NOVANEWS
The Friday before last I was at a demonstration in West Amman, the wealthier section of Amman, far from the layers of boxy concrete buildings that carpet East Amman, with its camps and its poverty. There were at least 100 unarmed riot police and perhaps 200 protesters and another 40 journalists observing the activities. That day the demonstrations had been broken up amongst a few scattered sites, as opposed to one mass protest. Within Amman, there is a kind of moral economy to the protests: generally the protesters are “free” to say, “the people want to change the system,” or “the people want to end the corruption,” or “the people want to get rid of the prime minister.”
What they cannot say is, “the people want to get rid of the King.” If they do, they will be thrown in prison, followed, beat up, or be the recipient of death threats. Social mobilization in Jordan creates pressure, and that pressure is released when the King deposes and then replaces his cabinet, a kind of social pressure release valve.
And that pressure is building. So the King promised a series of reforms in a televised address over a month ago, effectively promising to turn the Kingdom into a constitutional monarchy on the British model. Outside of Amman, anger with him is being vocalized as direct and articulated opposition to the monarchy, and last Friday, police violently repressed the protests in downtown Amman even though it does not seem like the calls for change went beyond a cabinet-level shuffle.
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