in the region nearly two years ago.
"We will hit with an iron fist those who violated the law by stirring unrest," Hussein Majali, Jordan's police chief, said on Thursday.
[B]Armed men taking advantage of street chaos caused by the protests fired on two police stations late on Wednesday, wounding 17 people, including 13 police officers, officials said.[/B] One of the assailants was killed in the ensuing firefight.
Assailants stormed a police station in Irbid, in the country's far north, and fired on officers there on Wednesday night.
Another police station came under attack in the northern Amman suburb of Shafa Badran, where automatic weapons were used.
In Salt, northwest of Amman, protesters set fire to a civil affairs office.
The scene was less deadly in Amman itself on Wednesday night, although up to 1,000 people had spilled onto the streets.
On Tuesday, nearly 500 demonstrators clashed with anti-riot police in the capital and hurled stones at them after they were prevented from holding a sit-in near the interior ministry on Gamal Abdel Nasser Circle.
They set tyres and garbage containers ablaze and tried to block the main road between there and nearby Firas.
Bulging deficit
The violence started on Tuesday night after news of the price increases spread.
The measure aims to rein in a bulging budget deficit and secure a $2bn loan from the International Monetary Fund.
Minutes after state television announced the price rises, several thousand Jordanians poured into the streets.
The price rises, followed by an 11 per cent increase in public transport fares, drew sharp condemnation from the opposition, which warned of civil disobedience in the run-up to January general elections.
[B]"The street is seething with anger and an explosion is coming," said Zaki Bani Irsheid, the leader of the Muslim Brotherhood, Jordan's most powerful opposition group.[/B]
"We want to create a Jordanian Spring with a local flavour - meaning reforms in the system while keeping our protests peaceful."
[B]Jordan has been hit by frequent, but small, anti-government protests over the past 23 months, but the recent demonstrations have squarely shifted the focus from the government to the king.[/B][/quote]
[url]http://uk.reuters.com/article/2012/11/16/uk-jordan-protests-idUKBRE8AF0OK20121116[/url]
[quote=AJE][B]Thousands of demonstrators chanted the Arab Spring slogan "the people want the downfall of the regime" in Jordan on Friday, although a day billed as the culmination of three days of occasionally violent protests passed off largely in peace.[/B]
The staunch U.S. ally has so far largely avoided the street unrest that has swept across the Middle East over the past two years, but a decision this week to raise fuel prices led to demonstrations that raised the spectre of long-term instability.
The mainly urban Muslim Brotherhood announced on Friday it was joining the protests, lending the voice of the country's largest opposition movement to demonstrations which had previously mainly been focused on rural and tribal areas.
Friday's demonstration near the main Husseini Mosque in downtown Amman was peaceful, with unarmed police separating the demonstrators denouncing King Abdullah from a smaller crowd chanting in support of the monarch.
[B]"Go down Abdullah, go down," the main crowd of about 3,000 protesters chanted as police, some in riot gear, largely stayed away from crowd.[/B]
"Raising prices is like playing with fire," said one banner.
Abdullah cancelled a visit to London he had been due to make next week, Britain's Foreign Office said, without giving further details.
Witnesses said other Friday protests also ended peacefully in the northern city of Irbid and in restive southern towns of Karak, Tafila and Maan, dispelling fears of wider civil unrest.
"The government succeeded in frightening people of chaos and many people were discouraged by what they see as the alternative, as chaos," said Lamis Andoni, a political analyst.
Protests had turned violent in impoverished towns across the kingdom since Wednesday when the government imposed a hike in the price of fuel. Unemployed youths and demonstrators have attacked police stations, closed roads with burnt cars and torched government buildings. One protester was killed on Thursday as a crowed tried to storm a police station in Irbid.
Instability in Jordan would come at a dangerous time for the region, when Syria's war risks leaping borders and Israel is bombing Islamist-run Gaza.
Most of the civil unrest has taken place in outlying areas inhabited by tribes, Jordan's original inhabitants who now form a minority outnumbered by Jordanians of Palestinian origin.
The tribes supply the army and security forces with recruits and form the backbone of support for the ruling Hashemite dynasty. They are seen as wary of the prospect of democratic reforms that would cost them privileges and state jobs.
