A 34-page “plan of action” born out of the July 26-27 “We are All Jordan” forum, a royally-engineered initiative, is designed to muster badly-needed national consensus on divisive domestic priorities, foreign policy issues, and terror threats. On paper at least, Jordan now has a single vision, governing the pace and direction of reform until 2008, which is backed by 700 Jordanians handpicked to represent all social segments. The plan, say authors, lays the ground for a modernizing, mainstream Muslim Jordan, reflecting peace, co-existence, tolerance, political pluralism and cultural diversity, in a spirit of citizen-state partnership.

A 34-page “plan of action” born out of the July 26-27 “We are All Jordan” forum, a royally-engineered initiative, is designed to muster badly-needed national consensus on divisive domestic priorities, foreign policy issues, and terror threats. On paper at least, Jordan now has a single vision, governing the pace and direction of reform until 2008, which is backed by 700 Jordanians handpicked to represent all social segments. The plan, say authors, lays the ground for a modernizing, mainstream Muslim Jordan, reflecting peace,

co-existence, tolerance, political pluralism and cultural diversity, in a spirit of citizen-state partnership. If anything, the forum lays the road map for implementing a 10-year National Agenda, an ambitious plan for reform, completed nearly a year ago. The agenda has so far been held hostage by lack of popular consensus, tense ties between the government and parliament, and intense rivalry among old and new guard politicians. The carefully-worded “We are All Jordan” document has enough “constructive ambiguity” to satisfy the needs of a diverse population: an entrenched bureaucracy, a largely conservative parliament blamed by the palace and the government for stalling modernization, powerful current and former officials and politicians struggling to maintain status quo policies, a Westernized elite unhappy about the slow pace of reform, and an influential Muslim-led opposition angry at Amman’s close ties with the U.S. and Israel.

“The document is mostly a cut and paste of the priorities detailed in the agenda until 2008 and how to go about implementing them in line with a framework,” one official said. “Of course, the devil lies in the details and in the ability to implement.” A royal commission, acting as an advisory board, will be formed soon to oversee implementation. The two-year program hopes to get Jordan’s reform started and institutionalized, to protect it from the repercussions of three bleeding Arab fronts in Iraq, Palestine and Lebanon, as well as a regional momentum that supports Arab hardliners against Middle East “moderates,” who support the end to violence and armed resistance but who are finding it harder to garner support as regional turmoil spreads. A repeat of past failures to implement reforms, especially on the political front, could backfire in a country where a skeptical population has seen one reform initiative after the other fall by the wayside for varying reasons including ambiguous goals, and lack of consensus behind a clear vision and most importantly political will for real change.

The forum has set clear legislative priorities for the upcoming extraordinary session of Parliament. The participation of the prime minister, and most cabinet ministers, as well as the influential speakers from both the Upper and the Lower Houses of Parliament, is expected to ensure personal commitment to move on with the action plan. Many economic and political liberalization moves have been foiled by deputies, feeding on often tense ties between most of the five past governments under His Majesty King Abdullah, palace officials, and the powerful security establishment. But these realities are also changing since the appointment of a new intelligence chief, who appears more open to working closely with the government and the palace. Parliament will have to pass badly-needed laws identified by the forum to help boost sustained economic growth and curb increasing radicalization in a country where a third of Jordanians still support terror groups like al-Qaeda in Iraq. Now the government needs to fight this by banning popular glorification of terror, stopping radical mosque preaching, and setting up a new body for issuing Fatwas, (religious edicts). In return, the opposition, its ties tense with the government over limited public freedoms, won commitment for passing a package of laws to boost a process of gradual democratization.

The list includes draft legislation for political parties, holding municipal elections early next year, wider press freedoms, public right to access of information, an anti-corruption commission, and a law for financial disclosure by top officials before taking over public posts. Political consensus at the Dead Sea, held under the patronage of King Abdullah, came at the expense a new election law, the cornerstone of reform in the National Agenda. This settlement disappointed the Islamic Action Front party, which holds 17 out of 110 seats in the Lower House, along with reformers and liberals who have yet to widen their base of support. They had been lobbying for a new election law to adopt proportional representation for political party lists in the next election as the start of meaningful democratization and power sharing.

The law in place favors the majority East Bank Jordanians in rural areas over densely populated cities, where a majority of Jordanians of Palestinians origin reside. For now, this new found national consensus gives officials the authority to face a fast-changing Middle East, testing the pull of radicals since the fall of Iraqi power in 2003, the anti-peace agenda of new Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, and a new Hamas-led government which refuses to recognize Israel and honor past deals. In the background is a U.S. administration bogged down in Iraq, supporting Israel’s brutal military war in Gaza and Lebanon, hoping to wipe out power of groups like Hamas and Hezbollah. While the U.S, labels these organizations as terrorist, the majority of Arabs back them as legitimate resistance fighters against occupation, making the position of Arab regimes allied with the U.S. quite untenable.