His Majesty King Abdullah on Thursday said Jordan seeks to become a model of democracy in the Arab world, noting that this is built through strengthening the middle class, increasing its participation in political and economic life and bolstering its role in the democratic process.

In an interview with US National Public Radio conducted by Steve Inskeep and aired Thursday, King Abdullah described Jordan’s reform effort.

 “We want to be… an example for the rest of the Arab world. I think if a monarchy… can show a new democratic platform, then I think we’ll be a symbol for other countries,” King Abdullah said.

In reply to a question on what it is like to be a king of an Arab state at a time of revolution, His Majesty said: “I think that we have been trying to push reform, there has been a lot of pushback… And what the Arab Spring or the Arab Awakening did was bring in the subject front and centre.”

“In Jordan, we created a National Dialogue Committee. We went on outreach with everybody, came to a consensus. We changed a lot of laws. At the moment, the Constitution is being amended by both Chambers. We’re announcing municipal elections at the end of the year and national elections next year,” the King said.

In the interview, conducted in tandem with his participation in the 66th United Nations General Assembly in New York, King Abdullah said the key challenge is to create a political culture based on political party platforms - left, right or centre. “My vision for Jordan is two to five political parties representing left, right and centre as quickly as possible.”
 
His Majesty stressed his belief that governments should be formed through elections, saying: “There is a tendency for a lot of officials to hide behind the King, and it’s about time that officials take their responsibility and are responsible in front of the people. Because today, if you’re appointed by the King, they don’t feel that they’re responsible for the people. If you have a government that is elected, they need to do the hard work - because if they don't, they won’t be around next time the ballot box is open.”

The King noted that the protests taking place in different places in the Arab world are also a result of frustration. “We’ve got to remember that the Arab Spring began… because of economic difficulties: unemployment, poverty. We have the largest youth cohort in history coming into the workforce in the Middle East. That is how the Arab Spring started. I mean, Tunis started because of economy, not because of politics,” the King told Inskeep.

“What keeps me up at night is poverty and unemployment. We have in the past 10 years managed to establish a credible middle class, but with any shift in oil prices, economic challenges - that middle class becomes very fragile,” the King added.
On the Palestinian question, King Abdullah said the Palestinians’ bid for statehood, about which some countries have concerns, “came out of desperation and frustration because nothing was happening at the negotiating table”.

The King thanked the European Union for its efforts in trying to find “a mechanism that pleases everybody… by asking for statehood in a way that involves a technical process that gives some time to allow Israelis and Palestinians to sit at the table and relaunch negotiations on final-status issues.”

In reply to a question on Jordan’s relations with Israel and the possibility of downgrading ties like Turkey has recently done, or of popular protests like those witnessed in Egypt the King said: “There is going to be immense pressure and people asking, ‘Why are we having this relationship when it’s not benefiting anybody’?”

“There are going to be a lot of questions, not just in my country, but across the Middle East. Is Israel going to continue to be ‘Fortress Israel’? Or… become accepted into the neighbourhood, which I believe is the only way we can move forward in harmony,” King Abdullah said. “No matter what’s happening in the Middle East - the Arab Spring, et cetera, the economic challenges, high rates of unemployment - the emotional, critical issue is always the Israeli-Palestinian one.”