The Brotherhood are rivals to the tribes for power, and their decision to back protests signalled discontent spreading, although senior Brotherhood figures did not appear in person.
"King Abdullah should take note of the situation by going back on the decision to raise prices. The Jordanian people are unable to shoulder more burdens," Brotherhood leader Sheikh Hamam Said said in a statement ahead of the protests.
OPPOSITION SEEKS REFORM
The slogan "the people want the downfall of the regime" has emerged as the main chant of Arab Spring demonstrations that toppled autocrats from Tunisia to Yemen, in many cases bringing to power elected Islamists allied to the Brotherhood.
In Jordan, an opposition of liberals and Islamists has generally sought reforms, rather than the overthrow of the 50-year-old king, in power since 1999.
[B]A friend of the West, the monarch is seen by many Jordanians as a bulwark of stability, balancing the interests of native tribes and the increasingly assertive Palestinian majority.[/B]
Abdullah accepted constitutional changes in August that devolved some of his powers to parliament, paving the way for a prime minister emerging from a parliamentary majority rather than one handpicked by him. However, urban politicians say he has been constrained by the tribes and slow to adopt reforms.
The Brotherhood is planning to boycott a parliamentary election set for January, arguing that rules were designed to safeguard tribal power by giving too many seats to rural areas.
Like many Arab states, Jordan has used government subsidies to appease the masses with cheap food and fuel, only to court unrest when the cash runs out.
Lifting the subsidies "deprives Jordanians of the minimum requirements of a decent living," Said said. "The King should speed reforms that restore power to the people to allow it put the corrupt on trial and restore embezzled money to the people."[/quote]
I think it's significant that they have adopted [url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ash-shab_yurid_isqat_an-nizam]the Arab Spring's slogan[/url]. Until now it was a demo against fuel prices with revolutionary elements. The protesters are now clearly harking back to the revolutions in Tunisia and Egypt.
[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KQ9zRA2Wecs[/media]
[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nFqX7721e8I[/media]
Oh Jordan. You mess of arms dealers.
Zey are fucked,their king plays World of Tanks! It eats all they bandwith and now they can't protest on FB and Twitter! It's supah effective!
Betta watch out rebels the King of Jordan plays World of Tanks.
[QUOTE=NoDachi;38478185]Betta watch out rebels the King of Jordan plays World of Tanks.[/QUOTE]
That's what i said! Thief!
wat can i say
gret minds think alike
[QUOTE=NoDachi;38478302]wat can i say
gret minds think alike[/QUOTE]
Smart point!
Instead of showing the King in his military uniform they should of put a big banner of him in the Voyager Jumpsuit, all the protesters would just laugh and go home.
High chance military is going to sweep them out in the near future and we'll never hear anything about it again.
[QUOTE=laserguided;38479128]High chance military is going to sweep them out in the near future and we'll never hear anything about it again.[/QUOTE]
Well, that [I]is[/I] exactly how it went in all those other countries
King Abdullah is actually a good monarch(A rarity). He'll probably listen to his people and push to make it more like he's just the Figurehead, not the actual leader.
I have a close friend in Jordan :<
Even Jordan too?
I thought they were doing just fine.
No! Then the star trek theme park wont get made.
Also [video=youtube;Kmut6FJ1d4M]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kmut6FJ1d4M[/video]
[QUOTE=Swilly;38479262]King Abdullah is actually a good monarch(A rarity). He'll probably listen to his people and push to make it more like he's just the Figurehead, not the actual leader.[/QUOTE]
Good monarchs are rare. Good monarchs who are willing to relinquish their authority like that are even rarer.
[video=youtube;xIwVetG7MdM]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xIwVetG7MdM[/video]
Tus2
Edit: Damn it did not work
Is the regime bad then?
[QUOTE=pyschomc;38479314]Even Jordan too?
I thought they were doing just fine.[/QUOTE]
No, we're not doing fine, yes I live in Jordan, I am half Jordanian and I can tell you the government here is fucking things up, the King is doing his best to keep things calm, he fired a lot of "government leaders" in order to keep the citizens happy, but idiots keep coming on as leaders.
They are raising the prices like fire raises in hell, you hardly find jobs here, the payment is shitty and the prices are high as fuck.
