A Future Jordan - نحن الأردن

A must read for everyone... Jordan's King Abdullah Open to Constitutional Monarchy

Jordan's King Abdullah Open to Constitutional Monarchy
King Says Bush Deserves Credit for Sparking Democracy in Middle East

(The Full text of the interview is A MUST read for everyone)
http://abcnews.go.com/WNT/print?id=583538

Mar. 15, 2005 - President Bush hosted Jordan's King Abdullah II in an Oval Office meeting today. The two men are publicly enthusiastic about some of the recent changes in the Middle East -- among them, the elections in Iraq, a sliver of democracy emerging in Egypt and Saudi Arabia, and massive protests in Lebanon calling for the Syrian military to withdraw. After the White House meeting, King Abdullah spoke with ABC News' Peter Jennings. Following is a transcript of the interview:

… JENNINGS: Would you be happy to be the head of a constitutional monarchy, as well ...
ABDULLAH: Well, eventually ... (Overlap)

JENNINGS: ... than an absolute monarchy?
ABDULLAH: ... eventually that's what we're trying to do, and by creating, decentralization, by trying to get these three regions, with their own elected parliaments, that will be the end game.

JENNINGS: So the end game could be a constitutional monarchy, not an absolute monarchy?
ABDULLAH: Absolutely. Because that -- I mean, we have to modernize, I think monarchy plays a vital role in countries such as Jordan. I think there's a lot of positive aspects, but monarchies have to modernize, and a way of modernizing is to do these political reform issues that will give people a much larger say in the way their countries go.

posted by Ashraf Zeitoon @ 2:12 AM