Jordanian authorities have put security forces and police on red alert during the past two weeks as concern that Tunisia’s unemployment revolt which toppled President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali could ignite an already angry Jordanian public.
The army, gendarmerie and other police units have been banned from leaving their bases as concern grows that ripples of Tunisia’s political earthquake could reach the small kingdom.
A demonstration last Friday organized by the opposition to call for economic and political reform was the latest in a spate of protests around the cash-strapped kingdom.
Nearly 4,000 people showed up in an event dubbed “The Day of Rage” to vent their anger at Prime Minister Samir Refai, whom many accuse of being out of touch and imposing economic policies that impose intolerable burdens on ordinary people.
“The economy in Jordan has certain contradictions. It suffers from unemployment of 14% — 150,000 who are people looking for jobs,” Jawwad Anani, an economist who served as royal court chief and finance minister for the late King Hussein, told The Media Line. “We need a strategy, a well-thought-out strategy that everybody believes in and can take this society to a higher level.”
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