Wednesday, November 21, 2007

New Prime Minister

Ammon is reporting that Marouf Bakhit has resigned his office, and that the king is planning on naming the current chief commissioner of the Aqaba Special Economic Zone, Nader Dahabi, in his place.

It is customary in Jordan to change governments after parliamentary elections. It allows for a fresh start. Bakhit served for about two years, which is a reasonable length of time by Jordanian standards. They have been somewhat rough, with a series of economic and security challenges. The economic challenges seem to be continuing, with the cost of oil being the biggest threat to the economy. The security threat was better handled, although this may have come at a cost of political freedoms and reform. The National Agenda has been shelved for the most part, and it may be time to blow the dust off of its massive volumes to see what might be done.

Nader Dahabi is the brother of the head of General Intelligence Department (mukhabarat), Mohammad Dahabi. Other, possibly less important, qualifications include having aeronautical engineering degrees and a master’s degree in public administration.

Essam Qadamani, who writes in Al Rai, has a nauseatingly fawning article on Dahabi’s achievements as Chief Commissioner at ASEZ. While the man may be able and accomplished, I would hope somebody will write about his weaknesses as well as his strengths. Ha ha.

Changing governments in Jordan is more of a sport than a functional necessity. The constraints on the office are large. However, an able PM with a decent team can and should make a difference. But in what direction? A better picture may be seen after the new cabinet is formed. Are we back to the reformers? Or will it be a continuation of the traditionalist approach of Bakhit? The mixture of having a military background and being the head of one of the most ambitious economic endeavors in the country is interesting.

13 Comments:

At 10:15 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Wow, this is interesting news. I'm anxious to see what happens.

 
At 10:24 PM, Blogger Mohanned said...

Any news about his history in royal jordanian and how it was posting losses and after he left it posted profit?

I would assume that samer majali will do a better job "running" the country, since he ran royal jordanian better ;)

 
At 12:51 AM, Blogger Abu Daoud said...

Thank you for this bit of news. I would be very curious to hear about just how successful the ASEZ really is. I know the gov't has poured a lot of $$$ into it, but really, is it making any money at all?

From foreigners living there I heard that it basically operates like any other tribal government area: you take government money to make your tribe and family rich, and you appoint ibn 3ami to be a manager even though he takes an hour for his prayers (and coffee, and a smoke, and so on.)

 
At 5:15 AM, Blogger Masalha1 said...

Khalaf,
I can assure you that the new PM grave is already being dug by the political SALOONS of the former PMs and and those who will not be appointed on his team.
Running Aqaba is nothing like running a country, and with his brother running the GID(Mukhabarat) no one will have the guts to tell the man if he is doing wrong or getting off track, and if you're waiting on journalist to write about his weak or failed records, you'll be waiting a long time, on the contrary Saleh Algalab, Fahad Alfanek, Sultan Hattab and many others will make him look like SALAH EDDIN AL AYOUBI, but not one will provide an honest advise that maybe just maybe could help the man.
One thing I have to say about Dr. Bakheit HE was a clean man and did not make a fortune out of his job lets hope this man can be the same but with ability to deal with economic and social challenges better.

 
At 8:31 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Speaking of wesknesses, I wonder why haven't I saw anything so far about the time he spent as the head of the Royal Jordanian?

 
At 8:49 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Wallahi, all i can say is that, as a man living and working in Aqaba, besides the billions of dollars being spent on building fancy resorts and hotels, I have not seen anything that has helped to improve the living standards of the common man.

When Aqaba was first declared as a special economic zone, prices of good went down, which was good for a while, but then they went up again, and the only difference in prices right now between Amman and Aqaba fall within Electronics, and certain food items like cashew and bananas. Add to that the insane increase in property values, prices of land and houses.. etc.. have more than trippled which drove the market insane, leading to rent Prices going through the roof.

I am pretty certain that his strategies as a PM would be focued on attracting more and more investors and investments, and what ever economical decisions and laws he enforces, would be covered by the mask of bringing more prosperity to the public, while in fact it will only lead to more and more taxes being applied, and will in fact hurt the middle classed working man. I've seen it happen in Aqaba, I lived it.

 
At 2:07 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

أكلنا خرة

 
At 7:54 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

حكومه البخيت أو حكومه نادر دههبي لن تقدم أي شئ لشعبنا،بل ستكون المكينه لتحقيق وأكمال سياسات الخصخصه الاقتصاديه والسياسيه ..عندما نتكلم عن أي حكومه في ألاردن أن كانت في السابق والحاضر أو المستقبل ستكون حكومه معينه ومختاره من قبل الملك فا بي التالي هي حكومه غير شرعيه وتفتفد المصداقيه والشرعيه وهذا فقط طبعأ من الناحيه الدستوريه والقانونيه...سيدهب البخيت كما دهبت العديد من الحكومات المعينه والغير دستوريه... وسيئتوا بحكومه نادر الذهبي والمهمه المناطه لها ،ستكون أكمال مشوار الخصخصه وبيع ممتلكات الشعب الي أصحاب النفود في الحكومه وخارجه....انا أومن وأجزم أن اي حكومه غير شرعيه وغير دستوريه ستئتي فقط لتقديم وتسهيل بيع ما تبقا من ممتلكات هذا الشعب المسكين والمغلوب علي أمره ...وينطيكو العافيه

 
At 12:05 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

dissolve the Jordanian parliament for the sake of national unity.

"Staunchly conservative tribal areas are over-represented in parliament, with each MP representing 2,000-3,000 voters, compared with more than 90,000 voters per MP in the capital Amman."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middl...ast/ 7105281.stm

 
At 7:10 AM, Blogger Masalha1 said...

Khalaf,
Nothing new same O faces just a shuffle with new PM.
the interesting and fishy move was the merging of finance ministry with the planning ministry? any thoughts? you think Basim Awadallah had something to do with that?? most of these ministers were ministers before and did nothing, again geography plays a major roll in forming our government regardless of their ability or passed records, Sahil Majali, got the same ministry his father ran before Public work??
Its hopless.
http://www.alrai.com/pages.php?news_id=183592

 
At 5:32 AM, Blogger Unknown said...

So what do you think is going to happen to the former Prime Minister?

 
At 6:59 AM, Blogger Khalaf said...

He will be appointed to the Senate.

 
At 3:56 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Do we really need a pathetic and corrupted senate?

 

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