The average salary here is 250-300 JoD, which is between $352-$423 USD.
Yesterday I went shopping with my dad and I bought minor things, like two bags from the super-market cost us like 29 bucks, and I am not talking about chicken and whatnot.
Not to mention the electricity bill, the monthly rent fees, the car taxes here are ridiculous ..
If you buy a Mercedes from the outside and want to pay taxes in order to register it here, you pay like .. the price of the car and 5-6k more JoDs.
The situation here is really shitty, immigrants are coming more and more from the outside, which really ruins the country's economy, everything is bad around here, and if things don't get straightened up, shit might just happen like in Egypt, Libya, and such.
So it's a case of a good heart but he just can't do things really well?
[QUOTE=EpikMonster;38485037]No, we're not doing fine, yes I live in Jordan, I am half Jordanian and I can tell you the government here is fucking things up, the King is doing his best to keep things calm, he fired a lot of "government leaders" in order to keep the citizens happy, but idiots keep coming on as leaders.
They are raising the prices like fire raises in hell, you hardly find jobs here, the payment is shitty and the prices are high as fuck.
The average salary here is 250-300 JoD, which is between $352-$423 USD.
Yesterday I went shopping with my dad and I bought minor things, like two bags from the super-market cost us like 29 bucks, and I am not talking about chicken and whatnot.
Not to mention the electricity bill, the monthly rent fees, the car taxes here are ridiculous ..
If you buy a Mercedes from the outside and want to pay taxes in order to register it here, you pay like .. the price of the car and 5-6k more JoDs.
The situation here is really shitty, immigrants are coming more and more from the outside, which really ruins the country's economy, everything is bad around here, and if things don't get straightened up, shit might just happen like in Egypt, Libya, and such.[/QUOTE]
Would getting rid of the King and government improve that?
I doubt that Jordan will get rid of the king, sure the gov. employees will get fired, but the same type of people will always pop-up, may improve the situation a bit better, but this country is ridiculous.
The living standard here is shit, and unless you got millions of dollars in your bank account, be prepared to live a fucked up life.
[QUOTE=yawmwen;38480948]Good monarchs are rare. Good monarchs who are willing to relinquish their authority like that are even rarer.[/QUOTE]
He's stated several times he's willing to look at it if its really pushed for by his people.
[QUOTE=Swilly;38479262]King Abdullah is actually a good monarch(A rarity). He'll probably listen to his people and push to make it more like he's just the Figurehead, not the actual leader.[/QUOTE]
He's good [I]for a monarch[/I], but a monarch none the less. And I feel any monarch is a bad monarch. It's an archaic, unnecessary form of government that needs ousted everywhere.
Not saying behead him like Louis XVI, but a change into a republic would be more beneficial to all Jordanians.
Sounds like there might be a revolution?
Anywho, I read a article and it's surprised me how there are almost no articles on Bahrain and it's vicious regime (or so the article said it's regime was).
Abdullah sounds like a bro actually, anyone seen the daily show episode where he showed up?
He sounded a little nuts with the "decendent of the prophet mohammer" crap, but still someone i could live with as my "master"
at least he's better than iran's Ahmadinejad
He is the descendant of prophet Mohammed. Check his family tree if you are interested.
[QUOTE=EpikMonster;38489540]He is the descendant of prophet Mohammed. Check his family tree if you are interested.[/QUOTE]
Doesn't half the Arab population make that claim?
[QUOTE=DrBreen;38489448]Abdullah sounds like a bro actually, anyone seen the daily show episode where he showed up?
He sounded a little nuts with the "decendent of the prophet mohammer" crap, but still someone i could live with as my "master"
at least he's better than iran's Ahmadinejad[/QUOTE]Afaik all Arab monarchs claim descent from Mohammed; sort of like an amped-up version of European royals claiming to be descended from all sorts of bigwigs.
[QUOTE=Sgt Doom;38489630]Afaik all Arab monarchs claim descent from Mohammed; sort of like an amped-up version of European royals claiming to be descended from all sorts of bigwigs.[/QUOTE]
Queen Elizabeth II, distant daughter of Jesus
No not half of Arabs claim that, I don't know where did you read or hear that..
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